Monday 18 August 2014

Day 25 - maths, further maths and ICT

Woke up this morning feeling refreshed and ready for school. Got up and realised my bananas definitely seen much better days so resorted to (sugar free) digestives and a cup of tea for breakfast. I've now worked out how to have a more healthy breakfast but with less than a week to go it doesn't seem worth buying in had muesli and local curd and fruits. Next time...

Walked to school and arrived just as the children were going in from assembly. Went up to the library and reacquainted myself with my timetable as I'd left all my stuff at school last Wednesday then wasn't in. Did a bit of swift planning then took maths with class 2 on multiplication and division. Class 2 are not the youngest but their English is developing and there is always a language difficulty there. However, they seemed to understand in the end and managed to complete the task.

After a "free" lesson where I did yet more high speed planning I took maths with class 5. I've taken the approach with them of doing applied maths, so problem solving. We started with a game of Fizz Buzz which was well received then I set them the Four 4s challenge. I've noticed that Nepalese children are very very good at memorising and copying down examples and can do just about any method you give them. However. they are less able to cope with applying the skill sin more open ended problems. There was a lovely buzz in the class as they worked, rather confused at first but then got the hang of it (I'll explain it below if you don't know the challenge). It went well and they were set the challenge of finishing all the numbers to 20 for homework.

I then talked with the teachers for the next lesson before going up to have lunch. I'm feeling much more at home now and more comfortable to chat. On returning to the library I had a few minutes on my own which were very welcome and I prepared some resources for tomorrow and read the Himalayan Times which, unfortunately, was reporting the news of many more deaths from landslides and flooding. You may have seen this on the BBC news.

After lunch I taught the first lesson on Logo which went well albeit much slower than in the UK but I think this was a language issue. The children drew different sized squares. In the next lesson the teacher and I looked through the ICT textbook and saw which bits would be useful and which not. Then the final lesson of the day was animation using Pivot Animator and I challenged the children to animate two stick people playing catch. The results were extremely humorous and the children enjoyed the challenge.

The final session of the day was homework and I joined class 4 to help them. I'm not sure how much help I was as I can't help with the Nepali and I'm not sure my explanations of the passage they had read in English were very helpful but we ended up chatting about footballers and the children showing me their scrapbooks (when I say "we" chatted about football I have to admit that THEY chatted about football and I tried not to appear as totally bemused and uninformed as I actually am!!).

At the end of the day I went to sign out then to the shop where I bought Paul's holiday present (I won't tell you what it is as it's going to be a surprise but it is handmade!). Then i walked back to the apartment and sorted out my bag before returning to Swotha Kiosk for a very welcome pot of Ilam tea. I sat and read Harry Potter on my Kindle and all was well with the world. Afterwards I went to the Washa Pasha pharmacy (Washa means medicine in Newari and Pasha means shop) and got some more strong anti-histamines. I finished the ones from the hospital yesterday and immediately came up in bumps and lumps and itchy again. I have a pack of 10 which will see me home and away from whatever it is that finds me so tasty. I then went to the mini supermarket and bought sweets for all the children and a box of Cadbury's for the staff for Thursday and a few bits for me. As it was nearly 6pm I headed to my favourite Casa Pagoda for a restful meal of Everest Beer, a lemon soda and the strangest spaghetti carbonara I have ever had which came in a gratin dish covered with melted cheese!

I came home through the dark streets - load shedding until 8.30pm - and back to the apartment where I had a welcome shower and wrote the blog. The rest of the evening will be spent sorting out presents and reading....I've read so much here in the absence of TV and it's been a really welcome change. 

....I haven't got any further with the tapestry!!!

NB No photos today. Had a camera free day.

The Four 4s challenge:
1) You can only use 4 4s ie 4,4,4,4
2) You can use any operation- + - x / ( ),powers, factorials
3) Using only these numbers / operations you have to make all the numbers up to 20.

eg
16 = 4 + 4 + 4 + 4
 9 = (4/4) + 4 + 4
17 = (4 x 4) + ( 4/4)

4 comments:

  1. Looking forward to the pictures tomorrow! Good to hear how much you are enjoying yourself again, now recovered, Gerald

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  2. Jane, good news that you're feeling better and hopefully the "itchies" will go away as well. I was very interested in the Four 4's as that's not something I was aware of here in the States. Lots of thinking involved which is great! The children are having such wonderful new experiences with you. Can't wait for tomorrow's blog.
    Jean

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  3. It sounds great, I think its a really good skill to be able to apply what you've learnt and I'm sure that its a skill the teachers will carry on encouraging.

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  4. I chuckled at the tapestry comment. Is it the elephants? Anne x

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