Like a mother hen this morning I was clucking after my little chicks (student teachers) and this evening I am so proud of them, I’m looking at a photo I took of a story basket one of them made out of banana fibres filled with story telling stick puppets and a borrowed copy of The Gruffalo’s Child – THIS!
THIS. IS. AWESOME!
Today was the day for a visiting invigilator from Makerere University to arrive at our college and mark our student teachers’ learning resources, displays and charts. There’s no walking into a classroom, opening up your resource cupboards and then planning how to use them here. Classrooms and schools don’t come with resources – you make them! No buying dice for maths work – you make the dice! No buying storage containers – you make them! No buying number lines, flashcards, big books, teaching clocks, counters, trophies, phonics and reading resources – you make it all!
Today was also the day where we woke up to a typical wet season morning greeting – roads that are almost impassable and a slushy, muddy mess outside the gate. It was inevitable that our students would be late to college – rain always delays things, that’s just how life works.
But today was also the day that the invigilator arrives at our college at 8.15am. 8.15am! Who arrives for an exam before 9am! Certainly our students didn’t! Whilst I was preparing for a morning meeting elsewhere, my colleague rang me to alert me of our ‘display emergency’. All I could do was cluck remotely like a mother hen, whilst my colleague did her best to ‘mother hen’ the situation from her side. The invigilator was insistent: he had two other districts to cover today and tomorrow and had to move!
Thankfully, our students trudged in and three hours later the marking finished! I think he liked our displays and resources so much, that’s why he took his time and allowed for the rest of our students to arrive.
Thankful the day is over, and oh so proud of our students! I can’t wait to see these resources displayed and used during school practice this term.
Dan and Jodes... in Gulu, Uganda 