"There is no room for people who second guess themselves." ~Patrick

The joint conference on Teaching & Learning was held the first weekend we arrived in Gulu. This is where I met my partnering teacher Okema Robert.

Eight of the 11 schools presented focus questions and solutions to generate discussions. The presentations on the first day focused on Teacher Empowerment and were done by the team teachers from Groups 1 & 2.

Here's a list of the questions that were discussed:
*How can teachers work together to improve their economic standing?
*How can we effectively communicate between home and school?
*How can we effectively communicate as a staff community?
*How can teachers affect curriculum?
*How can teachers overcome the obstacle of limited resources?
*How can teachers overcome the obstacle of large class sizes?
*How can teachers balance personal and professional life?
*How can teachers overcome the obstacle of minimal contact time with students?


It was so inspiring to see the Ugandan teachers developing ideas that represented both short and long terms solutions and for them to gain solidarity across the 11 schools present.

They hardly needed our suggestions, just the platform to meet and unify. They are trained professionals with ideas that will work because they know their schools, government, communities and students better than we ever will.

The second day shifted the focus to "Student Empowerment." 25 students from the local schools were asked to demonstrate activities that could be used to enrich the classroom. Each modeled an activity that modeled an activity that provided participatory learning and self-exploration. We rotated through the activities with our partnering teacher so that we could discuss together what we saw and how it could be tailored to fit our subject.

I learned several new teaching strategies that specifically incorporated dramatization in the classroom that I am looking forward to implementing in my school as a result of talking with Robert and watching other teachers present.

It was exciting to see how much the students were enjoying themselves through these activities and through their interactions with each other.