WWW: Day 2 & 3 - The School

Me (dark blue shirt) teaching the students
about exothermic and endothermic reactions
(source: http://oscwww.blogspot.com)

On both days 2 and 3, we taught the students at the school everything we prepared for them. The work was divided in to two days simply because of the number of students that are in just the 9th grade is over 50. About 10 students per hour were sent to each group; science, bike repair and sports. As a group we were able to successfully plan and initiate activities during our visit to the school. It was very hard for my friends and I to communicate with

the students since they couldn't speak English or Sinhala, only Tamil. There were three teachers from that school present at all times to translate and help us teach the students. This was a new experience for me, not just teaching kids who speak different languages but teaching itself. This definitely increased my awareness of strengths and areas for growth. I was nervous at first and I did make a few mistakes while teaching the theory, but by the end of the first group, I became completely comfortable with teaching the students and even the fact that they spoke different languages soon didn't bother me. Also, the fact that I had to repeat what I taught to the next group and next-was a sort of practice for me, so this enabled me to improve on my delivery and be more fluent with the theory that I was teaching. So by the end of it, I would say that I had developed new skills, in the area of teaching and communication in general.

On day three, after we all (science, sports and bike repair) had finished teaching the last group of students, we were told to go down to the canteen area where we were served some refreshments. When it was finally time for us to leave, the students of the school lined up to place hand-made flower necklaces around our heads (this is a tradition in Sri lanka), after that, the principal of the school gave his thank you to all of us and told us how much it meant for him that we took our time to come their school and teach the students-as well as give to them donations. This made me realize the importance of our trip to the east coast of Sri lanka and helped me to consider the ethical issues; we have strengthened the relationship between us and the children at the local school we visited and hopefully, they have changed there views of us in a better way. I hope to visit more schools in an area such as Arugam bay and to interact with them as well.

The WWW science on two wheels group with the principal of the
school (in blue shirt and black trousers)
(Photo credits: Yo Kubota)