Wednesday, January 15, 2014

HUMP Day for us



This morning the twenty minute bus ride to school was surprisingly lively.  Students planned last night and were prepared for an amazing day.  Today marks the halfway point of our days at Bakpa Avedo.  The days have been long, hot and challenging but incredibly rewarding.  The language barrier is more pronounced in the younger classrooms but as we are learning the children’s names and building relationships we find other ways to communicate.    Students divide into groups sharing books, songs and activities with the children.  Each teacher welcomes the art/theater/music trio who go to classes every day for extra-curricular activities.
These kids LOVE acting with Christie.



We use lots of songs with motions in third grade with Abby.











 
The academics for today ranged from expressing emotions and time travelling from Pangea to modern day North America to blasting off into outer space. The younger students worked on subtraction using Pete The Cat books. 




Flying to North America

Even more effective than these engaging lessons was the level of passion and drive our co-teaching teams have in immersing themselves in Ghanaian culture and the Ewe language. Learning some of the local lingo has made a profound impact on the students at Bapka Avedo. These cultural influences are a two-way street, though. While learning Ghana’s national anthem has become a goal of our group, students in the classroom can now be found joyfully singing along to “Sweet Home Alabama” during break throughout the day.




Emma working with her second graders.


The number of children in the classroom has multiplied since we arrived, with as many as 50 in one classroom with 20 desks.  We are thrilled with the explosion of the population of Bakpa Avedo school, however we did not anticipate the enthusiasm of the students.  Though we believed our classrooms would be exciting, it is difficult to plan for this many students regardless the school.




We will celebrate HUMP day by planning for the rest of the week and looking forward to the weekend.  


Jessica reading to her fifth graders.





Avery working with his fourth graders.






4 comments:

  1. I love seeing the pictures! What a treat. Keep up the good work everyone!

    Best,
    Erin Wentz

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  2. Emailed a copy of this photo to Abby's Nana
    Gotta love Nana's reply . . . .
    "Oh my. This brought tears to my eyes, there she is in a really far off land with these little kids teaching them to “raise the roof”
    What an experience"

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a blessing to have such enthusiastic students!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Who wouldn't LOVE acting with dear, sweet Christie!

    ReplyDelete