Final thoughts

      As a future teacher, I don't think I can ever complain about class size after going to Uganda. Seeing 50 plus students in a classroom with only one teacher, gave me instant anxiety, yet the teachers taught as if there were 23 students in the room. The students worked on their assignments and stayed on task. The teachers were able to provide support to the students who needed it. I was in a state of wonder when it came to the students handwritting. It was beyond perfect.
       Classroom management was nonexistent due to the students all being prepared and focused to learn. As a future teacher,  I plan to share my stories of the students in Uganda, this way students won't take their education for granted. We are able to have free public education, with so many resources. We are beyond fortunate to have worksheets available to us, working WIFI and more. This trip has humbled me completely.

Coming home

       Leaving Uganda was bittersweet. I learned so much from this trip. I feel like this trip was offered to me at the perfect time in my life. I was able to truly appreciate my time and purpose. I learned so much about the world around me, not just from going aboard but having different traveling partners from different walks of life. Uganda is a beautiful country filled with amazing people, everyone is so welcoming and kind and truly grateful for us to come and teach them strategies that we use in our local classrooms with students here in the states.
         I am beyond grateful for the outlook the students provided me with their passion for education and learning. I can honestly say that it was a breath of fresh air being in a classroom where all the students were on task working, engaged and wanting to be in their class. I'm a college student and I don't feel like that. It also made me realize how fortunate we are in the states with our class sizes. Some classes had up to 50 plus children in them. This trip was beyond a great experience.

Updates on Preparations

       For this trip, I literally pack 4 times. I read the list provided by Dr. Langran, I googled items to bring to Uganda and other blogs about packing for aboard. For it being my first time aboard, these blogs still were no help, I kept overthinking everything. I also had a huge suitcase. In my mind I was going to be gone for ten days, how was I going to pack my closet of comfort in a suitcase. Talking with a fellow traveler, I found out she was packing her 10-day attire in a carry-on.
       I looked at my carryon luggage and my pile and made decisions. I was able to fit dresses, leggings, rain boots, and other items all in a carry-on. I'm glad I didn't this due to me having a second luggage piece of supplies for AJS. For my workshop materials, I read the book for my piece on A- Z summaries. I typed out a little summary and some talking points to use for the workshop. I also made sure to pack my journal that I was given by Dr. Langran this helped me write down little ideas from other members of the group and things I learned around me.

We're going to Uganda

        When I heard about this trip, I was excited. I'm currently in my last semester of college before I Student Teach in the fall. My college career hasn't been the typical story of graduating from high school and going straight to college. I took two years off before I knew I wanted a future in education. With me being a commuter student, starting part-time and working through school, I always felt like I was missing out on the “college experience” A few friends of mine have traveled abroad with their classes or spent a semester overseas, to make their experience richer. I honestly didn't think I would ever be able to have this experience, or honestly feel like a college student.

       When I heard about the trip, I felt like it was at the perfect time in my academic career. I would learn so much about myself, stepping out of my comfort zone of traveling with people I didn’t know, going aboard for the first time and learning from a fellow teacher. I am looking forward to all the new experiences this trip has to offer. I can’t wait to collaborate with different people and gain further information. I am beyond excited to start this experience and see what Uganda for the first time.

Digital Story Project

Hello Everyone! For anyone who is still following this journey, I just wanted to share I quick video project I had created for a course I am taking at Marymount. We were instructed to create a digital story that incorporated an original piece of work with our own original images. I couldn't think of a better excuse to show off some of videos taken while we were in Uganda! I created a short piece, told from the point of view of the children we met during our stay. I had written down many of the things the kids told me they liked about living in Uganda and tweaked them slightly to fit into the format of the story. Unfortunately the go-pro videos are too large and would not post on the blog but I included the link to the video. Hope you all enjoy!  Digital Story Project

Lifetime Experience!

I never thought that will have a chance to visit Africa. I am studying at Marymount for almost two years and I have seen so many flyers on a pin board on the wall in a hall way to my classroom. There were lots of global education trips to Europe, New Zealand, and South America. I thought that I might be able to join one of the trip if time allows.

I finished all the course work for my degree except student teaching in the Fall 2016 so I had an opportunity to look at elective courses for this Spring. I heard about ED 526 Cross-Cultural/International Curricula that would visit a classroom in Uganda. I decided to join this course right away.

Eight people signed up for our course to go to Uganda which was just enough to make the trip happened. We prepared a teacher workshop where we would present differentiation and grouping strategies to teachers at Arlington Junior School and an outreach school in Bumwalukani, a poor village at the foot of Mount Elgon, a massive extinct volcano near Uganda’s border with Kenya. I worked with Rob, Ryann, and Dillon for our grouping strategies presentation.

Morning market on the side of the road

Finally, after flying for 20 hours, we made it to Uganda. It was night and we were all exhausted so we spend the night in a guesthouse in Entebbe.  In the morning, we rode a van about 7 hours to Baduda District. I was so excited seeing everyday life in this new part of the world. It was still early in the morning but life on the side of the road was already busy. People sold plantains everywhere because it is a main food for Ugandans. We had “Matoke” or starchy plantain (cooked banana) on the menu every day!

During our stay in Bumwalukani, I had a chance to work with two P3 (Primary Three) teachers. There were about 50 students in the classroom. Teacher Richard, one of the P3 teachers, took his students outside to explain his lesson on physical features around the school. Many students put their hands up waiting for the teacher to call them for the answer was an excellent moment that showed the engagement of the students in the lesson. I liked this picture because it shows Teacher Richard interacting with the students rather than just teaching from a textbook or standing in front of a chalkboard. Teacher Richard assessed his student’s understanding during the lesson by asking them questions.

Arlington Junior School

Playground

In Uganda, education is the only opportunity village children to get out of the life cycle of subsistence farm work to become engineers, doctors, or other educated professionals. The students want to be in school and be educated so that they can pursue their dreams. However, very few families can afford to send their children to school.

I used to compare the education that I experienced in rural Thailand to the U.S. education that I’ve observed in wealthy Fairfax, Virginia. Kids in the U.S. are lucky to have a good education. After 12 days in Uganda, I feel that I’m lucky that I was able to get an education and that my parents were able to support me all the way through my bachelor’s degree. There are many kids in Uganda (and Thailand!) whose parents do not have money to support them to go to school. They have to help their families in the fields.

P3 Classroom 

I am so grateful that I was able to go to Uganda. Seeing a part of the world that is very different from Virginia and Thailand opened up my mind in many ways. My perspective on life is completely changed after the trip. I will never forget the valuable time that I spent in a wonderful place with amazing Ugandan people! Ways to go!

How Uganda has Changed Me

When you compare and Ugandan 5th grader and an American 5th grader you quickly realize that there are many similarities, but then some glaring differences. I found the children in Uganda to be very light hearted and playful. When we played soccer they were competitive, worked hard, and lax on the rules. The Ugandan children did not really question your decisions, they would execute orders and make strategies come to life.

After three weeks of American soccer practice I am experiencing a different scenario. The boys are still playful, but not nearly as light hearted. They seem to carry a greater burden on their shoulders, the ability to be goofy and joke around just is not quite there. They have a more serious tone to their competitiveness, they want to win. And that is a big difference, the Ugandan 5th graders found pride in their ability to compete with the 7th graders and to put up a good fight, the American 5th graders only would see their failure to win. I find this to be a stark difference in the expectation that each group has...I believe the Ugandans had much more fun playing soccer than my American boys do and that is having a profound affect on how I am approaching them.

I have become a lot more playful. I've always participated in practice with the boys here, I believe that everything I have them do I should do the same. They desperately want to beat me, so now I've been letting them come a little bit closer that I normally would. At one point, I had the kids tell jokes at practice. Sometimes just kidding around helps bond the players together, practice doesn't just have to be practice. I want to lighten them up. 

After spending so much time with the Ugandan kids I've come to appreciate more that my boys are still kids. That changes your perspective of them. If you look at the picture to the left you will notice one boy is wearing a glow in the dark t-shirt...they are kids. I know this seems like a silly realization, but honestly I now want them to have more fun. They need to have more fun.

My roommate went to Africa the same time I went, but she went to Nambia. It is strange listening to her experience and realizing how different our two trips were. She went on safari and saw all sorts of animals and slept in a tent. This sounds really neat, but her perspective of the Africans was very different. She saw what you may expect from a Unicef commercial, she saw the poverty. Meanwhile I was exposed to a different Africa, I experienced a land where the people are mostly farmers, they are exceptionally open and friendly, and they are not necessarily in poverty, though they do not have a great deal. I felt like I experienced Uganda for what it is, I had the opportunity to see them in their world...not so much the tourist world. My perspective has changed, this experience will surely affect my teaching of Africa in history class.