Friday, June 26, 2009

Wild Flowers and Fires

If you just look at the beauty of the city. Indescribable. The beautiful hills, the sun coming up and hovering over the small houses, the rolling hills, and the beautiful people. I couldn't help but take a picture today. I looked up and it was so clear, I couldn't miss the opportunity.



Well, there has been a great phenomenon these past few days. I have noticed that there are many fires burning EVERYWHERE. Now the first few nights, I was quite scared because it was so close to the orphanage, but when NO ONE else worries about it, you just gotta get over it.
But after seeing these all on the brush near the dirt roads, I'm sure you will see why I am taking advantage of taking pictures of the greenery here, since it will be gone soon.

The air feels so fresh to me. I love being outside and smelling the fresh air. (I must interject and let you know that wild 'glaucoma medicine' grows here, so when the fire burns....everything BURNS. I wondered what it was...and now...I KNOW! But other than that, I have escaped the Dallas air that is so polluted. I am sure this isn't the cleanest air in the world, but goodness gracious- it's different.

Today, we had a teacher training at Inkazamulu. I was able to present ways to get the focus on student learning. There are 40....yes, 40+ students in EACH classroom. Can you imagine? Well, for them, the teachers usually instruct by lecturing. The students don't get up or write on the boards, or use manipulatives for learning. They all read the same book at the same time at the same speed and with the same accent. The purpose of the training was to let them see other ways to maximize student learning by focusing on the student and letting them do more of the talking than the teacher does. I think that the training was a success. They enjoyed it and I think they were very grateful that we took the opportunity to share this with them. I do think that they especially liked the door prizes and gifts.

I feel very fortunate to be here and able to share what has helped me as a teacher.

1 comment:

Tracey said...

You are sooo smart...Im sorry for calling you BNB