When I was in seventh grade, I had this Language Arts teacher, Mrs. McLaughlin. Mrs. McLaughlin did not like me. She had her reasons: I was a side talker, an instigator, I rarely was paying attention, and I was a bit of a smart ass. I would have probably not liked me if I was my seventh grade teacher. I want to take this opportunity to apologize to Mrs. McLaughlin and any of the other teachers I gave a hard time throughout school.
The last two weeks I have spent teaching primary school kids nutrition. I have to admit I never thought I would be a teacher, but teaching nutrition is really a lot of fun.
Most of you who are reading this might know that I love ice-breaker games. I like making people do silly things to feel more comforatable around each other. It turns out primary schoolers might like playing games even more than me.
The first school I worked in was in the town of Mademo. If you want to look on a map for Mademo, look for the district of Panda, then find the capital city, also called Panda. About 35 kilometers south east lies Mademo. The small town is situated right on a river, which is probably why people live there. Unfortunately, hippos also live near the river, so many people's crops have been destroyed in the last few months. Despite the river, water is a big challenge for the people of Mademo; many people walk up to five kilometers just to get water. What's more, they have to do this twice a day.
The school I was working at was Mademo's primary school. The school has 450 students in grades one to seven and only eleven teachers. The school also owns the towns only improved water pump, put in by some foreign NGO in the last few years. Water at the school opens many doors for agriculture projects, and the school director is passionate about agriculture, making my work fit well into his vision for the school.
Upon our first meeting, the school director indicated that he wanted each student to have a plant for which they could take ownership. I thought it was a great idea, but told him 450 plants was a lot all at once, but that we could start with one plant per class. He loved the idea and we scheduled a week for me to work with each class separately.
Each lesson started more or less the same. I started with a silly dancing game. I had all the kids stand in a circle and sing a song that translates to “now we will see who can dance the potato!” They loved it. The rest of my week in Mademo, I could not walk past the school without little kids yelling “agora vamos ver!”After the song, we played a game with lions and gazells. The game is a lot like tag. All the lions try to eat the gazelles. The gazelles have to run from one side of the field to the other without being caught, but once they are caught they join the lions' team. Once the kids are sufficiently tired of running and all the gazelles are eaten by lions, we head back into the classroom.
I should describe a bit about the school in Mademo. A government school, the building has recently been renovated. That said, the renovations are not yet finished, and there are not yet windows or doors on the rooms (except for the director's office). Furthermore, in each classroom, there might only be two or three benches, most kids sit on the floor. For whatever reason, in almost all of the classes, girls sit in the front and boys in the back. I joked with the boys about how they just wanted to goof off, but they still did not move to the front.
Anyway, once inside the classroom, we talk about the lions and gazelles game. I use it as a symbol for the body. When the body is healthy, with good food and hygiene and enough sleep (lots of gazelles on once side of the field), it is hard for us to get sick (harder for the lions to catch the gazelles). But when we are not eating well or sleeping well or bathing, it is easy to get sick (when there are less gazelles its easier for the lions to catch them).
I use the game to lead into my nutrition session. We talk about foods the kids like to eat, their food groups, why its important to eat a variety of foods, and what each type of food does for our bodies. Then I focus on one plant, talk about the nutrients it provides, why those nutrients are important, why the plant is important for the community (most of the plants we chose are hearty perennials that do not need much water and grow well in heat and sand), and we close with a discussion of the steps in planting a plant. We talk about manure as a soil additive and I liken it again to our bodies (like people need more than just rice, plants need more than just soil). Usually the kids are very participative and attentive. Some classes are harder than others; for me the first grade was a challenge because they hardly spoke any Portuguese. Since my sessions are very interactive I would wait (in vain) for a response until the teacher would finally help translate to Changana and the kids would all answer in unison.
Planting the plant is one of the best parts of the class. I will ask, “Who wants to help dig the hole?” and all the kids will scream, “Me! Me! Me!” We plant the plant and them I ask them who's plant it is and the class responds whichever grade they are in.
At least the above is what happens with all the classes except the seventh grade. In the seventh grade, the kids made fun of my mistakes in Portuguese, did not want to dance the potato, did not offer to help, and left me wanting to apologize to Mrs. McLaughlin.
But out of nine classes (two first grades and two sixth grades), if only one gave me a hard time, I suppose I should be pretty glad. I couldn't leave mad, anyway, because as soon as I walked out of the seventh grade classroom, I was greeted by third graders chanting, “agora vamos ver, quem danca mazamban!”
I sat down with all the teachers at the end of the week to get some feedback. Mademo's primary school was the first school I had worked with, and I was not sure how the teachers received the program. I joked with all the teachers about the seventh graders and they agreed that since they are the oldest they are always up to something. The seventh grade teacher apologized and said now I know what its like to be him everyday! The teachers all said that they knew the kids enjoyed the class and that they even learned something from my lessons. The female teachers then asked me how I like to cook the plants I had taught, and I talked with them for a while about the many ways to cook chaya.
I left Mademo excited to come back to see the plants after they had grown. I am already planning the second part of the Mademo lesson. I want to teach how to dry the leaves and
I am also strategizing how to deal with a classroom full of seventh grade Naomis.
