Hi, everyone! For those of you who are regular or occasional readers of Matt's "Notes from the bush" blog and may not know me, I'm a friend of Matt's and fellow parishioner from Colorado who's working at Mukinge Hill Academy about half a mile down the road from Mukinge Hospital for the next few weeks. Matt agreed to have me as a "guest blogger" for the time that I'll be here, so hopefully this will give everyone a grander perspective on what life in this part of Zambia is like.
Mukinge Hill Academy hosts about 70 students in grades 1-5 (British system of education), and many of the staff members at Matt's hospital choose to send their children to this academy. There are two classrooms in the building, with grade 1 in the first classroom and grades 3-5 in the other, while the grade 2 students and teacher meet in a room at the church across the road. At this current point in time, the regular headmistress/grades 3-5 teacher is on "home assignment" in the United Kingdom, so a lovely woman named Mabel from Ireland, myself until the end of this current school term, and the regular Zambian classroom assistants are handling affairs until Janet returns. I'm working mostly with the older children although we do combine all the students for some activities such as preparing for an upcoming concert/sports day.
Mukinge Hill Academy hosts about 70 students in grades 1-5 (British system of education), and many of the staff members at Matt's hospital choose to send their children to this academy. There are two classrooms in the building, with grade 1 in the first classroom and grades 3-5 in the other, while the grade 2 students and teacher meet in a room at the church across the road. At this current point in time, the regular headmistress/grades 3-5 teacher is on "home assignment" in the United Kingdom, so a lovely woman named Mabel from Ireland, myself until the end of this current school term, and the regular Zambian classroom assistants are handling affairs until Janet returns. I'm working mostly with the older children although we do combine all the students for some activities such as preparing for an upcoming concert/sports day.
I had seen the school last year when Tay and I had visited Matt during the summer of 2007, but working in it definitely provides a different experience. I'm still in the process of learning the children's names; David, Victor, and Success have been easy enough to pronounce and spell, but Chikumbutso, Kameya, and Kaumba make me think a little more. I had taught for several years in southern California before moving to Colorado a few years ago to begin a PhD program in education at the University of Denver and thought I'd seen a variety of educational arrangements in schools, but the format at Mukinge Hill Academy is new for me. The day normally begins around 7:45 am (the actual start time depends on when the keys arrive and with whom :-)), and the children typically begin working on individual workbooks in the areas of English, math, science, social studies, and word building. The students are basically using a home school curriculum, as it has been difficult to find teachers to serve in this part of Zambia and it was decided many years ago that a curriculum which encouraged students to function independently would be a good approach.
Anyway, the schedule itself is not terribly complicated: the students bring their goal sheets to Mabel and me at the beginning of the day for a checkover, spend most of the morning engaged with their workbooks, individually check in with me, Mabel, and the other assistants in the room as they finish each assignment, and take tests when they come to the end of a particular academic unit which Mabel and I then grade that same day. The students have an early-morning break, then continue the process of working on their individual assignments along with the continual checking and grading, have a late-morning break, then do something like art, religious education, or PE in the early afternoon until the end of the school day. There are other breaks during the week for assemblies and Kikaonde (language) lessons and occasional field trips, but that's the general idea.
Anyone who has ever worked with children knows that kids are an endless source of entertainment and creativity, and the children in Zambia are certainly no exception. For our art session on Friday, I told the kids that we were going to make friendship bracelets as do many children in the United States. The idea was to make a simple bracelet with two plastic "charms" or beads on it, but in no time the kids had moved on to friendship necklaces and triple wrap bracelets, along with extras to give to family members. It's all about sharing the love :-). We spent the afternoon practicing relay races, potato sack races, and three-legged races for the upcoming sports day and concert (more on this in the near future). Lots of love to all, Hilary Burg (aka "Auntie Hilary," as the children call me :-))
1 comment:
Hillary,
I'm so excited to hear about the activities there. I wonder if you can send pics. I think it sounds like worlds of fun, and I hope you are feeling that way, too. I need to look on the map to see exactly where you are. I think I might even try google's satellite. Wouldn't that be something? Tell the kids how lucky they are that you are there Auntie Hillary. Love, Judy
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