We are very excited to depart today! After working hard
on our clean water and hygiene curriculum for the last couple of weeks, we had
the opportunity yesterday to teach it to a class of high school students from
our own DSST community. We tried to execute the curriculum in a way that would
simulate how we had designed it for Uganda to ensure that we have accurate
feedback.
The greatest challenges we faced were getting the class
back together after a discussion or activity, managing the amount of time for
each activity, and being clear with our directions. Our big takeaway from this
experience is that there is more to a curriculum than merely what is on paper.
We have to take into account that teaching the curriculum will require us to
use teaching skills that we've only previously experienced from the student
perspective. However, as students we have an advantage because we understand
the student perspective. We can use this to make successful adjustments to the
curriculum.
Yesterday we also learned about flexibility. As we taught
the lesson we were forced to make many adjustments and we believe that is
something that we will experience while teaching in Uganda as the curriculum
continues to change and develop to fit the needs of the students. Lastly, we
also discovered the strengths of our curriculum. This is just as important to
identify as what we need to improve upon so that we can use our strengths to
improve our weaknesses. For example, the students enjoyed seeing a
demonstration of a water filter, so we have decided to make this part more
interactive since the students also really enjoyed hands-on activities.
Having the opportunity to practice teaching our
curriculum was eye opening and we believe that we are bringing an even stronger
curriculum to Uganda because of it. We can't wait to bring the information we
have put together to schools and see it continue to change and develop through
this process!
