The Power of Praise

This week I have been teaching Primary Four students, so technically equivalent to fourth-grade in the United States, but since children begin school at various times in this rural area, I have about thirty students that range in age from 10-14 years old.  Jackie, Evan and I arrive at the school around 9:00 each morning and teach pretty much all day, on our own, until 3:00.  Many of the Ugandan teachers sit in on our lessons to observe how we teach and what we ask students to do.  At first it was nerve-wracking to have so many people hold our teaching in such high regard, and in many ways we still don't feel we deserve this much credit, but the response of the teachers has been phenomenal.  We enjoy watching them teach as much as they enjoy watching and learning from us.

The hardest part about teaching this week was wanting the students to be at a certain level and realizing they are so far behind. Open-ended thinking is very rare.  The students are used to being asked questions for which there is only one correct answer, and that answer is usually written up on the board for them to recite.  Evan, Jackie and I ask critical-thinking questions to our classes and are met with blank stares, but we keep trying.  Gradually, as we give more encouragement for students to use their own thinking, and provide more opportunities for students to respond in their own words, we see more and more hands in the air and more and more "thinking" happening in the classroom.

The students' response to praise has been incredible.  After correcting student work one night, I wrote simple things like, "Wonderful!" or "Marvelous!" or "Fantastic!" on their papers.  The next day when I handed them back, you would have thought I'd given them an acceptance letter to Harvard.  They were ecstatic.  "Teacher said I was wonderful!" they would tell their neighbor, "Look, Teacher said I was fan-tas-tic!"  Even simple words of encouragement as I moved around the classroom would instantly bring a smile and a new "life" to a child's face.

During the next lesson, we corrected work as a whole class, and the students still wanted me to "write the words" on their papers.  Since we were running out of time, and there were 30 students in the class, I told them this time they could mark their own work.  The students went from shock ("But Teacher, you must mark it!!") to squeals of delight when I told them they could choose their own marking and write it on their paper. They loved writing their own "words," and it was hilarious watching them compliment their own work.  "BEAUTIFUL BOY" one boy wrote on his paper, or "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH" a girl wrote on hers.  My favorite one was a little girl in the front row…a quick glance down at her self-corrected paper and I saw she had written, "DELICIOUS!"  At least they understand the concept of positive phrasing!

Also this week we went on our first all-school field trip, if you could call it that.  On Tuesday afternoon the Head Teacher called all 300 students together by the flagpole and announced that we would all be going to collect firewood for the school.  The children were less than excited about this, and Evan, Jackie and I kind of looked at each other like, "Are you serious?" but sure enough, we followed the mass of children down the path, through the field, across a few roads, and probably a good half-mile later we came upon a huge pile of sticks.  The Primary Five students immediately began taking charge, gathering large piles of sticks and passing them on to the younger ones who would turn around and carry their load back to the school.  We participated as well, and it was like a line of little ants carrying piles of sticks to and from the school, and except for the initial groans of disappointment, I never heard a child complain once during the multiple trips.

Finally, this week we have been receiving tiny letters written to us by some of the students.  They don't say too much, but we have enjoyed reading them.  Here is one of them :)

"Hello to my dear friend Whiteny

I love you and I like a apple and I like education

I am 11 years old and I like to be with you

Do you no (know) my mother maskia rose mary

I like to write this letter to you and

I love you so match (much) and I am in primary three

I like to write this letter to you when I am happy

I like to be a unrse (nurse)

I love you like a fish loves water

Great job and nice job

My name is Mbambu Jetrida

Great girl"