Thumbing To Mali
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Blog Merge
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
360 View of My Classroom
Monday, March 7, 2011
A Timely Discussion
Over the last month or so my class has been reading A Wrinkle in Time. They thought it was an awesome book and we learned a lot about literature in the process. The hardest part of the unit was trying to keep a student who knew parts of the book from spoiling it for the rest of the class!
The resource I used to guide our discussions and writings was published by Scholastic and can be found here. Literature Circle Guide – A Wrinkle in Time.
The guide breaks the book down into fourteen sections. One for before reading, one for after reading, and the rest were for one or two chapters in the Wrinkle in Time text. Each section was then broken down into a journal writing activity and a discussion group. The students usually spent fifteen to twenty-five minutes on the journal and thirty to forty-five minutes on the discussion. A different student would lead the discussion each week using the worksheet as a a guide.
Student journals for A Wrinkle in Time
Each journal activity includes a mini-lesson based on different reading strategies like making inferences, summarizing, and making predictions.Then they have a choice of one of three writing prompts. Here is an example from the chapter one discussion sheet.
1. Which details in the story lead you to infer that Mrs. Who and Mrs. Whatsit are not ordinary human beings?
After they complete the prompt they write down any questions, comments, predictions, or connections they have about the reading.
The discussion section of the lessons were great. A different student was in charge of each discussion and I was impressed with the way they were able to stay on topic and explore the talking points fairly thoroughly. Here is an example of a talking point taken from the chapters 2-3 discussion sheet.
By the end of Chapter 3, you have some information about Meg’s father, the work he did, and the circumstances of his disappearance. (Note: Cape Canaveral is now called Cape Kennedy.) Predict what may have happened to him. Explain which details in the story you based your predictions on.
Final projects
The kids were able to choose their final project for the unit from a list of options. One girl illustrated scenes from the book that contrasted in atmosphere, another researched space travel from 1962 and made a timeline of interesting events. A group of two boys wrote a play based on the book and the last two girls created a travel guide complete with sights, things to do, things not to do, and things to bring.
After we finished the unit, the kids were stoked to hear that I found a copy of the spectacular made-for-TV Disney version of the movie. And by spectacular, I mean horrible. I think I spent more time asleep than watching the movie. But, the kids liked it a lot. We happened to have a 5th grader who was visiting our classroom for the first day we watched the film, but not the second. He wouldn’t leave the school until I let him borrow the movie to watch over the weekend!
Overall, it was a great unit that the kids learned a lot from. Next up we are doing Holes.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Mr. Trussell Goes to School
I usually wake up at 6:20 and scramble around in my apartment until I leave with the Cochranes (parents of one of my students). We drive over the Niger River, through Badalabougou, then to the district where BCA is, Niamakoro.
On my way in the gate, I greet the guards and then work my way upstairs to Sarah’s classroom. We read the day’s My Upmost for his Highest and write out the verse of the day on an index card. Then, if I don’t have recess duty, I meet with the other teachers for a prayer meeting. Our principal, Miss Kim gives us each a card with the name of a BCA student written on it. Then we pray for that student. Afterwards, I go downstairs to my classroom. When the bell rings, I call for homework and enter the grades on my computer. Then we share prayer requests and have a class prayer time.
After recess, they have French class twice a week. On the days the kids don’t have French, they learn about science; right now, we are learning about adaptations and how they help animals survive in their environment.
At noon the kids eat lunch. Lunch is my students’ favorite subject. On Thursdays, they get to have a Coke for 250CFA (50 cents). After they eat, they go across the street for some more recess.
After lunch is a mix of social studies, art, music, and/or math. Today the kids are writing all of the things they learned during our unit about Egypt on a poster. The bell rings at 2:15 and the kids are happy to go home after a hard day of work.
Once the kids have left and I have finished with the work I need to do, Sarah and I walk about a ¼ mile to the sotrama stop. Sotramas are the Tri-Met of Bamako. They are green vans that fit about twenty people on wooden benches that hug the inside perimeter of the back. They cost 150CFA (30 cents) to ride. The benches get crowded as the number of people approaches capacity. Rump to rump, shoulder to shoulder; it can be a challenge to squeeze yourself down onto the seat. Then at your stop it might take a push on the back to get on your feet.
It is about a 15 minute walk from the sotrama stop to Sarah’s apartment. In the evenings we usually have dinner with a group of our friends and we rotate cooking responsibilities. Sarah and I cooked falafels last time. Throughout the week we have different things we do; choir practice (Vivaldi’s Gloria), bible study, movie night at the bakers, Dr. Who nights, and other activities. At the end of it all, I sometimes catch a taxi home, but usually I just walk back across the bridge.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
An Egg for the Cinquantenaire du Mali?
On Monday, a group of us went to a free “Mega Concert” that was put on by the major cell phone company in Mali, Orange. The streets were crowded beyond capacity as the excited Africans crammed together anticipating the Malian rap groups that were to come. The music was slated to start at eight, but as we expected, the real start was about an hour and a half later. And when it did start, the spectators chanted and sang along with the popular songs as we did our best to endure the sweat inducing heat. We made it through the first act and half way through the second before we decided that we should make our way home and to bed. 6 AM comes early after a long mega concert.
It took us a good 20 minutes to make our way to the back of the crowd. We must have been quite the spectacle; seven white folks amongst the sea of dark skinned Africans. Just about everyone at the concert who noticed our early departure had a comment or two about our tubabu (word in Bambara that means white person) group. We provided them with a great deal of amusement!
Once we were free from the crowd and had walked a few blocks from the concert, I somehow was locked in a game of high stakes negotiations with a street peddler for two masks that I didn’t really want. He initially asked 6000cfa each ($12 USD) and I was at 1000cfa each and not budging. I was firm in my offer of “oeuf pour mask.” As I emphatically made my offer, the French speaking members of my party began to laugh. I thought it was a good price, but apparently no one else did. Eventually the man gave up as we could not come to a mutual price. I later found out that my offer of “oeuf pour mask” really meant “egg for mask.” As I had no eggs, it is a good thing he rejected my offer!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Attack of the Killer 3rd and 4th Graders
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Traviling to Mali
I left PDX at 10:30 PM on a red eye to New York. I was excited that my layover was 18 hours so that I could have a chance to see the city. When I got there I found a place to store my luggage and caught a train into Manhattan. I got off the train and after I made my way through the underground portion of the station to the street level, I looked around to see Madison Square Garden right behind me. Then, I turned down the first street I saw, and just down it a few blocks was the Empire State Building. The trek to the top is rather long, but the view is something else for sure. From there, I walked to Times Square and even in the daytime it was lit up like a thousand Christmas trees. I finally made my way back to the airport just in time to wait four hours for my plane to board.
The next stop was Casablanca, Morocco. Once I was on the ground it was quite a task to get through arrivals on to departures. I followed the crowd to a large room where customs officials were checking documents. I handed mine to the man, and he informed me that I needed a white paper and pointed to the back where stacks of them lay. Thankfully the instructions were printed in English as well as French and Arabic. Once that was in order, I wandered around in the baggage claim area until I asked a guard how to get to departures. After many gestures and a few grunts he pointed me in the right direction and I finally made it to the main entrance to the airport. Getting through departures was a little tricky as they had a 10k weight limit on carry-on luggage and my bag was 16k. The excess baggage charge was going to be 600 Dirhams, or about 70 USD. Needless to say, I began throwing away things that were not super important, and filling my cargo pockets with books. With that settled, I could wait at my gate for the plane to depart; and it finally did about 8 hours later.
I arrived in Mali in the early morning and Steve from Avant Ministries was there to take me to my new home. Then I slept – for 16 hours.