Lessons

Hey everyone.
a big part of going to Zambia was teaching the children. It is important to have a good lesson plan as if nothing is planned it can all go wrong. Some of us tried to improvise and it worked to a certain extent, but I must say teaching plate tectonics and geography to grade 8 and 9 was a great experience, as i had planned everything and they were asking questions and seemed really interested. I propose that we all lay out our lesson plans from last year so you guys can get some idea on what to teach.
G'luck to everyone, Simon

I'm thinking of preparing a mathematically based lesson: most likely basic algebra. Could one of the 'veterans' gimme a few pointers and indicate what you think I should cover in terms of maths.

I'd also to do something physics based (preferably a practical lesson), again could you give me some ideas and feedback on this?

Thanks.

love your ideas Adam, i wasn't really thinking about anything myself, but i probably soon will.

I just mentioned this in the fund raising section, but decided I should draw more attention to it here:

Mrs Meyer says that the school's planning on introducing french to their curriculum, so I reckon it'd be a good idea to stick some basic french tutorials in with our lessons.

I think its great to prepare your lessons! And adam, i taught mathematics (basic phythagorus with a slight fun aspect to it) to the older students and they loved it! They're pretty good at algerbra! The younger ones are learning multiplication and the youngest adding! etc.

However, they already learn maths at school, and i think that french is a great idea! I encourage you guys to prepare the lessons!!! Its amazing to have that satisfaction that you KNOW they learnt something!! Making posters (so they can keep them) is a huge sucess!

I get excited even HEARING about the fact that you guys are going to teach the students we taught!

If you need help, preparing or anything
Im always here!

For the math, a good lesson idea is to teach them written calculs.
(I don't know the proper word in English, things like :
_13
+25
=38
rather than 13+25=38)
Might be usefull for them, as they don't have calculators easily available. We tried this for additions, and it worked quite well, though we had a lot of problems with "repport".
(once more, don't know the word. It's when you add numbers and get a total greater than 9 - you have to "move" the 10th on the next column).

sounds like a good idea

We tried that last year didn't we? They got the basics of it just fine but they could not undrstand the remainder part, ie. when you bring up a no in top of the couloumn from the bottom. Anther thing I did with them was addition and multiplication of fractions. It could work again with not too old or young classes (i taught this to the fourth years).

Has anyone done the solar system, if yes what do you suggest to do about pluto?

I did the solar system. I hada groupf of about 15 students, and we were sitting under a tree. I ahd pictures of what the solar system looked like, and how the planets were in relation to each other.
I explained what each planet looked like.
So either hot or cold.
i used to lesson to distinguish between sizes: big small and medium.
and for comparison. the sun is bigger than the Earth, and such, so it was a focus on vocab and grammar.

I had a planet song, which i played on my guitar called " The Family of the Sun". Was a repetitive song, but after singing it like 20 times or so, they finall maangedto memorise all of the planets, and there order.
If you are doing the smaller classes, I'd suggest not to get too physical, but rather just let them have an idea of what is up there by pictures and short descriptions.

I think i sitll have my lesson plan somewhere on my pc. Ill have a look.

I'm wondering, if last year you told them that pluto was in the solar system, and this year it isn't any more, how would you handle that?

tania and me were thinking of a little theatre or something like that but we dont really know how to get it done...seems easy but once u think about it its hard to imagine what to do....any ideas???

I think we need to meet after your exams to go through lesson planning. Also I would strongly suggest you go to the primary school and ask for help. If you were in L2 you could speak to your L2 teacher or to any of the english teachers

I'll send out a mail about meeting next week when you are all back in school. I guess the countdown has started as we leave in 6 weeks

I was just putting together my rather small photo collection to take to Zambia when I came up with an awesome lesson idea: We could teach about sea creatures and the different ecosystems in the sea.

What do you think?

good idea, i'd like to do it with you