Voulenteer at Lemlem School in Addis Ababa

This is the review I made my self one of my last days at Lemlem School.

I have been working as a volunteer at Lemlem School in Addis Ababa from September the 17 to the 28 of November 2013 (10 weeks).

My main tasks at Lemlem:

• Personal feedback for the teachers
• Case classes (8*45 min teaching)
• Teacher training for the teachers in School (2,5 hours)
• Teacher training for the teachers in Kindergarten (1 hour)
• Giving in my point of view for decision made by the management

During my time I have worked with the teachers and their methods in the classroom. The main focus has been to improve active and involving learning. I have observed different teachers individual during their classes and afterwards giving them some comments and concrete ideas for their teaching. A concrete idea could be that the students should read loud two and two for each other, and then the teacher can take a couple and let them read for him (so he still got the chance to correct them) instead of let one student read for the whole class. In this way you make all the students active instead of only one. Another thing I have suggested for a teacher was to let the students go through the homework instead of him and next time I observed him he followed my advice and found it successful. The advices could be as simple as: “Have a look on you mobile clock now and then during the lesson, so you get a feeling of time, and have a chance to end the lesson in a good way”. During three lessons this teacher progressed from a very bad time management to ending the lesson at the exact time.

I made some case classes to prove that active learning is possible here. I took over two English lessons in grade 4 and two lessons in grade 8. I choose the same topic for the class as the teacher already planned, but with the methods that I believed would let the students learn as much as possible. I let both the normal teacher and some extra teachers observe me during the classes, and got some good feedback afterwards.

One Saturday in the middle of the time here I arranged a workshop day for the teachers. It was 2,5 hour and the main focus was active learning. During the day I did both different kind of groupwork and some inspiration talk by myself.  Beside from active learning the themes were how to develop new ideas for teaching and how to plan a lesson well.

In the belonging Kindergarten (3-6 years old students) I made some observations too. The main thing I noticed was that the children has to wait a lot, just sitting still. This made me develop some games and plays, to be used both for stimulating the children’s imagination, but also using the time in a more active and useful way. I did a teacher training session, where I played all the games with the teachers in the Kindergarten. The following days I also went to the kindergarten to play some of the games with the children to implement more successful.

Finally I was giving my point of view in different discussions in the management. We have had different conversations about solving problems and implementing new things. Sometimes I have been the facilitator of decision making and had the chance to suggest new ideas now and then. In general I have been a part of solving small as well as bigger challenges in the daily life at Lemlem School. 

Undervsinging for personalet i børnehaven

Efter en hel del løse observationer i børnehaven, der var tilknyttet skolen, havde jeg en stor lyst til at prøve at inspirere personalet der til fornyelse.
I børnehaven var der omkring 350 børn og ca. 15 fastansatte, der desuden arbejdede på et meget lille fysisk areal (i hvert fald i vestlige normers øjemed), hvilket skabte en masse ventetid, hvor det i pædagogens øjne var nemmest, hvis børnene sad/stod stille, så hun kunne have overblik over dem. Det er såden set fair nok når en voksen skal have ansvar for så mange børn, men det gjorde ondt i mit danske hjerte, der tror på at legende børn udvikler sig bedre end børn der skal sidde helt stille i lang tid.
Derfor samlede jeg nogle lege, som de kunne lege med børnene i klasselokalerne, eller på legepladsen. Både nogle meget aktive lege, de kunne bruge når der var plads og tid, samt nogle lidt kortere lege, der kunne tilpasses til at børnene skulle sidde stille og så bare bevæge arme og overkrop.

Jeg afholdte sessionen så praksisnær som overhovedet muligt, med stort set hele personalegruppen på en gang. Jeg introducerede kort legen, og så prøvede vi den af, med det formål, at de bedre kunne huske og selv benytte sig af legen i deres undervisning.
Det var meget nyt for dem at være så aktiv i en leg, og jeg vidste fra mine observationer at især det at lege som voksen var nyt. Det at den voksne leger med og selv opfører sig fjollet, er engageret osv var en helt ny tankegang. Så mit barnlige jeg overdrev ret meget, for at de kunne se at man godt både kan være seriøs voksen og et legebarn.

Til de nysgerrige er her et link, hvor legene er beskrevet til pædagogerne, så de efterfølgende havde det på skrift (der er nok en velkendt dansk sangleg eller to, hvis man ser godt efter): Legene jeg

Jeg fik en god respons, og blev ved med at igangsætte disse lege når jeg kom i børnehaven, så børnene også lærte dem at kende;)