Intern Report - Leigh Anne Tyson

I arrived in Kamulu on Thursday, June 12, 2014 to serve as an education intern. While here, I taught middle and advanced math classes, middle and advanced library, and advanced plus biology. My daily class schedule generally consisted of 2-4 classes, with the exception of Wednesdays. In the middle math we worked on fraction operations; and in advanced math we worked on converting between centimeters and millimeters, as well as finding circumference of circles, and area of polygons. In the library classes I spent several weeks reading a chapter book aloud to the students, discussing aspects such as vocabulary, plot, making predictions, etc., and then they completed a short book report when we finished the story. In advanced plus biology, I picked up where Angie had left off in the chapter on diffusion and osmosis, and then continued into the next chapter on plants. On Wednesday mornings and part of Thursday morning I was in the children’s centre, spending time with the children there. We played, read, listened to music, and sang songs. In the afternoons I worked on lessons and then tutored students on math homework or simply on math facts during homework time.

My time here at MITS has been an invaluable learning experience. I have been forced out of my comfort zone in many aspects. While I teach these same mathematical concepts to my students in the States, there is no language barrier preventing their understanding of my lessons. So when a student at MITS was struggling, I had to determine if they simply did not understand what I was saying, or if they truly did not grasp the concept. In addition, I have no had trouble in the past with earning the trust and respect of my students in the States. However, this was a difficult task here. It took a couple weeks for the students here to realize that I knew what I was doing in the classroom, that I cared about them, but I expected them to follow the rules. I have developed precious relationships with these kids as a result of my time here. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve the students and staff of MITS, and look forward to serving them again in the future, both from the States and hopefully in Kenya as well.