All Blog Posts (592)

Compadres is a teacher-education program designed to bring Canadian and Salvadoran educators closer together. we have been working for the past three years on ways to develop linkages between our communities.

We are currently planning our third teacher trip to El Salvador for July 2011 and we are looking for people who are interested in coming down with us.

We plan to stay for 14 days. We will be working with a…

I am excited about a new opportunity for Grade 11 students of BC:

After the five-week holiday that was extended by a week due to a constitutional referendum in early August, schools in Kenya opened on Monday, 6^th September for the final term of the year. I was at my small rural school at nine o’clock for the opening assembly then shortly thereafter more than half the number of learners was…

The old Kikuyu elder leaned forward on his stick toward us. “When the British controlled this valley, we couldn’t send our children to school. They had to work in the fields to pick pyrethrum on the plantations. For a long time after independence, there was only one school in this valley, and many children never went to school. Now, in these times, we sit here together as equals, black and…

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Today our facilitator workshops focused on collaborative learning and teaching. There was lots of laughter as we shared ideas throughout the day. We facilitated an introduction to collaborative learning using a

reading circle approach that had the Kenyan teachers reading their…

Monday, August 9, 2010

This is the first day of facilitator workshops with the Kenyan teachers at Utimishi Academy. Many of the facilitators arrived last night so we had a chance to get to know

each other over supper. Today there was an amazing amount of great discussion

about Professional Learning Communities (PLC), the graffiti activity questions

prompted…

Thursday, August 5 and Friday, August 6, 2010

We’re busy planning for the upcoming facilitator workshops. We had worked on our handout packed for the four teaching methodologies that we are presenting next week. This was the best thing that we ever did because now

we can focus on planning and using the handouts as a guide.

We were also watching…

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The schools are all closed now for a term break. The break came early due to a referendum vote today on changes to the Kenyan constitution. All Kenyans need time to vote either yes or no to the changes.

We’ve been asking about the changes so we have a bit of an understanding of the

importance of the referendum. Some of the changes include: decentralizing the

government and giving more power to local…

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

This morning we visited classrooms at Utamishi Boys Academy in Gilgil. The school is our home for the next three weeks until we return to Nairobi on our way home. Utimishi is a

National boarding school for secondary students who have performed at the top

of the grade eight national exams. The majority of the students at Utamishi

have parents who are police officers. Half of the students are away for…

Haiti Trip Summary

In case you are wondering how my trip back home went I would prefer to tell you what you do not usually see or read about in the mainstream media. Sure, there are obstacles. Seeing the destruction, the litter, and the makeshift tents, Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas seem like a war zone. Yet, there are signs of hope, for…