Awareness Talk 2, P.E, Tour and Teaching

Second HIV awareness talk at Wisdom Academy. This time, the talk was delivered to the secondary aged children of the school. Despite being older, there was still an extreme lack of knowledge about basic facts of the disease, i.e. how it is spread. 

Listing the ways HIV/AIDS is spread. Following this, to demonstrate what HIV does to our bodies, I did a role play, where students acted as the white blood cells, an infection and the HIV virus. It showed how the HIV virus destroys our white blood cells. 

Teaching KG2 class 'Wind the Bobbin Up'...every time I walk past one of these students now, they immediately like singing it! I think it was a hit! :D

Fridays is P.E which means football! To start off, I did some fun exercises and stretches 'to get warmed up'...in this heat, there really is no warming that needs doing, but still I wanted to introduce some different games. I also did the hokey-cokey with 5 classes so it was a HUGEEE circle and lots of fun. 

Off on tour! We spent the weekend visiting some of the touristy sights in the country. This was our first stop: Kakum National Park. A huge rainforest with the only Canopy Walkway in Africa. Amazing views of the rainforest! Very scary but very amazing! :D The walkway was incredibly wobbly and definitely felt like I could topple over the rope at any point because it was quite low down!

View of the rainforest from one of the 7 platforms that the walkway leads onto.

Lunch at Cape Coast! Traditional food; Banku and egg and sausage stew, fried plantain, red-red(selection of beans) and chicken. Delicious! 

Cape Coast Castle! One of the biggest slave trading sites during the slave trade. Absolutely incredible and so so interesting! We went to the dungeons, the tower, the church, the governor's accommodation, the cells and the cannons. After the tour there was a museum with all artefacts, including chains used for the slaves. 

Through the 'Door of No Return'...horrible! This is where the slaves were bought to the ships ready to be taken to either their death or across the ocean. 

Manhyia Palace - home of two Ashanti Kings, including many different Ashanti tribe objects and artefacts. Very interesting and the tour included lots about the history of the Ashanti tribe. 

What I have come to find in my teaching is that students can understand the technical stuff very well i.e. they can do 'long subtraction'...but they can only do it in the one way they have been taught...when putting it into practice, they are completely stumped. So, for example, I have done 'Going to the Shops, Giving Change' with them...and they found this very confusing. Gradually they can pick it up but putting anything they have learnt into everyday life is a very new concept to them. Very interesting to see, but very difficult to then teach. Challenge Accepted!