Going into the week I was under the impression that I would
again be without a translator. Sunday
night I received the wonderful news from Sora and Adam that this would not be
the case. Jeanide, who I worked with in
Port-au-Prince, had managed to find time in her busy schedule to make the trip
east, to help me throughout the week.
She left Monday during the morning and arrived when I returned from
school. I thanked her greatly for coming on such a short notice and began to
lay out my lesson plans for the week.
Tuesday I decided that I would introduce the scientific
method to both classes by using the same sound experiment I used at
Cazeau. The experiment is very
simple. Line up 4 glass bottles each
with a different amount of water in it, then ask the students which bottle will
have the lowest pitch. Asking a question
is the first step of the scientific method.
Next is to do research. For this
I had the students pull up the Wikipedia page on sound, and they did a little
bit of reading. The class came to the
consensus that sound is a wave, and the different amounts of water would cause
different pitches. Step 3 the kids
formed a hypothesis. All guessed that either
1 or 4 would have the lowest pitch. Step
4 we performed the experiment and found that bottle 4 had the lowest pitch. The
class then recorded their results for step 5, and for step 6 we drew a
conclusion. As the amount of water
increases, the pitch decreases. Not a
ground breaking experiment to say the least, but definitely simple enough to
convey the proper procedure when doing scientific investigation.
Wednesday I had planned to teach a music class with Mistro. He is the piano player in the church’s band
and he could definitely teach the kids one or two things about how to read and
play music. He has been terribly
unreliable during my time here, but I figured if I gave him a chance to teach
something he truly loved, that maybe he would take some initiative and show up. Once again he let me down. It was 10 O’clock and time to start
class. He was nowhere to be found. Instead of proceeding I decided to take the
lesson in a different direction.
Watching the kids type up their reports the day before, I noticed that
very few knew the proper typing technique.
I drew a blown up picture of a keyboard on my whiteboard and
demonstrated the proper hand positions.
The XO’s have typing software, and I set aside the first hour of class
toward practicing their newly acquired skill.
For the older kids, I let them do with the
last hour of class whatever they pleased.
To my surprise many continued playing the typing game. A few students switched over to chat, but a
few others explored the depths of Wikipedia.
Seeing the kids independently choose to practice typing, or read
articles is a wonderfully reassuring feeling.
It shows that they really are thirsty to learn, and it’s an honor to
provide them with tools that can quench that thirst.
I wanted to go out of Grand Goave with a bang, I wanted to
give the kids something that they would remember. I definitely did so at Delmas 28 when I did my
rocket lesson, and I wanted to give Mission of Hopes students a similar
experience. Thursday I explained the basics of rocketry. I lead with gravity, talked about the vinegar
and baking soda fuel, and then went into aerodynamics. I had the kids draw up some designs on paint
so they could get a better idea of what we would be building Friday. Many struggled to work to overcome the touchy
paint software, but I went around and helped get everything in working order. In the end we had some wonderful designs. A
couple of students finished very quickly and agreed to design a new one even
better. I let them be and came back 10
minutes later to discover that they had copied a picture of the Columbia Spaceshuttle
from their offline digital library, and pasted it into paint. I appreciated the resourcefulness and congratulated
them on their designs. They even added
their own artistic touches.
Friday came and it was time to turn these students into
rocket stars. All the supplies were in
order and I distributed them to the two teams.
The kids opened their XO’s and used their schematics as reference. The older kids worked especially well
together and were efficient with all their resources, the younger kids not so
much. The teams wrapped up and added
their finishing touches. We went into
the graveled area next to where we held class and I prepared the fuel. The teams formed a circle around and eagerly
awaited their flights. We shot off one
rocket after the other and the kids cheered with delight at their
successes.
The day came to an end and I said my goodbyes to the
class. Friday was my last day teaching
in Grand Goave and I truly will miss the students of MOH. These 3 weeks have
meant a lot to me and not just because of the lessons I have taught. Grand Goave gave me the chance to really get
to know a group of kids, some on a very deep level. Last week I introduced you to my friend
Johnsley. He is a 14 year old boy who
aspires to be both a pastor and a doctor.
He has decent English skills, and he and I talked a lot and became very
close. He stopped by the beach house on Saturday
so that we could say our final goodbyes. Tuesday I gave him an English bible
and an English to Creole dictionary. He
left me with a letter that he wrote thanking me for being his teacher and his
friend. It’s something that I will
cherish forever. Below is Johnsley with his rocket design. I wish him and all of his classmates the best of luck.
Tomorrow I head back to Port-au-Prince to do some teaching
and server repair at Cazeau. It has been
an absolute pleasure to teach here in Grand Goave, but there is still plenty
more work to be done at plenty of other schools. I look forward to teaching and making more
friends along the way.
Hang on,
Sean
No comments:
Post a Comment