Carrying On

Wow.
I am back in the office with functioning internet, now with the insurmountable task of summing up the past week and a half and only about 15 minutes do so.

* The seminar with the theme, "Caught You Being Wise," was a big success. On any day there were between 79 and 90 teachers and head teachers there every day, which is who had signed up. Yay!

* We had prayed for decent weather during the travelling times, because in heavy rains (typical this time of year) people tend not to leave and it is very difficult to find transport. The prayers were answered. For a solid week, Monday to Monday, there was abnormally light rain, and never when we were commuting. Only once was there a heavy rain during the classes. When it rains on the zinc roofs, it is impossible for anyone to hear even at a shout. The rains started again on Tuesday, yesterday, when we were all done with our meetings with teachers. It hasn't stopped raining for the past 14 hours.

* I just finished compiling all of the evaluation results, and teachers were most impacted by learning from our composition classes, where Ryan (for K-3) and I (for 4-6) taught about the writing process (Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Publishing) and have students select what they are going to write about from their own experiences. We had all of the teachers go through the writing process with the topic, a Wise Person, and had an authors celebration at the end. It was most exciting for me to see teachers excited about the possibility and value of creating their own compositions for themselves and students, and having students write from their own experiences. I thought composition lesson time limits and student ability would be stated as an overwhelming obstacle, but instead they saw this method as a way to help them accomplish their goals, even for exams. Will include good quotes and pictures later.

* Another well-received topic was classroom management, especially problem-solving strategies, and positive recognition. Brian Gangloff, a really talented School Psych PhD student from University of Buffalo has been here for 2 months working with the schools in this area. He did a really great job of connecting with teachers and especially head teachers.

* Religious and moral education is taught in all Sierra Leonean schools with an emphasis by the president on attitudinal change. Samuel taught sessions on Heart Transformation, confronting head on some scenarios teachers routinely face, such as charging students for extra lessons to earn money, when they can teach lessons during the day; missing school for funerals, shopping, etc; flogging students before finding out the story behind misbehavior. We were a little worried about how teachers would react, but were so impressed with their openness, honesty, and receptivity.

* On Tuesday Gwen mentioned to one teacher that we missed him Monday for the first day of the session. He told us he was at his wife's funeral, but would be here the rest of the week. Speechless.

* Teachers were only paid for transportation and provided breakfast and lunch, but they were SO eager for the content and enthusiastic. (Though in evaluations they said 9-3 would be much more preferable to our 8:30-4:30 schedule.)

* The most valuable part for me was dialoguing with teachers about their classrooms and their lives and any applicability of what we were teaching and how to work around and with the challenges they face.

* Some teacher participants make equivalent to $20 a month, the average between $60-$70 a month, and the private school about $150 a month. Class sizes we heard of ranged between 25 to a class of 1st graders in the provinces of 120 pupils. Average is between 35 and 65.

* We had about 10 teachers come all the way in from the provinces for the week for the workshop.

* One head teacher said she had never had any instruction on how to teach reading before this, even at her Teacher's College.

* The weekend after the seminar, from Saturday late afternoon to Sunday early afternoon, the training team left the city and camped at the most beautiful beach I have ever been to, and enjoyed church in the village the next morning. Pictures to come.

* We met with the Head Teachers on Monday to follow up, hear their reactions, create some action plans, and start planning for next year. It was decided that they want as a goal to have each student take one composition through the writing process each term!

I need to go now so that I can revise the lesson plans and materials so teachers and head teachers and other organizations can use them starting in the fall.

I only have 2 more sleeps here.

I haven't cried yet, though I did get teary hugging Gwen as we wrapped everything up on Friday afternoon. I feel like I am experiencing so much but don't know if I am slowing down enough to let it impact me beyond the professional/academic level yet.

I look forward to writing more in the upcoming weeks, about the teachers, interactions, the sweetness of the people and children, the miracle of the training team coming together, and all the ways I want my friends and family to come and experience and contribute their skills.

But for now...revisions!

Marianne Kinney
aka
Mariatu Kargbo (as renamed by Saidu)