LAUREN
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
LAUREN
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
Throughout my trip to Africa I have been looking at and studying how the allocation of educational funding affects resources and school materials in the classroom. Before this trip I had researched and learned that there are two types of funding in Zambia: rule based and discretionary based. Rule based funding allocates a fixed amount of money to every school within the province. This funding is transparent and clearly defined and therefore is difficult for any political factors to influence it. Discretionary based funding however is very different. It is entirely based on who can best politic for the money, i.e. usually private schools with more influence. Therefore, I had expected to find that government schools would have less funding and therefore fewer resources than their private school counterparts. So far, I would say that my observations back up this hypothesis. In the Libala school, a government funded public school, there are very few resources for the students. First of all, the average amount of students in a class ranges from about 65-70 children. Textbooks are few and far between, often only having one copy for the teacher. The government provides these textbooks for the school, however will only provide a certain amount. In my classroom in Libala, I counted 15 textbooks for 65 students, clearly not enough for students to share efficiently. Students also share notebooks and pencils. Within the classroom there are no pencil sharpeners, technology of any kind such as computers, air conditioning or heat, supply cabinets or storage. I also noticed that many students keep their backpacks on them for the entire day because there are no lockers to put them in. In the Lusaka Girls Basic School, a private school, the story is a little different. While this school still struggles with funding and resources, they are definitely better off than Libala. The class sizes in the Lusaka Girls School are much smaller. Ranging from 30-35 children in each room. This reduces the student/teacher ratio and makes it easier for students to receive one on one attention. I also noticed that the classrooms had more storage and cabinets for art supplies, paper and more. Students received copies of textbooks during the lesson but still had to share with neighbors because there were not enough. Additionally, the classroom itself was better kept than Libala's. In Libala the roof of the classroom was made of tin and often had tiny holes that let in rain and water, while In the Girls School the walls and roof are made of concrete and plaster. During the wet season this creates an advantage during class time and prevents leaking and damages during storms. We also visited St. Mary's Girls School, a private school paid entirely by tuition from student's parents. In Zambia, education from grades 1-7 is entirely free, however in St. Mary's School this is not an option. To attend the school, student's parents must pay about 14,000k per year. Certainly, this tuition money makes a huge difference in the school's resources. In this school there are two separate computer labs for the children, each containing about 50 computers. This is unheard of in government funded schools! St. Mary's also had a beautiful campus with landscaping, fountains and decorations everywhere. Even something as simple as wifi, a big playground and a formal parking lot proves how St. Mary's and other private schools have a major advantage over government schools. My experiences in each classroom made me realize how grateful I should be to have resources and materials in American classrooms. It is easy to take these things for granted in the United States and complain about how teachers may need more materials in the classroom. However, I can now see that academic success isn't 100% based on the amount of funding or resources a classroom might have. The students in both Lusaka Girls School, St. Mary's and Libala were equally as happy and engaged during class time. Both schools produce confident and well rounded students ready to contribute and work in their communities despite the differences in funding.
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When I think about Africa, the very first thing that comes to my mind is safaris. I have always been an animal and nature lover at heart! I love nature so much I even have a minor in geography. When preparing for this trip, going to the Mukambi Safari Lodge was probably what I was most excited for to be honest. I mean, a real life safari! That's what you see on channels like National Geographic, not in real life! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to spend a whole weekend on a safari in Africa, but there I was, staring at untouched nature and beautiful scenery day and night. Throughout the weekend I took a total of 4 safaris. And honestly, I could have taken 100 more. Driving through the Kafue National Park with our tour guide was the most breath taking and surreal experience of my life. The men leading the tours were so knowledgeable. They answered every question we had with a smile on their faces. My friends and I bombarded them with questions such as "what eats a lion?" (A hyena) "what eats a hyena?" (Nothing) "will that hippo eat me?" (No, but it might crush you). Every time we turned a corner we would see animals like elephants, hippos, antelope, warthogs and more! Unfortunately, we didn't see any lions (not for lack of trying though) our tour guide went out of his way to find them, he even tried to track the pride by their footprints and recent kills. Even without lions though, going on safari was truly a once in a life time experience. At night we sat by the camp fire and listened to stories from the park experts. They told us about animal behavior, crazy safari stories and their own personal histories. It was so incredible to hear the passion and love in their voices when they talked about environmental and animal conservation. It made me stop and realize that animals were here long before humans and they should not be taken for granted because they help to keep our earth in balance.
Certainly one of the most memorable parts of the weekend though was star gazing with my friends Onnika, Karen and Rachel. In the United States it is rare to see a dark night sky filled with starts. Light pollution is so prevalent from glowing signs and neon lights. In Buffalo I have to drive at least an hour and a half to find a good star gazing spot. In Mukambi, however, the stars in the sky were unlike anything I had ever seen before. There wasn't a spot in the sky that didn't have beautiful glowing stars. I had come prepared for this and used the star gazing app on my phone to identify some constellations and planets. I was able to find Leo, Gemini and even Jupiter and Mars! Years down the road I hope to return to Mukambi and relive this weekend over and over again (and maybe even see a lion)! Yesterday, my IPDS group and I spent the day at Libala getting to know the campus and some of the teachers but today was the first official day of actually getting to teach at the Libala Primary School in Zambia. Dr. Shandomo assigned me and my co-teacher, Onnika, to a 6th grade classroom. We were so excited to start teaching and bring the white board donations from Buffalo State College to the classroom students and teacher! As soon as we walked into the room the students all smiled and said hello and the teachers hugged us and thanked us for being there. When we explained to the students that we would be teaching our lessons to them with the whiteboards and then leaving them in their class after we left, the students faces lit up! It was so amazing to see how happy our donations made them! They were all so exited to start using them! Onnika and I had planned our "get to know you lesson/ introduction" using the white boards by playing the game 2 truths and a lie. For this activity we gave the students 3 sentences about us and they had to guess which sentence was fake by holding up the answer on their white boards. Throughout our lesson they were so engaged and happy! They all participated and were so excited to get the answers right. After we finished up our lesson, Onnika and I went to go sit down to observe the rest of the day when the teacher came up to us and said "great lesson! Now do social studies and science!" Right away, my head started to spin! We tried to explain that those lessons would be for another day when we had thoroughly planned them, but with the language barrier the teacher didn't seem to fully understand what we were saying. She handed us her notebook filled with notes about what the students were learning in Social Studies and Science (Zambian provinces and mammals, respectively) and told us that we could teach whatever and however we wanted to. Finally, Onnika and I agreed to teach the lessons for the day and "wing it".
I was so nervous to teach a lesson without planning it first but the teacher told us to just try our best. We brainstormed for a minute or two and decided to use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast Zambia to the USA for social studies and play a review game for science based on their past unit. During our lessons the students continued to participate and be very engaged! In the end, our lessons went very well and I believe that we were able to teach the students a lot about America while also learning more about Zambia! This experience, while nerve wrecking, was a great lesson in adaptation and flexibility within the classroom. I learned that it is always best to plan and be prepared but sometimes circumstances arise that force you to adapt and "wing it". I am so glad that Onnika and I didn't shy away from the opportunity to teach! After a long weekend of recuperating from 20 hours of flying, I am happy to say that today was our very first day at the Libala Primary School in Zambia! To say that this experience was overwhelming and incredible is an understatement. Right away, we were welcomed with open arms from all the staff and students! We began our day by meeting with the people responsible for helping us reach Libala, such as the principal and other administrators, as well as taking a tour of the grounds.
As we entered the main gates, we were greeted by the students as they sang one of their school songs "up, up, Jesus. Down, down, Satan." I must confess that this surprised me a little because Libala is a government run school. Typically when I think of public schools in the United States, there is usually the "separation of church and state" rule that doesn't allow public schools to promote a specific religion. However, this wasn't a bad thing! It was interesting because the song the students sang spoke a lot about Zambia's culture, which Dr. Shandomo had told me was very traditional and more focused on practicing religion and faith. During the song the children were singing, dancing, clapping, and waving as we walked past them! They all wanted to see who we were and what we were doing at their school! After meeting with some more professors we were able to finally start to spend some time with the kids! The 5th graders who were on break at the time immediately ran up to us to talk and play. They swarmed around us like we were celebrities, asking for photographs and hugs! They hardly knew us but they were already treating us like family. At one point, they asked us to sing and dance with them and began to form a circle around us. We all started to clap and dance and they sang fun school yard songs in their native language, Nyanja. One of the songs they sang had the lyrics "Shake it, don't break it! Shake it! Shake it, shake it, shake, shake, shake it, shake, shake, shake it, don't break it!" All the kids were dancing and would pull us into the dance circle one by one to dance with them! It was so so fun! I'm very excited to spend more time in Libala and get to know the students more! Now that I have spent some time in Africa, I would like to take this time to reflect on how I felt before leaving for Zambia.
First and foremost, if you had told me that I would be spending 3 weeks in Africa to teach, I would have told you that you were crazy! Never would I have imagined that I would get the opportunity to live and teach in Africa, of all places. I remember when I first applied for this IPDS trip my father almost had a fit. He did not like the idea of me going out of the country for that long without my family. Eventually, however, I was able to convince my dad of all the amazing opportunities I would have and how it would benefit my future career as a teacher; needless to say, he came around to the idea. I was so excited to go to Zambia that I had started packing my suitcases months in advance! I made checklist after checklist to make sure that I remembered what to pack. Sunglasses... long dresses... bug spray... toothbrush... sunscreen... sandals... and donations! I asked everyone I knew to donate to our IPDS trip's cause. I was lucky enough to get generous donations from my many family members and friends to buy donations such as flip flops, underwear, clothes, pencils, paper, sharpeners and many other school supplies for the children at the schools and orphanages that we will be fortunate enough to visit. One thing I decided to do was clean out the closet in my room and donate the clothes that I do not use anymore. I thought that it would be beneficial for everyone involved- the children in Africa could get some more donations, I could make some space in my closet, and my mother could stop telling me that my room was a mess! In the end I was able to fill my entire second suitcase with donations for the Zambians. Of course, a big part of making it to Africa was the travel.... and boy, was it a journey. 21 hours of flying! I tried my best to sleep most of the way but spent a lot of the plane ride in a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Once we made it Lusaka, I felt as if a major weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The pre-trip jitters and the traveling was finally over and we could start to enjoy ourselves and get a feel for our surroundings! So far, this has been one of the most fun, exciting, but also nerve-racking experiences of my life. I am so excited to see what the rest of the trip holds. |
AuthorHello! My name is Lauren Roetzer and this is my IPDS blog documenting my experiences in Lusaka, Zambia in Africa. I am so fortunate to be here and am looking forward to the comments on my posts from Buffalo State staff, as well as my family and friends! ArchivesCategories |