Ugandan 4th of July / 2009 Teachers Exchange Conference

It has been a few days since I have posted and so much has happened, including the 2009 Teachers Conference on Friday and Saturday, and the greatest 4th of July party of all time on Saturday. I will begin by picking up where I left off and that was on Thursday.

I accomplished more at school Thursday than I have since we have been here. I originally went in early to grades some of the exams with Tony, but he was not feeling too well and was not in school when I got there. I used this time to plan with Dennis, my other teacher, and I will be teaching with him on Wednesdays and Fridays. We mapped out most of the next week and decided that I will be teaching The Unification of Italy, which should be interesting because I have no idea what that really means. I bought a few books which I will start reading tonight and hopefully that will clarify a few things (or everything) for me.

Tony came to school around 10 and I felt bad because I think he only came in because he knew I was there. We planned out the week and walked through what we will be doing on Monday (today.) I will be teaching about the scramble and partition of East Africa. I was a little nervous when I found out I would be teaching about the history of Africa because I also don’t know anything about this, but it has been really cool learning about Africa’s history while being here. It is even cooler to teach what I have learned.

Thursday was also used to meet in our school group and finalize what we would be presenting on Friday at the conference. We presented on the question “How can teachers work together to improve communication between the school and parents.” It is a very special circumstance for us at Sir Samuel Baker because we are a boarding school and communication home is very difficult. I will get more into this later on when I am talking about Friday.

Thursday evening brought us the return of Lance, Justine, Tammy, Bill, Kevin and Big John. Only six of our friends at the IDP camps returned as one of the girls in our group decided to return home to the States. I did not get a chance to say goodbye to her, but I wish her the best of luck and hope that she got what she wanted out of being in Uganda for 2 and a half weeks.

Anyway, as with every weekly return of our friends, it was time to celebrate us all being together again. I mentioned in my last post about Thursday night being the only time that all 40 of us could be at Bambu, and I predicted that it would be a doozy. I was right. Not too many of the group 3 kids came out because they were still tired from their journey and orientation week (lame) but a few of them did and it was great getting to know them better. I have absolutely no idea who won trivia, but I did get a glimpse of the awesome Bambu T-shirt that the members of the winning team get, and it is now a goal of mine to attain one of them before I head home. That is all I will be sharing from Thursday night but I have a bunch of pictures from the night to share with all interested parties when I get home. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

On to Friday. It was VERY difficult to get out of bed early Friday morning and make the trek to Gusco for our teacher’s conference. Group 2 all took Boda Boda’s there and passed many of the energetic, well-rested group 3 members walking there. Group 2 kind of has the reputation of the party group among the three groups. I have to admit that we are a very fun group. I am sure that we all were regretting living up to that title Friday morning, but we all managed to present our topics beautifully and am sure riveted the audience.

My group, Sir Samuel Baker, presented second. This was good because we got to get it out of the way early and enjoy (for lack of a better word) the rest of the conference. We decided that the major issues at our school involving parent communication (of lack there of) were student performance, misinformation, and lack of information. The major reasons for lack of communication are DISTANCE (because we are quite a way from town where many families live) and EXPENSE.

After presenting the problems, we discussed some potential solutions. We were asked to come up with 2 potential short-term solutions (which could be implemented within the next few weeks or months) and 2 potential long-term solutions (which could take up to five years .) Being the over-achiever that I am, our group came up with 5 potential solutions.

Short Term #1 – Bulletin Board for parents. This could include copies of the school rules and regulations, school requirements lists, questions and comments section, students of the month, PTA announcements, Calendar of important events, extra-curricular information, letters from the head prefect, and contact information. The bulletin board was my idea and everyone loved it.

Short Term #2 – Increase of radio time. The schools get about an hour a week of airtime at the local radio station. Many parents get their information this way. We share this time with other schools and we would like to see if there is a way to extend the time, or to get our own time.

Long Term #1 – School Newsletter – Ideally this would be published once a year (I say ideally because the Ugandan teachers first said every 3-4 years. I was originally thinking every month, but did not consider the cost of publishing, and it is clearly not feasible or sustainable.) We decided on once a year and it would include any pertinent information. This could be something that the prefects could be in charge of and it would be something they could work on throughout the year.
Long Term #2 – Open house – This could be either once a term or even once a year. Parents would come to the school and meet the teachers and visit with their child. There would be exhibitions throughout the campus highlighting the student’s achievements throughout the year. To reduce the cost (or eliminate the cost completely) the parents would bring their own meal to share with their child. This would ideally be something that the child misses form home and would be a special treat for them, as well as bonding time with their families. The parents would also have the opportunity to meet with any teachers they choose and discuss their child’s performance.

We also had a goal of increasing the use of the telephone at our school. Most teachers do not use it, and very few parents even know about it or have the number for it. We want to get the number out to parents and suggest them to call it when they have any questions or concerns.

Our presentation went well as did all of the presentations. It was a LONG day, but I think that we all will benefit from being involved and hopefully we can implement what we learned and shared in our own classrooms both in Uganda and in the States. It really made me realize that there is NO MONEY in these schools and it really forced us to come up with ideas and solution that either do not involve money, or is extremely inexpensive.

We were totally exhausted on Friday night and almost did not even go out. As we were sitting home we realized that it would be silly if we all just went to bed and ended the night. We are only all together a few nights, and we want to get the most out of this experience as possible and learn about each other as much as possible. For the first time, ALL the girls decided to stay in and rest up for Saturday and more importantly, Saturday night. Kevin, Bill, Big John, Matt and I sucked it up and headed out to Da Pub. Things started out real slow and it was looking like it was still going to be an early night. That was not the case. It is very difficult to not have conversations run on for hours here because we are all so scattered around the country and have such different views and such different stories. The five of us sat for hours and hours talking about everything. We had some Invisible Children Staff friends come and go, and also some Ugandan friends come and go. It was a long night, but not a “crazy” night.

It was crazy enough for us to feel absolutely terrible the next day though. However, it was worth the bonding experience for us, and we have no regrets.
For some unknown, ridiculous reason, Kevin and I decided to NOT Boda Boda to the conference on Saturday. Instead we took the multi-mile trip by foot. OK, I actually do know the reason and it was because we would not be heart-broken if we were a little late to the conference. It started much later than it was suppose to on Friday and we figured that we could walk off some damage done the previous two nights instead of taking a Boda Boda to the conference and sitting around for a while. The walk was actually refreshing and made me feel much more awake and alert. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the conference had not started yet when we strolled in 20 minutes late. We snuck into our seats and waited for further instructions.

I quickly realized that Saturday would be FAR more exciting than Friday because Saturday was all student orientated. We had some students from some neighboring school attend the conference and some special teachers (our very own Big John included) work with them throughout the day using various techniques. There were 4 stations outside which we would observe throughout the day. Station #1 was Art. Station #2 was Hip-Hop (Music and Dance.) Station #3 was Basketball, and Station #4 was creative writing.

We broke up into 4 groups and went to our first station. We would observe each station for about 20 minutes each and really take our time figuring out what was going on with the instructing and the learning. My group was BY FAR the best group because we could choose what corner we would go into and once everyone saw that I was in the corner by the door, all the fun people came to me. I don’t know if this was just coincidental, but I like to think that it was because of me. I was there first. Anyway, Michael, Bill, Mandie, from group 2, along with some of the fun kids in group 3 really stepped it up as the group to beat.

Station #1 - We saw the girls drawing what looked like their homes. Things had just started, so it was just some sketches at first, but it turned out that they were painting and this was the first time they had ever painted. I was amazed at how fantastic they turned out at the end of the day, and they all read a story that went along with their beautiful pictures.

Station #2 – Was my favorite. We saw the boys from Bavubuka working with the kids to help them write a hip-hop song and learn how to perform it. Michael took over on the drums for a little bit, and then one of the guys handed me some instrument, which I had no idea what to do with. Everyone was looking at me and laughing and I finally handed it off to Bill, who looked even more ridiculous with it than I did. I then slowly back away from the exhibition area and thus out of the potential for any further forced participation.

Station #3 was Big John’s station with the basketballs. He did an amazing job teaching a group of girls drills, which is a LOT more challenging than it sounds. The girls loved it and ended up putting on a great performance at the end of the conference which showed us everything that they learned throughout the day. As we were watching the girls play and Big John lead them, we had a talk about couching and sports we all played in school. Darren, who is actually from Connecticut, is a swim coach and we chatted for a while about swimming.

The final station was the creative station with Joanna from group 1. She was helping the students create stories about challenges they have overcome. Their stories were pretty incredible and when they performed at the end that incorporated drama into their stories and acted them out. It was pretty cool to watch, and considering the amount of time given, they did an amazing job.

We wrapped up the day by getting into our school groups and discussing how what we saw today could be incorporated into our school. I think that it was very beneficial for the Ugandan teachers who are not use to seeing such hands on instructions.
I QUICKLY ran out of the conference because all I could think about was napping and resting up for the big 4thof July party, which started at 6:30.

*************** Once again this post was MUCH LONGER than I expected it to be, and I have a lot to say about the 4th of July night, therefore, I will write about it when I get home tonight, and post it tomorrow. **********************