HERE I AM!

My first blog has taken much longer than I had anticipated.  I am sure everyone has been wondering what has happened to their daily blogs…plenty of questions left unanswered…Now that the BOSS had left, did Prue disappear?  Was she out of range?  Busy working maybe?  Sick?  Tribal dancing in her backyard with the neighbours?  In the land of tranquility and life in the slow lane so much can still actually happen.  And all of the above did. 

 

Let me explain. 

Our last blog ended with Maria and Christine fading off into the Zambian sunset and Prue bussing it back to Choma.  I managed to manage myself well, jumped on a bus and arrived back to my destination  smooth sailing. 

The next day was a school day back at St Mulumba…and back into our regular routine, only difference was it was a lot quieter without the muchly missed company of Blogger and Banker.  I was very fortunate to spend time in the VISION IMPAIRED classes.   These children are an inspiration and I found BRAILLE to be truly fascinating.  

I observed from Grade 1 – 7. Most of the teachers are also Vision Impaired themselves, each with their own teaching style and each very effective. 

This photo was taken in a third grade classroom.  This is called a Number Board or a Cuberithm Board and cuberithms are inserted to complete math algorithms.  Each cuberithm has numbers in BRAILLE on them. With me still?

The third grade class had four students in it.  There were 3 different grade levels in one classroom.

 

For anyone interested in learning BRAILLE with me..  The numbers are broken up into two parts.  The left hand side is used if you are writing the number and the right hand side is used during math.

 Class rules are posted in every classroom. Teachers are valued and respected at all times.

A student here is using his finger to trace over the BRAILLE letters.  He writes from right to left using a STYLUS instead of a pen to make the indents in the paper and then turns the page over and reads from left to right.

 Fifth grade busy at work.

7th Grade using BRAILLE machines, similar to a typewriter to input the BRAILLE instead of using a STYLUS pen.  This is a much faster way of writing and it ensures that students don't end up with calluses on their hands. Students should really be introduced to and using these machines from 5th Grade but the school only has enough for this class at this point in time. 

I was introduced to this teacher as 'Military Man'.  He gets results and I really saw this in the performance of his students. It was an incredible thing to be able to observe how these teachers who are vision impaired do what they do and do it so well. There is definitely a sense of understanding and compassion from their part. He was telling me that his students will be taking the National Exam in Zambia in the near future and he believes they will do very well.  This exam is translated into BRAILLE for these students.

 1st Grade uses a lot of hands on activities to reinforce their learning.  At St Mulumba these students learn to read and write in their native language first and then from 2nd grade they learn in English.

 

Head of Vision Impaired, Mr Mweemba, holding a STYLUS and an ERASER which is a piece of wood that deletes the indents on the paper when rubbed. 

TO BE CONTINUED...