This week our theme has been working with children with special educational needs. It was good to start teaching again on such familiar territory. Obviously there are many differences between the situations of children with disabilities in UK and in Malawi, but nevertheless this is an area that I am confident I know something about and thus it was easy to start teaching properly again. Melvin, Yohane and I put David and his father on the bus to Lilongwe on Sunday. David will be away from Blantyre for almost three weeks returning for the exam on July 8. Thus I am facing the class alone for the next three weeks. I began by looking at the Malawian ECD training manual and borrowed from there, lists of the types of disability commonly encountered in Malawi. The curriculum considers also the causes of disability and ways of preventing disability and it seemed to me sensible to follow this line. It is interesting that in the UK it has never occurred to me to teach the prevention of disability, but here it is so obvious that many disabilities can be prevented through good nutrition, immunisation programmes, high quality antenatal care, accident prevention methods and so on. We take all these for granted at home. I sandwiched this section between a discussion of various definitions of disability and a consideration of what the word 'inclusion' means in the context of disability and early years education
I devised an exercise which included descriptions of five children, one from each of the five types of disability described in the Malawian curriculum. Then I described five activities that the class of three to five year-olds might be offered and asked the class to consider what the learning targets of each activity were. Each group of students thought about one of the children in detail and worked out which activities the child could manage and which might be difficult for them. My idea was that they could practice filling in Individual Education Plans. Actually it is very difficult to do this exercise from a brief description. In real life you would know the child well, and there is no substitute for that! Students of both groups found it really difficult to devise learning goals that were SMART targets, preferring to suggest things such as for a child with a learning difficulty who could only speak in single words to 'learn to speak properly'.
A session looking at 'A toy library for Chilomoni' was more successful. The students had clear ideas about the toys and materials they wished to stock, who the borrowers would be, whether there should be a charge to borrow toys and how much that should be. They did not all have the same clear idea however, and that led to some lively discussion!
I played a few games with both groups, remembered from 'New Games UK' days. We played 'People to people', where the players start off in pairs, the leader calls out two body parts and the partners have to put those two parts together. For example, hand to head, back to back, little finger to eyelash etc. On the call people to people you change partners. Clearly this game is a bit more risqué here in Malawi than it would be in UK! The students entered into it with great enthusiasm and much laughter. I had to be a bit careful about which parts of the body I asked them to apply together! We also played the 'Sightless sculptor' game where the students worked in groups of three. The 'sculptor' moulds a' lump of clay' into the same pose that the 'model' has taken up. Both the 'sculptor' and 'clay' have their eyes closed. I could never have played this game with them at the beginning of the course but now that they know each other well it was well received although with one group I considered it prudent not to have mixed-gender groups of three. I am sure that in England I should never have found this precaution necessary! I should not like to offend anyone. We returned to the classroom in a long line playing 'Follow my leader'. Since we have been working this week in a classroom at JPIILITA as there is no power at the school at the moment, I am not sure what the rather more serious IT students made of the cavorting column of child care students led by a crazy azungu who went waving, bouncing, spinning, skipping and hopping from the library on the top floor down the stairs to our borrowed classroom! I am afraid that the Thursday and Friday group of students are in for a bit of trouble from Jan, Principal of JPIILITA, for making too much noise during their break time, and disturbing other classes. Apparently there is no problem with the Monday and Tuesday group, but the others have definitely over-stepped the mark! I cannot say I am surprised. It is not for want of being asked! They are very well-meaning, but there is a significant minority who seem unable to keep their voices down out of consideration for other learners, whether of their own class or another.
Monday morning's assembly next week is to be led by the child care training group. We have adapted some of the items we developed for Open Day and the Monday/Tuesday group whose dance did not pass muster for the Open Day, have redeemed themselves by developing an excellent song/dance routine illustrating all the things children will learn if they attend the Children's Centre. Our theme will be making the most of opportunities and the Bible reading will be the parable of the talents. We have dispensed with a reflection in favour of several musical items. I have agreed to drive a Land Rover in to Blantyre at an ungodly hour in the morning to pick up some of the Thursday/Friday group who would not normally be travelling in to Chilomoni on a Monday. I hope I wake up in time! Last time we led assembly I split the row of chairs for departmental heads who usually sat facing the rest of us into two shorter, angled rows so that we could use the stage for our drama and choir. It is interesting to note that the Hall has been laid out like this ever since and other departments have followed our example.
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