We were back on the road again at 7:30am, in order to try to be at the Elma Barnett High School by 8am. This target was missed by a few minutes, so we were late for the flag raising and the pledge at the start of the day. Nevertheless, Mwalimu David was ready to jump straight into the lessons with the Form 3 and Form 4 students at the school.
Students from both forms crammed into the room, bringing chairs and books. David introduced himself and began his lesson for the first half of the morning: statistics.
The students know a lot of theory, so the focus of the lesson was on a practical project. We decided to leave the classroom and gather data for our project, 'To determine the quality of the bricks (in terms of regularity of size and shape) being used by the builders in the yard'.
All of the students took their rulers and went to measure the brick length, width and height. The principal and their mathematics teacher came and joined them.
Following the data measurement, we went back to the classroom and began our exploration of the data. We combined all of the data from the students, and then talked about data presentation and generated histograms (on paper) of the brick length, width and height. There was lots of discussion at the tables, and everyone was sharing answers; while being encouraged to present their data in an intuitive manner that provided insight to the reader.
David ensured that they got to use their mean, median and mode knowledge as we summarised and generated further insight from the data.
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| The Form 3 and Form 4 classes producing histograms of the brick length data |
After chai, the lesson was chemistry and David continued by recapping atomic structure with them and we did several activities which got the students moving.
The students had the theory, so we continued with oxidation and reduction and David was able to show a couple of interesting YouTube clips. The size of the device was a limiting factor - so some of the students chose not to be involved - but they had no trouble balancing the redox half equations.
For the first block everyone except David, Max and Rodney went to the primary school and helped them with their PACE work, where the students made amazing progress. Before chai time we got to say a couple of words to the students which was really cool.
After chai we then went to the high school and taught them a NZ geography lesson, in which they asked lots of questions and we answered them well. The principal Henry asked a lot of questions about the schooling system, clothing and food. We then said goodbye to the high school and had lunch with the primary school to which we said goodbye and we all sang songs.
We left so Gillian could go to Mums In Prayer to speak. While she was at Mums In Prayer, the rest of us except Max and Rodney went into the city and got clothing and food. When Mums In Prayer finished we got picked up by Gillian and went to pick up Rodney and Max who were at Baringo High School teaching the rugby team and preaching. We left to go to Mama Musa's house, to which we were invited, and we were amazed by the size and quality of their house. We got a quick tour of the grand house and then we had a great dinner and relaxed on the couches. Everyone was very full from the meal.
The students had the theory, so we continued with oxidation and reduction and David was able to show a couple of interesting YouTube clips. The size of the device was a limiting factor - so some of the students chose not to be involved - but they had no trouble balancing the redox half equations.
For the first block everyone except David, Max and Rodney went to the primary school and helped them with their PACE work, where the students made amazing progress. Before chai time we got to say a couple of words to the students which was really cool.
After chai we then went to the high school and taught them a NZ geography lesson, in which they asked lots of questions and we answered them well. The principal Henry asked a lot of questions about the schooling system, clothing and food. We then said goodbye to the high school and had lunch with the primary school to which we said goodbye and we all sang songs.
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| Saying farewell to the primary students at the centre |
We said our farewells and left. We were so tired and ready for a sleep.
Mwalimu David, you really have racked up the teaching hours on this trip! And Logan, you're going to have some amazing stories to tell your NZ classmates soon! It must be interesting to discuss similarities and differences between the NZ and Kenyan education systems. I wonder what was most surprising to your hosts about how the NZ system works.
ReplyDeleteAfter a lot of science it was nice to read about some maths learning (ie something I could understand more easily!!!). It sounds like the students really got into it.
Once again it's inspiring to hear how the whole team is making an impact - at the primary school, the high schools and local church groups. It sounds like there will be many more stories to tell once everyone returns.
You've really seen a variety of living conditions on this trip, and great hospitality.
Gos bless you all as you farewell and travel in the next few days.
It has been very good having conversations about the differences in curriculum.
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