TEACHING-EMPOWERING-MENTORING-BUILDING OPPORTUNITY Mission: to partner with individuals and communities in Western Kenya to support entrepreneurial activities, education and health through training programmes, scholarships, water and sanitation projects

Friday, February 4, 2011

seminars, figs and monkeys










While the visiting teachers were in Kenya we took a respite at Rondo Retreat Centre in Kakamega Forest. I hope you can see the detail well enough in this picture to see the monkeys playing and eating the figs. (Click on it to enlarge)

There was lots of hard work too. The evaluations are outstanding. All the particpants are asking for MORE!
HERE ARE SOME SNIPPETS FROM THE EVALUATIONS:
I wish this seminar to continue to exist in every January of the new year to sensitize and uplift the teaching style of the teachers
I have not met an instructor better that Jinx Brandt who made mathematics as real and interesting...
There has been a lot of discovery... I have learned a lot.
I have realized that teaching is complex, there is psychology that is not well understood. Thank you for your efforts to have given me this direction.
Kindly let this not be the last in-service. We request that we have more of this to help us be
better teachers.
The seminar should be held again regularly so that the Kenyan teachers should see the need of changing from teacher-centred methods of teaching to learner-centred methods. I’ve really benefited from the instructor and how I wish such teachings to continue,.
Such seminars should be quite often to refresh the teachers on child-centred approach in
teaching and learning processes
What I liked about the seminar is that I was exposed to easy methods of teaching which will enable
my slow learners to enjoy lessons
The strategies are student centred and friendly as they actually involve the student
I liked the new tricks to enhance the learning process and how to make teaching/learning interesting.. The teachers were wonderful, knowledgeable and confident
Mind maps allow the student to be creative and their story will have a nice flow
I have learned a lot and will go and improve my teaching especially when handling a reading lesson..I will take more time to understand my children
I have learned how to teach composition writing, how to tackle a reading lesson and answer comprehension quiz
I have learned the gradual release of responsibility (for learning) which I knew nothing about.
The course has empowered me with new skills on how to teach English as a subject.
For us to make the workshop even more effective we need to be good time managers, avoid lateness We want to learn more because you are more experienced in the field of English than us.
I liked everything. It was WONDERFUL
It has made me a better and more confident English teacher than I came in or was before
The seminar has awakened my spirits in new approaches of handling English which is the key medium of instruction in all subjects
The use of teaching aids impressed me as it drove the point home. Wow! If all teachers taught like this it would be a wonderful world.
Great teachers, ever ready, armed with teaching aids.
They have enabled me to know how to handle a comprehension and library lesson. They have also made me teach children how to write a composition with a lot of ease.

The instrucors taught skills and strategies for group work, more individualised learning and 'child centred' education. Kenyan teachers in the past have relied on rote learning and 'chalk and talk' but are moving to different methods. They have few books and often no power in the schools, so we wanted to help them use the resources they have.

We received some 150 participants. Since Kenya does not have 'homeroom' teachers as such, but all teachers meet several different classes for various subjects, we calculate that each of these teachers will have contact with about 100 children. So in our three weeks we will have reached about 15,000 students. And that is just this year. Not counting future years as teachers practice and develop their skills.
WE WOULD LIKE TO REPEAT THIS PROJECT. ARE YOU A TEACHER LOOKING FOR A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE AND WILLING TO DONATE YOUR TIME AND EXPERTISE? IF SO, CONTACT MARY HIGBEE AT JIM.HIGBEE (at) YAHOO.COM

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