The International School Of Uganda

The International School of Uganda is located about 8 kilometers (Can you find out how many miles that is?) from the city of Kampala. It is a sprawling campus on top of a very large hill. All the classrooms have two doors that lead directly outside. In fact there are picnic tables outside the classroom where students can work on projects or with volunteers. There are no hallways but only paths through beautiful gardens complete with small ponds with turtles, fish and gorgeous flowers. So, in order to get to the gym, the pool, the music room or the computer lab, you walk outside along the paths. It was so fun to take my little class of 10 students through campus to music or to recess.

Once inside the classroom all the students take off their shoes and go barefoot. It is so dusty here, that it helps keep the classroom clean to not wear shoes inside. Plus it is very hot—no air conditioning. They also have swimming lessons once a week instead of a regular PE class, so often we have wet swimsuits and clothes hanging out side the classroom. Otherwise the classroom looks very much like ours.

The kids who attend this school are from all over the world. They are living in Uganda because their parents are diplomats, business owners, missionaries or working abroad. I had kids in my class from England, Denmark, Ethiopia, Israel, Mexico, Liberia, Egypt and the United States. In each class almost all the students are from a different country, which makes it so interesting. I learned a lot about how other people live around the world. In order to better understand each other, the common language everyone speaks is English. Our classroom was filled with English yet we all had different home countries. It was a lot of fun!

The students are using the IB model and in the middle of their 4th PYP unit for the year. We are investigating the biomes of the world. What they are, what makes them different, why the world needs that kind of environment. It was fascinating to investigate thei topic with them. The students lead the learning through interesting questions. I feel like I learned just as much as the students!

All in all, I had a great week at the International School and I hope I get a chance to sub there again. I had some trouble uploading pictures so if you want to see pictures of the school, you can go to http://picasaweb.google.com/kari.lisa101271 and look for the International School folder.

Now that I am done subbing, I am back helping the widows. Several of them have been very sick, so I have been helping them get medicine so they can get better. I have also helped some of their children pay their school fees so they can go back to school. It feels really good to help people.

I hope you all are doing well and studying hard!
Ms. Miller