Wednesday 30 November 2011

lulu

The phrase may be slowly, slowly but the past two months at site have gone quickly and I can't believe it has already been five (lulu) months in The Gambia.  At the same time, it seems that things move slowly; but, as always, such is life sometimes.  At my schools, I have gotten into the swing of things at work. I spend my time doing teacher observations and have started to co-teach and model lessons for teachers.  I have also learned to go with the flow and not count on the plan. Take Kwinella Lower Basic, where, at the beginning I thought I would be doing a lot of work in the Library teaching classes with the help of the Gambian teachers.  I spent a lot of time the first few weeks reorganizing the library so that the books were properly leveled.  I also wanted to get random sets of old American/British math textbooks off of the shelves and the children's books that were still in boxes onto the shelves so I spent a lot of time doing that.  In true Gambian fashion, the Librarian came back from a training and wanted the Math books back on the shelf.  I let him takeover, as he is employed by a different organization that supports development, and I didn't want to start off on the wrong foot.

My new goal is to work with the teachers that seek out my help. The 5th grade teacher is one example, he knows that reading is a problem and so I am going to focus on helping him with reading instruction.  I wish I were an expert, because it is going to be a challenge.  First step is attitude, and I make the students repeat the mantra "We are going to be the best readers".

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