Guiding Questions Reflections

 Before we went to Senegal, we were instructed to create guiding questions.  There were few guidelines for these, but rather the ability to make it what we wanted it to be.  These questions were meant to guide our experience as individuals and as educators, to be a focus for us on our journey.

When creating my guiding questions, I kept my fourth graders in mind, so my questions felt incredibly elementary as compared to many of my colleagues, but I'm still glad that these were the ones I asked.

1. What do we have in common?

2. How do teachers keep students engaged?

It is so easy to quickly pick out differences when you look at a country like Senegal as compared to America.  Even with just photographic evidence, you see the terrain is different, the population, the fashion and the customs.  So, I wanted to look beyond the surface level and find those many similarities that we share.

When I returned, I got the opportunity to speak with about a dozen classrooms at my school about my experience.  I started my talks off by showing them a photo of a classroom that I visited in Senegal and asking them to spot similarities between that school and our own.  Kids quickly noticed that there were kids learning with a teacher teaching.  Is this not what we hope to notice in all schools around the world, no matter the setting?  Sure, they picked up on school supplies, furniture and boards where learning was happening, but it was eager students that they noticed first.

Beyond the classroom, similarities that struck me were the camaraderie amongst teachers, the desire to provide for one's family, the love amongst families and friends, and the hope for the better for the next generation.  This qualities, once again, are values mirrored throughout the world, no matter how different places may first appear.  Despite the economic stability of our own country, there were many qualities that Senegal achieved at a much higher level than we did.  The sense of community and the overwhelming hospitality are qualities that may often be left behind in our American priorities.

As far as student engagement, it was heavy on my mind, because this is something that I find more and more teachers are struggling with.  Typically the answer is more bells and whistles: more interactive games, more technology, room transformations and over-the-top lessons.  Knowing that I would be walking into schools that were not as well equipped, I wanted to see how they kept their students engaged in the lessons.

What I saw both equally amazed me and disheartened me.  The kids I encountered in Senegal were eager to learn.  Somehow, it was that simple.  Perhaps we are so far removed from a time when education was not a given-right for every citizen, that Americans have forgotten what a gift free education is.  Is it because in Senegal, it was not that long ago that girls were not allowed an education?  Is it because the students know that education could change their paths?  Or is it simply because they know how to appreciate the gifts they are given?  I don't know, but the kids I encountered in Senegal didn't need bells and whistles.  They only needed a teacher.

Don't get me wrong, there were those students in the back who were not engaged, but when the class sizes were 60+, and the majority of students were actively engaged in the lesson, eager to learn and eager to better themselves, it was something to behold.  

How can I translate that into my own classroom?  I haven't yet found that answer.  If you do, please share!  Perhaps in order to find why students were so engaged, I should actually focus on the differences I noticed rather than the overwhelming similarities that were present.