Week 4- Professional

It is hard to believe we are halfway through our teaching practice here in Zambia, the days are passing by quickly. I’m surprised at how much I am enjoying teaching in our class, even though some of the topics in the curriculum aren't very exciting for the pupils and it can sometimes be difficult to incorporate interesting activities into particular lessons.

Children completing group work activities

Ashleigh and I have decided to include a lot of group work activities into our lessons since the pupils have never really had the opportunity to experience this and they seem to thoroughly enjoy working with their peers and are very engaged in their learning. One activity in particular which demonstrates this was when the children made a sound story representing thunder and lightning in groups and presented it to the rest of the class. This was an activity which the pupils had never carried out before in the classroom and it was evident that they enjoyed themselves and were very eager to participate in the interactive lesson.

Some of the pupils work being displayed

As I have mentioned before, the classroom in which we teach is very bare so Ashleigh and I have brightened up the walls with various posters based on what we have been teaching, number lines, photos of the class, reward charts and by displaying the pupil’s work around the classroom for all to see. This has been very beneficial as not only can the pupils feel a sense of pride in the work they have produced but the classroom also seems much more engaging and attractive than before.

Number line in the classroom

There have been numerous occasions when our teacher has left the classroom and Ashleigh and I have had to improvise when finished teaching our own lessons. At times this has been rather challenging but we've been able to manage and have many time-filling activities close at hand. When our teacher had to go for a meeting during one of her lessons on Chitonga, the local language, she asked one of the pupils to teach it to the rest of the class. This was rather shocking yet interesting to see one of the children read in Chitonga while the rest of the class listened and Ashleigh and I sat back in awe.

Vanessa and Soviet teaching Chitonga

Prisoners at sports day

We have also had the opportunity to experience a Zambian style sports day with our school. This was definitely a world away from any sports day we would have back home as hundreds of pupils along with very few teachers lined the dusty roads in order to reach the sports ground (which was right beside a prison). The journey there saw many children walking in the middle of the road, crossing over railway lines and marching through tall grass. When we arrived at the grounds there were prisoners casually cutting the grass as children ran around them- a very strange and quite worrying sight. By the time the races actually kicked off (as we were running on African time) the sun was very strong and many pupils were collapsing on the field, especially after having run 2400 metres with no water to drink!

It’s very interesting to note how different school is here compared to back home. Even with such a lack of resources and poor classroom environments, it’s very rewarding to see the children being so eager to learn and appreciating what the teacher has to say.