Today started with an amazing trip to HHI Primary in Blantyre Rural. The children of Balornock Primary School (P6&P7) wrote letters and they got hand delivered to the children of HHI Primary. We were blown away, but these letters were then replied to and we collected them at the end of the day.
Robyn nearly had tears in her eyes knowing what an amazing connection it is to link our learners in Scotland to those in Malawi.
From here we moved to Ndirande TDC and we got the opportunity to meet the staff and pupils of Blantyre Girls School. Robyn and I were shown into a standard 1 class (P1) where the teacher was responsible for 180 children! And yet, they were all able to complete numeracy together using active counting strategies.
At times I think about 50 children got lost in the lesson because they were so fascinated by myself and Robyn and wanted to be beside us and interact with us - loosing five learners’ concentration is hard and frustrating enough back home – let alone 50 children becoming distracted because we were there.
The class were then split and we got to see the amazing addition of new technology to the school as children tested the ‘ipad/learning console. We then moved into standard 6 where we sat down to learn all about Forestry.
There were brilliant opportunities to share collaboratively and great positive praise.
Then it was time for training two.
Wow what a what a group!
From the word go, everyone was so engaged and willing to share their practise with each other. We discussed barriers and tried to create a solution focused approach and everyone left with really positive take always. We had great opportunities for photographs after as well.
We also got to meet the wonderful Ruth who has supported the journey of our letters form the children and coordinated these for us.
As I write this, my eyes are getting heavy so it is time for bed before training day three, back in Blantyre Rural.
