17/4/22: school is returning to normal!

A very happy Easter to you as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! With a week off school. Hallelujah once again!

Meanwhile, at school there is a very satisfying sense of things returning to normal. Since the beginning of the pandemic, when school has been in session on site, we’ve adopted the practice of students staying where they are and teachers moving around. It is just in the last week that we have gone back to the normal practice of students going to their teachers – except, of course, this is not normal for our two youngest year groups, I was on duty first thing on Wednesday morning and there was a definite sense of anxiety in the air as students geared up for the change.

Also, the practice of giving students covers for their exercise books had lapsed to some extent, until a couple of weeks ago it had not registered with me that this was expected. But it has now! So, thinks I, what am I going to do about this? But just a moment, I know the best artist in Kampala, Stanley Bia. So I got in touch, told him what I was wanting, and the result is as you can see it at the top of this blog.

As you can there’s a scary picture of me – don’t mess with this teacher! I have been asked if it is acceptable to draw moustaches etc. on this, I suppose this is OK….

Then a space to put their grade, if they wish simply to write the number that’s fine – or a suitable array of dots, or an equation which solves to their grade number. Some of my students have really gone to town with this, it takes a considerable amount of work to come to the conclusion, for example, that they’re in Grade 9. Hope this doesn’t cause too much of a problem next time exercise books are taken in by senior staff for a book check…

Then space for their name – how to write it on their mathematics exercise book? Noting that the ‘G’ for ‘Grade’ incorporates the symbol for pi. And then a space for students to indicate how they feel about the mathematics classroom. A smiley face? A frowny face? An exclamation mark? A question mark? You decide!

I gave out grey scale copies on light blue paper, indicating that if they did a good job I’d make them a colour copy, and if they did the best job of all the students I teach they can have the original painting. So I’ll be picking this up again when we return week after next. Meanwhile, thank you for reading and enjoy the long weekend!