We’ve finished our first week of teaching! The childrean are lovely and full of laughter… Moments seem to be more difficult when teaching theory. The children respond marvelously when Medi is in front of the class. He knows how to break the material down to the point that they understand and is constantly keeping the children active in discussion. He keeps his sentences short and requests feedback to concepts throughout the lesson. I’ve noticed it’s harder for me to stay on my ideal lecture. Not only am I trying to explain the materials but I have to be aware at the speed I’m talking and also try to keep the students engaged as well as keep a steady pace to the material I present. I find myself thinking about how to approach each subject while in front of the class even through I’ve gone through it over and over again. Having to come up with ways to relate their lives with the material I feel like I’m starting to get a hang for it by watching Medi and using his style of teaching by keeping things short, simple, and direct. I don’t try to just regurgitate the lesson word for word anymore, but rather start each topic asking the children for examples and then proceeding further. We tell them that every answer is correct and they should raise their hands and share their thoughts. Of course they don’t always come up with the correct answers but there are ways to continue without saying someone is wrong. Medi told the class there are no wrong answers just wrong questions. I personally took that statement to heart. I have never heard it explained that way before. If a student fails to give a correct answer we just star it and after we get the ones we are looking for we go back and reword the question so the others are correct as well! The students who realize when one has given a wrong answer giggle but by the time we address it they have already forgotten who gave the answer and are interested in learning what it “does” apply to. I can say with 100% certainty that had I had to teach the class without my bi-national team member it wouldn’t even be close to successful.
I’ve had the opportunity to sit back and observe other ISU students teach and have noticed differences as well. For example, in Katie’s math class the students are active, involved, and understand what she is saying without confusion or added stress to Katie. The same class P5, which is also mine for vegetable seedling production, has a harder time in understanding Katie during her soils class. It’s funny that numbers come so easily across languages and soils are so much harder to teach.
I love taking the students out to the field during the second half of our class to apply what we’ve been teaching in the room. It’s apparent that the children know how to raise beds, sterilize the soils, plant much, water etc. They are better than us J, however they just do and don’t understand why they are performing the actions, or so I get the impression. I feel like the students could gain from understanding these actions and use this knowledge in analysis of past experiences.
Next week we will be teaching about the importance of record keeping and how they can use them to their advantage. I really hope some of them will understand what we are trying to teach and apply it at home.
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