Five days.
17 lessons observed. 10 lessons taught. 5 EGRA’s administrated. Countless
laughs shared, and many memories made. Skills learned, mastered, and
discovered. One terrible lesson (to use the vocabulary word from that lesson)
taught. Growth made, anxiety set in, but confidence developed. Those were some
of the things I have encountered the last week. And we still have four more
days starting tomorrow.
Let me take
a second to break down this week. The first three days were fabulous. I was so
confident in my teaching, I had “good” days and I was on cloud 9. I was
learning more than I ever could have imagined. Then things went south on
Wednesday. My day was crushed when my lesson di not go well. I was devastated. I
received cookie cutter feedback from trainers when I wanted clear ways to
improve my lessons.
But here
are the facts of life; sometimes you teach and things don’t end well. Sometimes
you syllabicate a word incorrectly, sometimes students use the vocabulary word
terrible, to describe their parents and friends, and this leads you to feeling
like an epic failure as a teacher. Maybe I didn’t do that bad, or maybe I did
much worse than I thought I did. Either way I keep pushing, I don’t give up, I
am still here, bad day or not, so far the Peace Corps has taught me so much
about myself, about teaching, about turning a bad situation into a teachable
moment, and finding the good in this bad day. Here was my good from this day;
one of my students spelt my name correctly in their book even when it wasn’t
written on the board. That same student wants to be president of Uganda one,
and several other students want to be pilots, teachers, carpenters, doctors,
and so many more things. What beautiful dreams these kids have and I’m so
incredibly blessed that I get to witness the beginning of these dreams come
true. And to end the day I get to do small group reading intervention with the
sweetest tiny humans. We read Rapunzel by Rachel Isadora; we do phonics, read a
fluency passage, and learn new vocabulary words. And it’s always exciting and
such a joy to watch them get excited for me to read to them and for the to
retell the story to me.
Despite Wednesdays teaching
disaster week one has been incredible and it’s officially over. I have learned
so many new teaching techniques and perfected old techniques. Teaching in
Uganda is one of the most rewarding things I get to do in this crazy life of
mine. And bragging moment, I had the most rad reading intervention group. Those
tiny humans loved reading Rapunzel everyday. They sat close to me and hung on
the books every word. And each day when the group was over and we’d stop
reading for the day they were so sad and wanted to continue. But on Thursday we
finished Rapunzel and they asked to read the book again. So I’m left in awe of
the incredible reading group I have had and the love of reading we share. Let’s
bring on next week! I’m reading for you!
Here’s to you Uganda! You are
beautiful and my greatest adventure, you push me, grow me, stretch me, and give
me anxiety, but most of all you show me love, passion, joy, and desire. Uganda
you will forever have my heart.
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