During the week of July 26th, I was asked to attend and participate in the Litabaneng Teachers’ workshops in Maseru. The Litabaneng area in southern Maseru is home to approximately 35 ECCD teachers. During Winter break many ECCD areas around Lesotho gather to make educational materials for their classrooms and brush up on ECCD curriculum and lesson planning. I was asked to bring ideas for material producation.
I really wasn’t sure what the teachers would want to do, so I made a few math matching games and then gathered a few more ideas to bring. Thus, I had a big bag full of ideas and I was just waiting to see what would interest the teachers.
I could never have imagined their enthusiasm and energy. Many of the teachers are newer and literally have empty classrooms, so they were really excited by all the ideas. Before I knew it there was a giant assembly line and all the teachers were busy making games and books for everyone. Each teacher worked on a section of the materials and then they would put them all together at the end, so that each teacher would get a set of puzzles, book, math cards etc..
It was amazing! This was by far the best working experience I have had within Lesotho to date. I didn’t do anything besides bring ideas and share my experiences. However, their work ethic was inspiring so soon I was right in the middle of mass production educational material making. I mainly helped out by coloring:)
By the end of my three days with the women we had learned 3 new English songs “Where is Thumbkin”, “The Intsy Bitsy Spider”, which they call Eentsy Weentsy Spider and then “Clap Clap Clap your Clappies Out” and made numerous educational materials including number matching puzzle cards, number cards, a book of “The Intsy Bitsy Spider”, a recreated book of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, butterflies made from toilet paper rolls, a shapes memory game, and 2 puzzles. I hope that I am not forgetting anything!
I also read aloud “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. They loved it and decided on their own to rewrite and draw it themselves. Then we photocopied the entire recreated book for each teacher that attended.
Let it be said that these teachers pooled their own money for photocopies and materials. I was only used as a resource.
All the pictures are from the workshop. I have video too, but will have to load it some time soon!
