This year Pat only teaches at Christ the King Primary Teachers’ College. Sometimes Jo takes her to school on her way to the Clinic; at other times the school’s driver picks her up in the school truck. Sometimes the school truck isn’t working or has no fuel, so Pat doesn’t get there at all. Only three times did she travel by “boda-boda,” the motorcycles with long seats so a passenger fits behind the driver. Because her knee doesn’t bend far enough, this proved rather unsafe! She teaches mathematics to the Year One students. While she pretends to be teaching them “how to teach” math, she is actually teaching them the mathematics itself. Even those who can get an answer to a type of problem only know the process they were taught, with no real understanding of the math behind the process. It is quite rewarding to see a face light up when a student understands! Of course it is rather discouraging when a student decides she knows “how to,” and sees no value in learning anything else!
Aside from all the frustrations of a system that isn’t working, Pat has been involved in two special tasks. For one of those tasks she worked with the Principal-to-be, Sister Martha, to apply for a grant from the Raskob Foundation. Their goal is to begin a new program for the coming year. Since the students who apply to Christ the King Primary Teachers’ College are too often without adequate background knowledge in the basic subjects, tutors (teachers) must take time (during the two year program that the government supports) attempting to teach those skills. That needs to be done prior to teaching them how to teach!
This new project
hopes to provide an extra year of study to supply the students with sufficient background in the basics. Then when they begin the two-year program provided by the government, they can spend their time on “how to teach” the various subjects at specific grade levels. The application has already passed the first stage and will be reviewed by the Raskob Board in late November. The next school year begins the first part of February. Pray with us, please. Pat has also been involved in giving workshops for current teachers as well as for the student teachers from the College. In the United States teachers simply go to a Teachers’ Store and purchase things needed; or they order from a catalog and the school pays for them. In Gulu teachers have to be as resourceful as teachers who began their careers in the 1940’s and ‘50’s! Pat worked at making Base Ten cubes out of paper and cardboard; she made a 100’s chart and addition chart and a multiplication chart; she made flash cards and place-value charts….
She had the approval and enthusiasm of the heads of the Gulu Education District as well as of the Gulu Municipality when she proposed workshops for the teachers. However, the teachers were not as enthusiastic…. Out of the sixty teachers invited to one of three workshops (according to grade levels), only twenty actually came. In the Teachers’ College, fifty students were expected, and fifty showed up; but only two actually finished the projects with materials provided! However, those who DID participate in the workshops expressed gratitude and appreciation for the insights they gained.
In the next few weeks Pat will be expected to help with evaluating the Year Two students (whom she taught last year) as they use the manipulatives they made in their workshops. This may prove to be eye-opening…. Sister Martha has already decided that next year the Year Two students would have the workshops EARLY in the year so they would have plenty of time to make the manipulatives, and also to practice using them to teach. There is always hope!
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