TALULAR (July 7)

I am feeling much better and we were back in the schools today after a nice weekend, for the most part. Our class is having their review for an end of term exam, and we are really nervous about confusing them or putting them off track, so we let Katie teach today. We went around to check papers and teach them if they didn’t understand but that was the extent of it. They had music today and I absolutely love that. They sang and danced for us but at the last few minutes Jess and I sand the ants go marching one by one again for them. We’re really trying to get them to get the words down.. slowly but surely.

Afterwards, instead of having our usual class discussion, we went into one of the MIE labs to talk to with Baxton who’s incharge of teaching TALULAR to teachers and others who come to learn. TALULAR is Teaching And Learning Using Locally Available Resources. This was fascinating. When I did my senior research proposal I came across some research on TALULAR but never really got to see anything. He had tonnnss of things to show us! There were teaching materials made of anything you could possibly think of. This is great because it doesn’t allow teachers to use the excuse of not having materials available to them, because they can use everything around them. There were posters made from sacks, recycled paper, reeds, etc. Small supply holders (for paperclips, rubber bands, erasers, thumbtacs) made from match boxes that were glued together. Sentence makers made from cardboard and strips of paper. Maps drawn out in different colored beans that were glued to paper or whatever could have been used. Shapes made from rope. It’s so hard to explain. I took a ton of pictures and I learned so much. It gave Jess and I great ideas about what to contribute to our classroom before we leave.

The sad part was that Baxton told us he had just retired a few days ago and this was his last lecture. He has traveled all over Africa and even into the united states teaching about TALULAR and how it can positively impact education and the quality of teaching. It’s so important especially in an area like this where schools struggle as it is with attendance and even just trying to find qualified teachers. The guy who is supposed to be replacing him hasn’t even come to look at all the things Baxton has so that he knows what to do, it’s pretty sad.

It got us really excited though and we got a good amount of our school projects done tonight so that we could get stuff laminated this weekend once we get back from the safari. The safari that we leave in the morning for!! Yay!