Challenging Heights is a non-profit that works to protect children’s rights and end child trafficking. Their primary method of prevention is through the education system leading to the founding of the Challenging Heights School located in Winneba, Ghana, which offers a quality and affordable education for underserved children in the area.
I’m a Junior attending Northwestern University who interned with a class four teacher named Patrick. The classroom was composed of 30 students ages ranging 10 and 12. I currently study Secondary Education and was responsible for lecturing, assigning exercises and homework, and designing exams. I primarily taught math, English, and U.S. history.
The biggest challenge was presenting the academic information to students in an effective and culturally relevant manner in order to maximize their learning and test scores. I sought to do this by leveraging my relationships with Patrick and other school faculty to develop constructive lesson plans such as an outdoor activity that taught cardinal directions along with the geographical location of Ghana in relation to other countries. By acting upon both the mental and physical aspects of learning while also keeping the content culturally relevant, the students were able to firmly grasp the concept. I also taught profits and losses that students can use if they ever want to sell an item, determine reasonable purchase prices, or start a business of their own. Lastly, I facilitated an exam review by splitting the class into teams. High student engagement revealed to students that academic content can be presented in a way that’s fun and effective.
The result of my teaching led to an increase in test scores, particularly in math and English subjects. The next step is for Patrick to evaluate my teaching methods so that he may continue to develop a curriculum that benefits the students the most.