Nakeempa Basic School and Nahumba Basic School

See - I really do work! :)  (Lots of pictures below if you don't have time to read my written words!) 

Mostly my work has involved going around and visiting the 8 Brethren In Christ Basic (Primary - Grade 1-9) schools.  I've now been to each school at least twice.  Lately I've been setting up meeting times for me to come back and make a school goal.  This came about when talking to one of the head teachers who told me (he speaks very freely to me and I'm very grateful) one thing he liked about a past teacher mentor was that she got the heads together and talked to them about what they wanted her to do.  So I thought about it because I liked that idea.  However, it's the end of the school year (they run January - December) and head teachers are busy!  I decided too that though some needs are similar, every school is different.  I started to set up a time that the head and the teachers could meet with me to discuss how I could help them and their school the best.  So far I've had two "school goal" meetings (which ended up being 2 hours each) and I'm sure are getting a bit better polished as I go!  Both of the two schools set a reading goal to improve reading for next year.  (Not surprising as that was one of the main items in my job description!) So I have a couple more goal meetings before schools close on December 6th.  (2 or 3 schools will have their meeting in January).  Over the break I'm going to be working on a "literacy kit" and the workshop to go with it.  It's my dream to give some extra strategies for teaching reading to the teachers here.  They do really well but have challenges like no resources (books, paper, photocopier, etc.) and large class sizes.   I'm working on an alphabet BINGO game made of large flour sacs (each made 24 boards and cost 1.5 kwacha (it's about 5 Kwacha to the dollar) - so 25 cents.  And I'll provide markers and the TIME to make the boards.  As a teacher, I walk away from workshops with inspiration but never sit down and DO the ideas.  So - I'm going to take time with the teachers to make sure they have a functioning kit that they can start working with right away - the next day!  (Plus - I work in English and they'll have to adapt it to ChiTonga - so bonus if I can get them to do that with me and then I'll have a copy too!) :)

So here's my ideas for my workshop / kit:

-Alphabet BINGO boards (can be used for letter names, sounds, sight words, shapes, colours, any language, they are very adaptable to whatever needs to be taught!

-Morning Message (an easy one to use as the teachers here make good use of a chalkboard)

-Alphabet Jive song (teaching letters and letter sounds)

-word wall (put it in exercise books for dictionary for home as well)

-(sock) puppets to teach beginning and ending sounds (rhymes, syllables, a bunch of things!)

Not sure if I'll do any writing activities - but they are tied so much to reading that if I have time I'll also do:

-writing letters in the air / on partners back / in the dirt with rocks or in sand, making letters with bodies

-teach "house" for printing (tall letters like T take up the whole house.  letters like n are only on the main floor, and a letter like p are basement letters.

-free writing in journal: sounding out words, not doing "book spelling" and using sight words

The two schools I visited to set a time for our goals meeting on Weds. were Nahumba (which is in Choma, the closest BIC school to where we live) and Nakeempa (one of the furthest away.  About 30 minutes down the highway towards Livingstone and then another 30 minutes on a bush road to the South West of the highway.  (If you've managed to read all this you get a bonus: We had to stop for a monitor lizard to cross in front of us on the way home from Nakeempa!  It was at least 3 ft. long!)  I'm kicking myself because I wasn't driving (Kajungu was) and I had my camera in the vehicle and the lizard wasn't super fast and I didn't even THINK to grab my camera and try to get even a poor shot! 

Nahumba Basic School.  The middle is the head office. 

Nahumba Basic School (this is to the left of the above photo)

Nahumba Basic School's Soccer field

Nakeempa Basic School (an hour outside of Choma)

Nakeempa school

Nakeempa school (opposite the photo above)

Nakeempa school (middle block with head teacher's office)

Planning a date to meet to make a school goal for next year, myself and Nakeempa's
head teacher, Chindolo Maxwell.

Students at Nakeempa Basic School

Myself and Michello (who came with us) eating Masuko (fruit) spelling?? and another one I'm holding that I don't remember the name (similar to sour sap though).

Kajungu (middle) eating masuko while two teachers at Nakeempa watch.

Yummy!  Best ones I've had yet!

A masuko tree (on our way home).  We were hoping they could sell us more, but they were all out!  (The orange ones are not ripe)

We found some ladies selling some when we got to the "tarmac" - the paved highway near the turn off for Nakeempa 

We aways have a good time when we go to Nakeempa.  I'll be back there on December 6th for my meeting.  I hope to get more masuko.  The season for them is ending - I don't see nearly as many on the trees as I did before.  But mango season is starting to take off! :)