Throughout the Month - Emafini

The principal of Emafini and the UNCW professors

Grade sizes- fourth grade has 40 students per class

Mrs. Ellis

Lunch provided by the country and cooked by student mothers

Ms. Owens

Lunch Menu

Student made poster in the life skills class

Drinking water and cleaning water

My level four learner

My South African twin!

What I did:   I was assigned to the fourth grade reading, life skills, and math class.  I observed, enjoyed the choir performance, asked questions of the teachers, donated supplies, graded papers, helped with reteaching, observed a staff meeting, and taught lessons.
What I learned:  South African learners have good memories and an amazing talent for music and rhythm.  Each student has a classwork notebook that is checked by other people to evaluate the teacher.  These notebooks are extremely important and the students are expected to be responsible with them.
What I think:  Reading the picture story The Name Jar always goes great in my class, but here it was a struggle because of language barriers.  I ended up summarizing the story and showing the pictures. American teachers work too hard.  The South African students were sent home at 1:00 p.m. so that the staff meeting could be held at 1:00 p.m. Teachers have parent teacher conferences during the day either in the classroom or outside the classroom while the students are left unattended. Children everywhere love skittles!