Creating a new generation of Learners

It was a long session, that began in September 2015 and came to an exhilarating halt in July 2016. I took the University of Oregon webskills for effective teaching in the preceding summer and that influenced all my classroom behavior this session.
We began the session with 18 members of the class. Many of the pupils were poor readers and had very limited vocabulary except for a handful of them. I introduced a systematic phonics scheme that deviated from the regular school curriculum. I also used as much as possible everyday stories that the pupils could relate with, in difference to some of our official texts that were based on American culture and lifestyles. We did quite a few projects especiallt in science. At end of the session I had six prize winners ( though I felt everybody was a winner), Aishatu Adamu topped the class amidst strong competition from Aisha Usman.
Lessons Learnt

1. Children can be very emotional
2. Children have more capacity to learn than we give them credit for.
3. I need to give more attention to differentiated learning.
4. Children like being given responsibility.
5. Tasks should be spelt out early.