what is happiness?

Happiness is the sense of well-being, joy, being contented. Happiness is a feeling. Happiness is a state. Who determines this feeling, this state? are you in control of this feeling of happiness? Is the feeling genuine or not. Is the sense of well-being real or false? does education determine your level of happiness? Is there a relationship between access to information and happiness? does material possession indicate the level of happiness? Is the ideal sense of well-being Utopian or a reality?

A society in conflict or confused?

It is common to attribute the source of ones problems to a third party. Rarely do one sees himself as the root cause of his miseries. It is always a case of, I have done my best but due to persons x I have not been able to fully utilize my potential and leap my benefits. Yet, we are cautious to take that initial step of owning our issues and reflect on the best way forward. 

Taking a different perspective is never an option. Apportioning blame and excuses happens to be the easiest route of escape. Sometimes we cling onto false hopes, wishing that things will somehow work out for us, sometimes to the extent of leaving it at the hands of a power beyond the realm of human ability.

From politics, churches, schools, homes, streets etc., we are all suspicious of the others.  Despite not being able to precisely define, who are these others that are an obstacle to our ultimate joy.  The obsession with the perception that others are impending your progress and ultimate joy is pegged on false premises. Can it explain why it is always appealing to seek compensation, even where evidence exists that such acts won’t change one’s life wholly or for the better? It may be due to the realization of a false sense of self-importance. The feeling that your view and perspective of issues is always right and the fear of giving ground to others points of view; not acknowledging and appreciating individuals’ diversity and uniqueness. We fail to appreciate the immense potential in each individual. We have failed to understand and recognize the diverse individuals’ potentials that can be harnessed and brought to work in harmony. 

Do we reflect on our actions and imagine maybe, maybe there could be another better way to do things? A case in point is why would an educationist advice parents to monitor their children when they come home for a weeklong break? That parents should try to supervise school work so that the children may not forget what they learnt in school. For starters, this is a break from the usual school work and in fact they shouldn’t engage in any school work. Furthermore, a good learning session should aim for a permanent transformation; life time learning. That learning should aim at changing ones’ thinking permanently. That even after leaving school no one, least of all the teacher, should fear that one will end up looking uneducated.

It is thus sad to see an educator negatively punishing a pupil simply because he went for a 3 week school break and did not finish school work at home. How would it be if we were to take home work to finish at school or place of work? Why does the teachers’ system feels obligated to change the society alone, without incorporating the inputs of all in society?

The schooling system should strive for an education or learning that creates self-driven individuals who can leave the schooling system confidently at any given point, and continue learning unsupervised throughout their life time. It should be a life defining education that aims to transform one wholly. One should be entirely transformed into a better person. Otherwise there is no need of going to school.

But looking at the prevailing social ills and misery, one would think twice about the nature of the social systems, structures and institutions currently in place. The school might be the best mechanism or institution to change the society together with the local leadership and a far-seeing dynamic political goodwill. Unfortunately irrational conflicts impede this. A political leadership that lay great emphasis on rewarding and recognizing scholarly input from its citizens will go a long way in changing the philosophy in the schooling system. The key stakeholders will no longer regards each other as conflicting interests but as a team with a clear common goal; a better humanity. Emphasis will no longer be on excelling in exams but in a transformative learning. Learning that will unleash the creativity, critical thinking, the problem solving abilities and other potentials in the unique individuals. 

The importance of each individual’s role in the society will be the main focus and not how far one can perform in the so called standard exams that resemble a standard race in the wild, supervised by king lion, that requires each animal to compete in a tree climbing race. Of course, only the cunning monkeys will win. The rest will be considered failures and losers and relegated to the dustbin of social justice until a revolution occurs. The bottom line is that each individual is unique and relevant to the bigger picture in transforming humanity.

Preserving 'good image' or just being dishonest?

Today a number of people and institutions thrive on high levels of dishonesty. Surprisingly, higher learning and religious institutions seems to be on the apex of insincerity or dishonesty by the look of events appearing on print and electronic media. A close look into interactions and exchanges in social media reveals a sad story on the height of dishonesty (these are people who are highly schooled and attend a religious institution/gathering at least every week).

We are dishonest even unto oneself. Why? So as not to hurt others? Do we fear if we say the truth we shall hurt or disappoint? Are we motivated to be dishonest since we have a ‘good image’ to protect?  People of ‘high moral’ integrity will go to great lengths to cover the shocking truth (read dishonesty) so as to protect their ‘good image’. Parents, teachers, pastors, priests, politicians, churches, schools etc. will be dishonest so as to maintain the ‘good image’. Unfortunately the guilty conscious will consistently bother them but eventually they find it is normal to be dishonest. The so called, weaklings, the filthy and the wretched of the earth; least schooled, down trodden, filthy poor, (thieves are not in these category since they end up being role models of the world) etc. are among the most honest persons. We cannot forget the children who are the weakest and the most sincere beings in the world. If we can be like children!

Our response to current political, religion, economic,environment, and social issues reflect a society that is not sincere with itself, yet it expect high levels of integrity among its many facets. It is ironical but you will be surprised (if you are learned or religious) to find that people with little or no formal education, and people whom are less religious or are not church goers are the most sincere and free from any pretense. They are the ones who will express their genuine feelings; be it good or bad feelings towards any issues or personalities. They lack pretense and are always ready to air their opinions without coating them for the sake of good personal relationships so as to look civilized, Christian or schooled.

The blame games seen all over are a clear indication of how dishonesty we are with our own selves. It looks ridiculous when one schooled persons blames an institution, when their homes are flooded; yet they constructed them in a river valley in broad daylight. Unless the house was meant to be a hovercraft such that in case of flooding it auto fly, then let you not be surprised by raging floods. Water always follow it course.  Let us listen to expert opinions. And talking of experts, why is it that institutions of higher learning cannot be centers of excellence even in the fields they profess to train the society in? The institutions do offer course in management yet they seems to be struggling in management. We have professors who are ‘expert’ in the fields of sociology, conflict resolutions, disaster management, financial management, planning name it, and yet the same institutions are in dire needs of these services. The institutions are in a pathetic situation, as far as these essential services are concerned. Is it a paradox of the world or is it that we are unable to interrogate our actions? Is it a state of mind or are we not educated enough? Does it make sense to spend 24 years or a quarter a century in school and yet we cannot solve a simple problem like digging drain waters along roads, ensuring the drains are not blocked, building culverts to allow water to pass etc.? Is it worthy to invest in education or churches and yet you are not sincere, honesty?

It all boils to lack of love to your neighbor. A simple act of kindness, sincerity and love to the person next to you, can go a long way to make life comfortable for everybody. How many of us throw sweets rappers or empty water bottles out of the car’s window and yet get surprised when drains are blocked by the same bottles?  Why do we vote in ridiculous leaders and yet expect changes from them? Although one can conclude that bad leaders are elected by equally bad voters. 

What have you done to make your current environment better for you? Start with where you are now and don’t wait for somebody else, do it, and see how the world will change. If you don’t need something don’t get. Learn to share the little you have and you will find that you will never lack. The world has enough for everybody. 

Conformity Vs Individuality

A number of us fear change or a suspicious of it. Suspicious of the source of change. We are afraid of the unknown. What awaits us if the status quo change? We are comfortable and hence do not what to rattle the comfort we are 'enjoying' even if it is an illusion or its leading us nowhere. We fear thinking outside the main stream thought-line. We stick to the well trodden path and never dare or imagine diverting from the main path or venturing outside. Is it because we fear being labeled? or is it out of fear of rejection. You really do not want to feel lonely and abandoned. We want to be like chicks under the comfort and warmth of the hen's wings.

If the group decides to go west, (read as,  if the leader of the group decides to go west), you fear pointing out that it is more beneficial to head otherwise or stay put. Majority of the group members will see you as a distractor since you are not conforming to the group's ideologies. Your individuality will be tested. Even if within the group there may be a minority who sees your view of thought but will not openly air their opinions and hence end up conforming.

Just as in politics, education, religion, economy and virtually all aspects of life, majority are blinded by the ideologies of their dominant leader and have no time to interrogate such ideas or lack of. The leader maybe in a position to manipulate the thinking of the group due to his perceived  advantages of the rest in terms of say his economic status, education, social status and background, physique (beauty), charisma, origin, ethnicity, race, religion among many others.

Trying to interrogate the line of thinking of the mob may be meant by a myriads of obstacles. Some sensible and other utterly illogical and nonsensical.

So, what next? Even the most schooled, (maybe less educated), will always use theories to justify their conformity at the altar of individuality. Terming unique individuality as a form of abnormality. Hence, do you want to conform and enjoy a sense of belonging. Safety in numbers. Or do you want to air your individuality by pointing things out that you feel are out of sync with the sensible, not necessarily to change their line of thinking but just to let them know you are different and do respect their uniqueness too?

Some of the great ideas and inventions that have changed the world were initiated or were a creation of people who believed in their individuality even when they faced open rejection from the main stream majority.

Reflect on some and interrogate conformity vs individuality.

Take the risk and assume the next person is good

We should take the risk of assuming that children are always full of good intention. We should not always assume that one is evil or likely to do wrong. Suppose we take the risk of assuming that all drivers are good? Is there a probability that we can easily eliminate the incidents of car crashes, traffic snarl-ups that are due to not being courteous? How can we do away with pride, self-importance, and I-am-always-right attitude? Humility can change the way we relate to other people and bring a sense of satisfaction to one-self. A humble personality can change the face of humanity. Try to be humble today. Take the risk of assuming the next person is obviously full of good intentions. Do not be proud that others should respect you because of your position in the society. Be anonymous, and say no to the spirit of self-importance and disrespectful attitude and see how your day will proceed. Let the story of a local primary school head who took the risk of placing tissue papers in students’ washrooms, inspire you. People advised him that it was not wise since the pupils would steal the tissue rolls, but he took the risk that children are always innocent and good people. He believed that he has a God given call to help the child to discover his potential and it will be so unfortunate if somebody already have a preconceived mentality that children are thieves. It negate the whole purpose of letting our children go to school. He proved them wrong. This testimony brought to mind why is it that there are no tissue rolls in public universities washrooms whereas you will encounter clean washrooms in private universities? Is it a reflection of what kind of human relations exists in the two institutions?

Little things again

Appreciate the little things that happens in your life. Learn to always look at the brighter side of your life. It is our nature to lay a lot of emphasis and focus on the bad. Many of us have observed that when a good person does something bad or abnormal, we forget all the good that (s)he has done in the past. Unfortunately this also happens at an individual level. We concentrate on what we do not have or our weakness while we can gain a lot in focusing in our many areas of strengths.

It was after one of the continuous assessment tests that one of my student scored 7 out of 30. When I pointed out to him that he needed to check on how to improve on his score, I was a little bit surprised by his reply. He told me, in fact that he was so over joyed and excited by his performance. Why? Since as far as he could remember he has never scored anything above a 5. I was moved by his confidence and belief on how the little marks (to me) meant a great stride in his understanding of mathematics. The boy went on to pass his entry exam and ended up graduating with a bachelor degree. He later established his own company and is doing quite okay, to say the least. He believed in the little strides he made and to him they were a sure sign of a great future. 

Overcoming life's barriers

Reflecting on a problem helps one focus on the way forward. A prolific blogger Akolo (2017) observes that, 'human beings have so many self-imposed barriers' and , 'often think that we can't do things as well as those people'.  One need to reflect on a key issue that you suspect is pulling you down.  What can you do to change the way you are doing things, thinking, viewing of pertinent issues of your life? Everybody has his or her own strengths and approaches that can be harnessed to effect the right and productive change in ones life. Your way is always the right  one since you will own it and love it to implementation. 

Little things in life bring a lot of Joy

Sometimes when you look around and see or hear what is happening, you just wonder if life's hassles are worth it. Do you derive joy from seeing a new day, a new sunshine or do you start by complaining how tough the day is going to be? Or how you are going to slave for the whole day and get peanuts for your sweat? Do you work to be paid or to derive joy from doing good to others and to yourself too.

Of late, we have witnessed the passing on of extremely wealthy people. Was it worthy to accumulate all that wealth and yet when the time come you leave it behind? or it  just became meaningless, worthless, actually useless, the moment you actually need it most? why do people struggle for years or even decades, to get a position or a promotion that makes you accumulate so much material and yet at the end, you leave it all: to some people who did not even struggle for a day?

Is it a high time you appreciate the person around you; be it a stranger or otherwise? Is it a high time we appreciate seeing the new sun, the new moon, the chirping of the birds, your health, the 'little' you have and is rightly yours? We should be happy since we can breathe, walk, sit, see, hear, feel, laugh.

Be happy for the little things. Someone out there cannot see, walk, feel, laugh.

Today appreciate what you rightly have and move on to the next hour in peace and joy!

Acts of Kindness and the Joy of Life

Simple acts of kindness can bring a lot of joy and satisfaction to your life. Showing kindness to your fellow human being irrespective of their social-economic status, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, intellectual abilities or any other attributes can bring the ultimate joy in your life. There is no better personal therapy than a dose of unbiased act of kindness to another human being. The injustices, inequities, and other imbalances in the human race may be eradicate by simple acts of kindness. Giving out your heart to a fellow human without no strings attached, expecting no gains in return. The act of giving freely and unconditionally, and impulsively jumping to any occasion of giving, helping, listening, being their for a fellow human, may transform your life for the ultimate joy of being alive. Try it.

Interventions that changes learners attitudes and perceptions

Adult education poses numerous challenges to both the learners and the facilitators. It is even critical especially when the majority of the learners are focused on certification only. This is certification that is aimed at ensuring that they are either promoted or are assured of attaining some levels of prestige among their peers and in the society. It is therefore a daunting task for the facilitator to maintain interest in the learning process. Interest that can ensure that the learners see the bigger picture of acquiring knowledge, skills and change of attitudes for future personal and intellectual prosperity. 

It is in such a situation that I found myself in. The students had a totally different perception of the unit that I was facilitating and it took more than two lessons to change their perceptions. I had to carry out a CIA at the end of the unit. At least I manage to change this perception and attitude as evident in the analysis I did at the end of the sessions. I carried out an elaborate the Bad, Good and Interesting Analysis (Tripp, 1993) of the the class experiences. 

It should be noted that the unit focused on how to employ the skills of reflective practice, developing a reflective portfolio, using critical incident analysis and applying action research to understand one's practice. 

One key point I noted was that the learners could not differentiate between their teaching practice i.e. what they always do as teaching professionals and Teaching Practice i.e. the teaching exercise carried out by student-teacher when pursuing a degree program on teaching training, as part of their teacher training.

Findings: 

The analysis below outlines the learners’ comments. It should be noted that the analysis was done in groups of 3 students. It was noted that all groups, by default, focused on either themselves, the facilitator or the unit, or a combination of all. The categorization is therefore based on these three players;

The Good about we the students

• We have meet new people and made friends who may help us now and in the future.
• We had a different picture and understanding about reflective writing. We thought developing a reflective portfolio is simply filing our professional and academic certificates and testimonials.
• We learnt new ways of developing our portfolio by creating blogs that may advertise our practice and maybe our careers. 
• we learnt that a portfolio is a document that can be used for interviews. 
• My colleagues  were cooperative and shared their real life experiences freely.

The Good about the unit

• The unit changed our attitude and we realized it is such an interesting and crucial unit.
• It involved learners’ active participation.
• It used a practical approach and real examples.
• The unit encouraged learners to reflect on issues critically and come up with real problem solving skills that can be applied to solve future problems.
• The unit is also good because there is no sit-in end of trimester exam but assessment is basically formative.
• The seating arrangement allowed interactions and all our facial expressions could be easily observed by all in the class.

The Good about the facilitator

• The facilitator involved us and broke monotony using humor and he was open minded and had a good mastery of content. 
• There was good rapport between the facilitator and the student.
• The facilitator constantly emphasis a need to remain focused and concentrate on the task at hand and avoid been distracted by our other social responsibilities.
• The class well managed.
• The facilitator catered for individual differences.
• The facilitator was quite open and shared freely his personal experiences as far as the unit was concerned.
• The facilitator played a good role model in observing the classroom rules e.g. he did not receive or make calls during the lesson and he was also punctual.
• The facilitator is a patient and encouraging teacher. He encouraged the learners until they started viewing the unit in a positive manner.
• The facilitator offered timely feedback and is able to analyze the learners' work and advice accordingly.      

The Bad

The bad about the unit ended up with two categories. The bad about the unit and about the learners. For the learners, they were concentrating on seeing on the negatives of other learners. Except on one instant where students claimed that they have many distractors, the rest were about the others. None of the respondents pointed anything bad with themselves. This interesting in that one key point of reflection is to look inward and point out your strengths and weaknesses.

The other significant observation is that none of the respondents pointed out anything bad about the facilitator. Is it out of fear of being reprimanded for pointing out anything bad about the facilitator? Do they also expect their learners not to point out anything bad about them? or also it ingrained in our culture where you are not supposed to talk bad or criticize your seniors?

On the other hand, the bad things about the unit did not focused on the content of the unit but only on the expectations of the unit that required their input.

The Bad about the Unit

The following are some of the learners' comments about the course;

• It was not to our expectations based on prior information about the unit. Our information was that it is an easy unit with less expectations and involvement.
• Most students did not finish some of the many assignments given in time due to limited time as students had other units to research on and attempt other units' assignments.
• Some concepts were not clear.The unit is expensive since we had to type and print all the assignments and the final portfolio.
• The unit's exercises and assignments are time consuming. The unit requires critical thinking in analyzing the various chapters of the reflective portfolio.

The Bad about we the students

Some of the comments about the Bad things were as follows;

• Some students are egocentric and hence do not like sharing.
• There is gender imbalance i.e the female : male ratio was wanting at 10:1.
• Some learners misbehaved by going out during the lesson without seeking permission from the facilitator.
• Some students did not take it positively when they were positively criticized.
• The students were not comfortable in presenting their portfolios in blog form. There were occasions when students seemed to fear asking questions or seeking for clarification from the facilitator.
• As adult learners we had so many challenges such as lateness to class, distraction from phone calls/texts, and low concentration span among many others.
• There were some instances of poor teamwork as a result of superiority complex among learners. 
• Learners were expecting not to be given extra work since they are already overwhelmed by their personal responsibilities.

The interesting

The interesting thing about the unit can be categorized in terms of those that concerned the learner, unit content and expectations, and the facilitator. These included;

• At first we had a negative attitude towards the unit and this made us to be dull, felt bored and we started predicting failure but later the lecturer realized all this and encouraged us and clearly outlined his expectations.
• The seating arrangement was unique and interesting and we realized that we can apply this in our classes. It also broke the monotonous of the front facing rows that we had in other units. 
• The facilitator has a seemingly care free attitude. The learners wanted to do all the assignments at their own convenience.
• Some learners had bought box files to put in their academic and professional certificates and testimonials as their reflective teaching portfolio, yet it was not a requirement.
• Most students were averse to creating a blog for their reflective portfolio. Though, it was the first time for us learners to hear about a blog and how one can represent the portfolio as blog.
• The facilitator reading of students’ work in class as a show case of good or bad work was very interesting and helpful in clarifying what is expected in the assignments.
• The gender ratio that favored women left us asking if men are really interested in furthering their education or they are not interested in the teaching profession or they are not financially empowered.
• They was a student who had written his portfolio even without the facilitator outlining the expectations and the right format. 
• It was interesting to see, at the beginning of the unit, that when the learners seemed annoyed by the unit, the facilitator seemed not care but seemed to be enjoying the unit.
• The teacher taught difficult content to us learners but it seemed easy to him and he just said it is even easy for us as teachers if we relax, and with time, we shall all understand. 
• At first we thought the unit is all about our bio but with time we realized it was more than that, what with reflection, critical incident analysis and action research.
• The lecturer was not easily provoked even when some of the students had varied attitudes that were irritating. 
• At the begging, the lecturer seemed to be enjoying the unit content as we students seemed like we were struggling. There was a lot of humor during the lessons.
• It equipped us with ideas (reflection on critical incidents) of handling learners with different abilities.  The facilitator used real-life situations and incidents during teaching.

It was evident that from the above analysis that there was attitude change on the part of learners. They finally viewed the unit positively. As a facilitator it was both a learning and turning point on how to handle adult learners with diverse expectations. In conclusion my intervention bore positive fruit. It also created the urgency of always harmonization content delivery among facilitators to maintain and assure quality and standards.

Case on how to reflect on an Incident

The following is a reflection on a true incident experienced by Janet (Not her real name) in her class. She was guided by 8 core questions on critical incident analysis adopted from Crisp, et al (2005)*

I have two boys in my class who have special needs compared to the rest of the pupils. I noticed during the language class that these two boys were very slow in writing and in completing their tasks. These boys were always last to finish their work. 


This made me feel so bad and thought of formulating on what to do next. I used my free time to give these boys extra activities such as modeling using Plasticine, to do coloring and pattern writing which could help them develop their fine muscles so that they could improve on their writing speed. I went further and involved the boys in Tyre rolling to help improve their hands maneuverability.  


Another thing that I was to reduce their workload. For example, when I gave the other students ten sums to solve I would give them 5. I also use negative reinforcements such as not going for free choice activities before finishing their work. I also went back to writing sounds using 2 letter words and finally to the three letters word. I also took them through counting 1 - 10 then 10 - 20 and then reading numbers in word. I did all these to try to establish the source of their weakness.

This incident made me realize that different learners have different abilities and each child work on their own pace. I also realized that that I need to be creative and always come up with new ideas that can help the learners who are slow in writing.

The incident made me realize that I am patient since I was able to accommodate the two boys in my class despite their challenges and offering them different techniques to help them without giving up. I also learnt that I was very accommodating and understanding since I was able to relate well with the boys and this made them to have positive attitude towards writing. It has been observed that a conducive learning environment help learners to improve on their writing and generally learning skills. Positive reinforcement increases the chances of good writing skills to be repeated. Towards this end I ensured that I remained calm, reassured the boys and avoided labeling them.

It is my hope that in future I may have to use the services of an assistant teacher or a shadow teacher who will help ease my workload, both indoor and outdoor. This will allow me to have time to be able to cover the school syllabus and allow me also to achieve the intended learning outcomes. It will also allow me time to focus on children with learning difficulties. There is also a need for the education system to recognize that children will learning difficulties requires more time to attain the required outcomes. There is also a need to acquire or generate special learning materials for these children. This can work well in collaboration with the schools administration plus the parents. Alternatively I become creative and generate my material with the available resources.

Since I was able to handle the situation with the different techniques, this made me to become proud of myself. The incident also made me be able to come up with different ways if handling the situation. For example preparation of special scheme of work for the two boys. The incident also eased my future workload since the boys were now able to write at a good speed. The boys’ self-confidence and hence self-esteem improved since they were able to finish their work early as the rest of the class. This made them have sufficient time to interact well with their friends. The boys’ performance in both in and outdoor activities improved. I also felt motivated when the head-teacher congratulated me for the good improvement of the two boys.

The situation also made me to think positively in all situations, since initially I thought the boys were just lazy and did not want to do any activity. The incident made me to be keen and observant to my learners and other situations in my class. It also made me not assume certain situations or take things lightly like the unique behaviors and characters of my learners. It also made me to be proactive and to be fast in reacting to situations so as to rectify them before they get out of control or in a situation when it is too late to rectify.

Finally I can say that the incident made me feel encouraged, motivated, relieved, happy and proud of myself.  

                                                                                                                                                                                          

* Crisp, B.R, Lister, P.G. and Dutton, K(2005). Evaluation of an Innovative Method method of Assessment: Critical Incident Analysis. Retrieved from https://www.iriss.org.uk/sites/default/files/sieswe-nam-evaluation-critical-incident-analysis-2005-02.pdf on 24/4/2017

Overcome fear of the unknown

I had an experience of about four students who ambushed me along the university corridor. They were complaining loudly on how they will submit their final reflective teaching portfolio. I gave them two options; either they submit a spiral bound document or they write a reflective teaching blog. A blog is easy, faster and cheap to create unlike a hard copy document. Their main problem was to create a blog. It is not a easy thing, so they claimed. We agreed they consult me in the office and I take them through the basics of creating a blog. They were hesitant and pessimist. They wondered how they will attach evidences plus many more imaginary obstacles. They were not ready to do things differently. They did not believe in their potential to do things successfully on their own; they feared venturing into the unknown, in spite of having active Facebook (that are always updated daily), active Whatsapp groups and email accounts..

Sometimes the fear of trying new things make us get stuck doing the old things the wrong way and never progressing. Are you like that?

With some reassurance and guidance, they managed to set up their blogs and they were really overjoyed!!

https://murihiaesther.blogspot.co.ke/

https://evelynmusyoka.blogspot.co.ke/

Benefits of reflecting on critical incidences in our class Part 2

The following is a reflection by one of my student Linda* (Not her real name)

The incident:

We opened school on January 9^th for the new academic year 2017 . As I approached the school gate, happy voices of children playing in the school compound rent the air. They were so excited to resume school again after staying at home for nearly one and a half months during the Christmas Holidays.  When they saw me, they all rushed towards me and happily shook my hand to welcome me in school. I too was excited to meet them. Looking at their faces I was so hopeful that all will go well throughout the term.

As I walked towards the staffroom, I wished and prayed that all the pupils who would be assigned to me will be good to teach in order to have a break from the tedious follow up work I had to do with a few of my learners in the previous class. Little did I know that a worse situation awaited me in my new class.

During my first encounter with my learners in class three, I never noticed any odd behavior among my learners. I was their new teacher of English. Since most of the learners were unfamiliar to me I made an effort to learn their names on the first day. Two weeks had gone by and it came to my attention that one of my pupils who was new in the school never brought any writing materials to class, that is a pen and a pencil. Each time we had to write an exercise I had to ask his colleagues to lend him a pencil or a pen. With time his behavior advanced to deliberate negligence of any class work or homework given at school. His academic performance went from better to worse.

One day, I must have been having a bad day, I suppose. As usual I found the boy had not brought any writing materials to class. Soon I ordered him to get out of my class and to always do so whenever I came into class unless he brings what he requires in class. I could not take his behavior anymore. He walked out. I taught the other students and made up my mind to forget about him. As a matter of fact he was the only student who behaved so in my class. Other learners made an effort to finish their work in good time.

Why the incident stood out?

This learner was exceptional in my class. Everyone else cooperated and took part in all the class activities actively. Besides not having the writing materials, the boy always looked sad and kept aloof from the company of fellow students. He hardly took part in any play activities and games. He was ever irritable whenever companions approached him for anything.

What was not interesting about this incident?

What bothered me most about the boy was he often beat up other learners. He had become a bully, a real nut. Any pupil who came across his path often left with a spank. One day, I was called out of class to answer some emergency. When I came back I was shocked to find him holding another boy by the throat and beating him seriously. If I had stayed a minute more, what could have happened to the boy he was beating up is a story for another day.

What were my reactions?

I was extremely mad at the boy. Due to the school rule against corporal punishment I kept my hands away from him otherwise I could have given him a good beating. I warned him sternly never to touch any of the learners. For the first time he wept bitterly. When I saw him cry so much I was moved and for the first time I took interest to inquire about his background. He openly talked to me how he hated his mother because she often beats him.  He said that his mother does not love him and his father has no time for him.

 What were my actions?

I knew I had to do something. During the day I called the mother over the phone and asked her to come to school the following day. I was so happy that she responded to my call and was there the following day as we had arranged. A close chat with the mother revealed that the family was undergoing a serious marital crisis. The mother admitted severely beating the boy severally even for mere mistakes. She also said that the boy has a bad experience with a teacher in the previous school who used to punish him severely whenever he did not do his work well. His mother is a magistrate and the father a lawyer and they get transferred frequently which contributes to the boy getting transferred to different schools. This is the fifth school since he started schooling. At present he gets to see the mother once in two months because she lives in her working place. This too might be a contributing factor to his aggressive behavior and lack of the writing materials he requires in school.

The mother’s visit gave me a whole picture why the boy behaves the way he does. I talked to her at length how I find the boy in class. She was so understanding and willing to cooperate in order to help her son. She promised not to hurt the boy again and to create time to be with him. She also promised to provide the materials he needs in school. I too advised her not to let her family challenges affect the innocent boy. More than the mother, I too felt transformed by the new understanding I had about the boy then. I made up my mind to draw him close to me, understand him and slowly help him to come out of his character.

 What have I learnt?

From this incident I have learnt that every behavior has a root cause. There is a reason behind every character. Every pupil in my class behaves the way they do, not because they choose to but because circumstances have influenced who they are. I have learnt never to give up on any pupil’s behavior. The best way to get to know the learners is to interact with their parents and guardians to get to know the learners better and device ways of helping them.

Way Forward?

Since the learner is a special case in my class, I have developed an individualized education program (IEP) for him in counseling. I conduct several activities with him on weekly bases to help him clear the junk within and feel loved anew. He has participated in some drawing and coloring activities, role play activities all which are therapeutic and are helping him to reconcile with himself and others. With time I have seen a lot of positive improvement in his character. He is also becoming responsible in his studies which has brought forth a remarkable change in his academic performance. It is my dream that the counseling sessions will restore him to the good boy he was before.

Benefits of reflecting on critical incidences in our class Pt. 1

The following is a reflection on an incident that happened in a class of one of my student Lily*:

I decided to apply the knowledge learnt about reflective practice. I went out of my way to assess the reason why my IEP learner Lina** visited the latrine frequently and most of the time she is always passing gas in class. 

On Monday 6^th March this year (2017) I decided to take my lunch together with the pupils in the school dining hall so as to see how Lina feeds. I was curious about her feeding pattern. The lunch menu for the day was Githeri (a mixture of boiled beans and maize).  I sat at a table away from Lina where I could see her properly as she took her lunch.  

To my surprise, I observed that the girl does not chew the food and she was struggling very hard to swallow the maize.  I noted that she only pushed Githeri with her tongue (sic) and I felt so sorry for her. You could see from her facial expression that she struggled chewing and swallowing the food. 

I kept asking myself questions (sic) like, do her parents know that she struggles to chew food? Do any one of the teachers know this problem? I wondered how much the girl has suffered since she joined the school in 2014.  I thank God for realizing this, since I could help by informing the cooks of her problem and I requested them to serve her with rice instead of Githeri.  The same day I requested them to serve her with rice.  She was given and even though she couldn't chew well, she was able to swallow with less difficult.  

After two days or so I asked my staff mates to join me in the dining to observe Lina, since it had been bothering me ever since I saw her. So, some five colleagues and I joined  the pupils in the dining hall during lunch. The same cook whom I had informed earlier of the girl's problem served her with Githeri again.  My staff mates were also surprised to see how the girl struggled to swallow without chewing. We saw her as she used her incisors to crash the maize into two pieces and struggle to swallow with her eyes closed.  We all discussed the issue and agreed that the girl should be given special meal.

I learnt that most of these deaf pupils (I teach deaf children) have other difficulties. For as teacher s we should try to investigate the reason(s) as to why the child is behaving in a given different manner.  I decided that I should keep on observing these learners not only in classroom but also in the field as they play, and in dormitory, so that I can find out other problems they may have and sought for solutions or remedies where possible.

In my way forward, I decided to inform the head-teacher about the problems so that he authorize for special meals for the young girl, Lina, so that she will enjoy meals like others and be in class most of the time.  I know that when this is implemented the frequency of going to the toilet will reduce and even passing gas in class will reduce and the other pupils will not ridicule her again. Hence she will be able to concentrate in class.  

1)*the name of the teacher has been concealed for confidentiality 

2)**the name of the child has been concealed to protect her identity.

3) some minor editing in italic have been done 

My Critical Incidence Analysis - Experience as a 'Student'

This is my critical incidence analysis of an experience I had as a 'student'.

This past week (29th Feb - 3rd March) I had a 'student' experience. I was attending a 4 day workshop of which I spent most of the time seated and listening to the presenters. The workshop focused on use of data analysis. It required the use of data analysis softwares such as Stata, SPSS, EViews and NVIVO. We had 6 facilitators and about 40 participants, a majority were not conversant with statistics but I could tell some were also good in statistics and in particular data analysis. They were therefore attending the workshop as a refresher course.

My interest was on the presenters since I realized I could learn more on how my students feel while I facilitating my lessons. For purpose of privacy and confidentiality I will code them 1,2,3,4,a,b where 1,2,3, and 4 were the male presenters and a and b were the female presenters.

The first presenter 1 was good and took us through in such a way you could see he was enthusiastic about his work and he was really interested in the participants getting the concepts. Presenter 2 was equally good and tried to humour us though his humour bordered on gender stereotypes and other stale stereotypes but he was really interested in people understanding the key concepts and would stop until everybody was at par.

Day 2 saw the entry of presenter 3. He was knowledgeable but forgot that most participants were interested in skills. I forgot to mentioned that the presenters were being assisted by 3 technical people. These were assisting the participants when they got stuck using the softwares. It was during this presenter 3 that the technicians became more active since the presenter was losing most of the participants, I released that he was not communicating to all of us. He was not at the same space with the participants. He forgot that the theory part of data analysis may not make much sense at the moment. Since the theory though crucial made some participants feel discourage and disoriented. Presenter 3 tried to rectify this in later presentations. I also noted that presenter 2 who was also present, noted that presenter 3 was not communicating to the participants and he could interject in for clarifications.

Day 2  saw presenter 4 coming in. He was like a fish in water. He was, to me, a good teacher. Knows his students very well. Knew the right pace and the right approach.I gave him an A. unfortunately he had the least time allocated for presentation.

Day 3 saw presenter 3 coming back. I noted that he had improved a lot in communicating to the participants. His speed was also reduced to the right level to allow feedback from participants and the technicians had an easier time and were not hoping from one participants to another. The day also saw the coming back of presenter 2.

Day 4 saw the entry of presenter a. I had arrived late but I could see the mood of the participants. They were detached. The presenter was barely audible though she looked like she was well conversant with the data tool that she was trying very hard to explain how it is used. To make matters worse for her, the tool had not been installed in most of the participants' computers and for those who had it, they needed the internet to activate which was down at the moment. Again her computer did not have a port for an HDMI cable to connect it to the projector. So she had a rough time describing the procedures. Her explanations were frequently interrupted by technical questions from the participants who had to request her repeat a step or an explanation. The technicians were also extra busy hoping from one participant to another. You could see some frustrations in the faces of the technicians. they were overwhelmed. By tea break we had not done much and by the time her time was up we had eaten into the time allocated for the last presenter 'b' and we really didn't learn much. This presenter 'a' had well organized notes for the presentation but she had no plan B in case what she had planned earlier failed. She took time to borrow and transfer her data into a computer with the right port. she could also have only one example for illustration purpose and let the participants navigate the rest on their own. I suspected that she was using very sensitive data and hence didn't want to use another laptop or even share her data before the presentation. She also assumed wrongly that the participant were not well informed in methods of data analysis. This was a sign of pride. Which is wrong.

Day 4 also saw presenter 'b'. She was good and well organized and knew her job well. she presented in the best format so far. she was conversant with the task at hand. I think I learnt a lot from her presentation. It developed gradually and at the learners speed. She could start the process all over again in case she realized at least there is a person not following. She had planned well in advance. I liked her style. She engaged us well and I think this is the only presentation and contributed twice. She came down to the learners level and took the learners by hand and helped them cross the river, I gave her an A too.

I think I learnt a lot from this workshop more so on how to present myself as a facilitator. one, most people desire a simple example that they can work with easily. That though theory is important some details may be avoided and left for another day or group of participants. I also learned that moving with the speed of the learners and still keeping with the task at hand is important. prior planning is crucial. A need to have a plan B or even C is important just in case things don't go the way you intend. I also learnt it is good to go the learner's level and pick him or her and walk with him or her till they capture the concept, hopefully!