Finally we can teach
Our work with Bushenyi Local Government Special Education Department involved training teachers of deaf children. They wrote to us to tell us what the project meant to them.
Together we can achieve more
My name is Dushime Christine. I was involved in the project which provided training to teachers working with deaf children in Bushenyi District. I teach deaf children at Butare Central School and would like to explain how the training influenced my teaching for the better.
The interaction with the deaf instructors helped me to improve my schemes of work and lesson preparation for the children. We learnt about the steps to follow during the lesson, right from the introduction to the evaluation phase. I learnt to simplify content and vocabulary and use picture stories and day to day activities to help children to learn.
I have also been influenced to encourage hearing people to have a positive attitude towards deaf children, especially starting with the teaching staff at our school, the children in the school and the community around, including the parents of deaf children. During the parents’ meetings, they understood that their deaf children are also able to succeed and attain high education standards like the hearing ones. My interaction with deaf children has changed because I feel I must make a difference which should be realised even by the entire community.
I have been encouraged to let the deaf children know that disability is not inability and that together we can achieve more academically, socially and everyway they can think of.
Positive attitudes
My name is Twinamatsulo Asaph. I teach at Kigarama Primary School. The training which I attended has made me develop a positive attitude towards the deaf pupils which I didn’t know at first. I have become aware that even deaf children can be taught and do exams like other pupils. I found out that in some places deaf students are even scoring more highly than some pupils who can hear.
They have also shown me how to teach deaf children in terms of methodology, general rules to follow and how to arrange the class of deaf pupils in order for them to learn effectively. I have also learned Sign Language which I didn’t know at first though I had been teaching deaf children before. I now realise that Sign Language really helps me to communicate with deaf pupils. Finally the trainings have taught me how to make and use learning materials which is very helpful.
I used to think of these children as a burden to me
My name is Asimwe Winnie, I work at Kigarama Central Unit School. The training helped me so much because I was trained in Sign Language which I didn’t know before. I was using gestures, trial and error, but it is much easier with Sign Language.
I also gained methodologies of how to teach deaf children Sign Language and other subjects like all other children. At first, as I was just using gestures and trial and error, I could not understand the children’s problems. I just saw them as if they could not study other children. Even though I had an interest, I just saw it as a burden to me, but these trainings have been a morale booster.
The project also helped us as a group to train parents to talk with their deaf children in Sign Language and everyone was very happy with that. All in all, the training programme has changed my mind and has given me a positive attitude towards my teaching.
