Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Educational Development: Positive Discipline

Traditional classroom discipline in Uganda usually takes the form of caning or harsh words. Recently, the Ministry of Education Uganda started an initiative/campaign to create a safer school environment that will encourage teachers/caregivers to use alternative methods to corporal punishments in the school. Along with this initiative, Fount of Mercy recently hosted a workshop titled "Positive Discipline in a Nursery Classroom" that ran from September 10th-13th. The training was facilitated by one of our volunteers from California, Valerie Nafius. It was assisted by both Kelly Underwood & Emolu Francis who are associates of Fount of Mercy working with our Educational Development Program. There were 14 participants from 7 local community-managed schools that came to this training workshop. The workshop focused on preparing teachers/caregivers with "Preschool Child Development Goals," which included social and emotional development in children, cognitive development, physical development, oral language, science skills, music skills and art skills. The workshop also went over the "Emotional Developmental Stages of a Child" from the ages of one year old all the way up to five years old. Lastly, the workshop covered "Techniques and Benefits." It taught consistent use of appropriate techniques that benefit both the teachers and the children. For example, how to develop reasonable limits how to state those limits effectively and how to help children accept their limits. This workshop was a great success and taught the caregiver/teacher that they do not need to execute corporal punishment to instill discipline in the classroom. Thanks to Valerie, Kelly and Francis for your hard work on this training! Fount of Mercy