Teaching Experiences

Teaching at Naa Kordey Memorial Child Care Facility has been a very challenging, yet rewarding experience. We have learned that we can benefit these children most, not by teaching them educational concepts, but simply by showing them attention, playing with them, and speaking the English language with them. Teaching these children daily life skills has become more of our focus. We have realized quickly that what these children need most are survival, social, and life skills in order to attempt to live happy and hopefully successful lives. For example, one of the lessons we taught was the importance of following directions. In addition, we have taught them when and how to introduce themselves to a new acquaintance or friend. We will also be focusing on how to write a friendly letter and its purposes in life. This lesson will include learning how to write the appropriate date, address, format, and content itself.

This year in our fifth grade Language Arts class, we taught our Demarest Middle School students how to write a narrative. The students then turned the narratives into story books that included hand drawn illustrations and laminated covers. After spending several days on their books, the majority of the students decided they wanted to donate them to the children in this facility. Today, we presented the children with the books and began by choosing one in particular, Petunia the Pig, to read aloud to the students. Though they did not fully comprehend the story, it was clear by the expressions on their faces that they were completely engulfed in the story and thoroughly enjoyed being read to. We suspect that most of them have never had a story read aloud to them by either a parent or a teacher.

Next, we distributed all of the story books to the children. We then stood by and watched their eyes light up while they flipped through the colorful pages. Although it was difficult for them to read the words of the stories, they were able to point out several objects that were illustrated by our wonderful fifth graders. We plan on reading more stories to them, while also using them as teaching tools. Soon, they will be using what they have learned about writing a friendly letter, to express their thanks to the authors of Demarest.

We also spent some time with the teachers at Naa Kordey after school hours. Here we discussed and explained some general teaching techniques that are necessary so they can better fit the needs of their children. The language barrier made this a difficult task, but with an interpreter and modeling we feel as though they somewhat understood and were grateful for our efforts.

The conditions of the school and lack of materials and staffing make both teaching and child care a challenge. This also being Ghana’s rainy season, creates even more difficulty as Naa Kordey is primarily an outside facility. However, the children benefit by coming to school rather than staying at their village home with uneducated parents and the possibility of no supervision. We hope that in the short amount of time that we are able to work with these children, we have made an impact of each of their lives.