Week 7- Professional

It’s hard to believe that our six weeks of teaching in Holy Cross Basic have come to an end. It has been such an amazing experience and going from having so many resources in classrooms at home to nothing but a blackboard and chalk has been rather challenging at times but on the whole has made me feel that I can tackle any obstacle which may arise in the classroom and I feel that my skills of being creative, confident and resourceful have developed greatly.

Heading to school on our last day.

The pupils admiring the birthday calendar

In order to make the classroom a much more attractive and welcoming environment for the pupils, Ashleigh and I have been creating many resources and displays over the past number of weeks and this week saw the introduction of the birthday calendar. The pupils were completely amazed at seeing photos of every child in the class displayed upon the walls and were excited to see this each time they entered the classroom.

Another display which was created was that of Spanish words and phrases. The pupils were very eager to learn some Spanish in class and so were introduced to some basic words such as ‘hello’, ‘please’ and ‘thank-you’ throughout the course of the day. They were able to pick up the language so fast and it seemed beneficial to create a display of the Spanish phrases alongside their meaning in English so that the pupils could refer to this after I had completed my time in school.

Playing games with the children

Thursday was another election day and we heard mixed reports on whether or not school would be open. Our teacher told us that she wasn’t coming in and that we didn’t have to either but when we went to clarify with the head teacher, she told us that it would just be another normal school day. We therefore thought it would be best to come into school anyway, especially since the pupils were told that school would still be on. When we turned up that morning, our classroom was locked, there were barely any teachers about and we couldn’t see any of our children. We explained the situation to the head teacher and she said if not enough of our pupils turned up then we could send them home. It ended up that not even half the class were present so we played some games and sang some songs and then sent the pupils home early. It was clear that communication between staff was very poor as very few teachers showed up and their pupils were either sitting outside their locked classrooms or watering plants around the school. This is a huge difference compared to how schools and staff are managed back home. I’m just glad we made the effort to show up for our pupils, unlike the majority of teachers in the school who didn’t.

Saying goodbye

Our teaching has come to an end and I had such an incredible experience getting to know the children and teachers, teaching the Zambian curriculum and introducing strategies which are used in the classrooms back home. I have learnt so much, gained so many new experiences and I will truly miss the school and the memories created there.