Today (Thursday, July 5th) I had the opportunity to shadow a Form 3 student (Grade 11 in the US), Alice. Her class schedule started at 8am and was finished by 4pm. We started in her business class in which the topic was "liabilities." The discussion was very heated by the students as each one of them defended their definition between a "loan" and an "overdraft." Although the discussion had different viewpoints it was truly a model that I've been looking for in a socratic seminar. After that we continued to her math, geography, and chemistry class.
Something that caught my attention and left me in awe was how the chemistry class was missing their instructor. Rather than seeing the class just watch a movie or sit around socializing a student in the class went over a review of what had been the previous lesson. This student continued to facilitate in asking questions that she had from the lesson or questions in which she struggled in the class. Her classmates would answer, yet also give an example to support their answer.
Lastly, our class day finished with English in which again the instructor was gone for the day. The girls of the class asked me and Shirin to help facilitate the class in the subject of prepositional phrases. It was a great opportunity (and review) for both of us to get a taste of teaching an actual high school class in Kenya. This is the start of a life changing week, and I'm excited to see what continues to happen.
- Chris Garcia
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