We gathered in a classroom with the staff and the headmistress, Christine, to discuss the plan for the next two days. After this discussion it was determined that we would teach P3-P7. The Ugandan education system is arranged so that students attend nursery, primary, and secondary schools prior to attending a university. Each year students take exams to determine if they will be promoted to the next grade, but at P7 (end of primary), S4, and S6 (end of secondary) students take national exams to determine promotion. S1-S4 is also referred to as O level or ordinary level and S5-S6 is referred to as A level or advanced level. Since these exams determine promotion we saw that the class sizes decreased from P1 to P7. For example, in this school the P3 class has 25 students, but there are only 12 students at the school in P7. Not only did we get to talk with the teachers to learn about the school and the Ugandan education system, we also had the opportunity to visit each of the classrooms and observe a lesson. This was extremely helpful for us in terms of getting a sense of what grade level we each wanted to teach and also to observe some best practices that we should consider incorporating in our curriculum. Overall, the staff and students were welcoming, very excited, and eager to work with us.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we taught our respective classes. Todd and Bristi taught the P3 class, Mykaela taught the P4 class, Sheila taught the P5 class, Karen taught the P6 class, and I (Jasmine) taught the P7 class. We really spent a lot of time working to make our curriculum interactive by incorporating songs, games, and movements. For example, we created a song to teach students that bacteria can be harmful. Christine also asked us to create name tags for the students, so we created these and passed them out to students on the first day. This proved to be very important, as this allowed us to address all of the students by name and start to build connections with them. On the first day we taught students what a germ is, where they are found, amd how they cam be harmful. The second day the focus was on how to properly wash your hands, how to sneeze and cough so that you don't spread germs, and how to clean dirty water. At the conclusion of the second day we all received gifts from our students ranging from avocados to sugar cane and we also provided the school with some school supplies for the students. It was truly an honor to receive these gifts from the students and we will cherish the relationships we built with the students over the two days.
One of our biggest takeaways was that the lesson for a P3 classroom needs to be designed and executed very differently in comparison to a P7 classroom. Also, we need to look at the Ugandan science standards to see what is taught at each grade level so that we can better tailor our lessons to fit different age groups. For instance, P3 and P4 students did not know what a germ was, but P5-P7 students did. There are many improvements that we have already made to the curriculm in these two days and we will continue to make additional changes based on what we learn when we teach the curriculum at a second school.
Beyond teaching the students, we were also fortunate to spend time getting to know the staff. Since we taught in the morning both days the staff invited us to have tea and chapati with them during their morning break. This was a great time for us to learn more about many topics ranging from education to the history of Uganda. These discussions were extremely informative and we were humbled that the staff would take time out of their busy day to talk with us.
We are looking forward to teaching this curriculum in a second school and seeing how it will continue to evolve with additional feedback and input.
