§ FINAL CASL REFLECTION §

Thanks to CASL I have been able to complete all of the projects’ requirements I’ve been involved in school; such as the President Award Scheme, Interact Club, Brainshine School on Wednesdays, MUN, and Sports like Basketball, Soccer and Volleyball. It changed my perspective of “community service”, its not anymore wanting to finish the required number of hours, now I just want to continue what I have started because I have learned that volunteer work is not something you just do for the sake of it; it is something you love to do and I did that by: reaching out to children, being exposed to diplomatic views, and continuing being a part of a team sport. CASL definitely prepares you for what is coming up next year, the CAS program, which I am starting next year in 11^th grade. From the moment I started CASL I have learned to balance, Creativity, Action and Service.

           

For action, I decided to try out for sports, such as Basketball, Soccer and currently in Volleyball. Basketball season was on for 4 months, with 3 days a week practice and matches at different schools, likewise in Soccer and Volleyball. At every Sport season I was able to achieve my objectives, which was to learn new skills, such as; ball handling, shooting, endurance, offensive/defensive positioning, and rules of the games. My personal objectives were: become one of the most improved players, never miss practice, attend every game no matter what, scoring points and emerging a relationship with my teammates. Basketball, Soccer and currently Volleyball, were just amazing sport seasons, we were like a family, given that we COMMUNICATED really well on the field and off the field. Our objectives during the season were ‘FUN’ and ‘LEARNING’! As coach wanted us to have fun while at the same time learn new things in an “individual/team” disciplined way. The biggest interpersonal skill that we as a team developed was learning to work together as a team and to accept each other as teammates. Although there were a couple of friend sets already established, it was encouraging to see how each of us got along well with every other player and we learned to bond together. We seemed to thoroughly enjoy being together for practices and games. We displayed good character and sportsmanship throughout the season. We always showed respect to the referees publicly even when we disagreed with their calls privately in our team huddles. Also, we were an encouragement to one another. When one of us was feeling discouraged for any reason, or was injured or sick, we would gather around her, give her a hug and a word of encouragement [A clear sign of our character of always thinking what was best for the team and not just our own individual feelings]. I came to realize in 10^th grade that being in a Team sport gives you more heart to play harder, you push yourself to be a bit better because you give your all. I love the sport, that’s why I do it everyday and it’s up to the person to manage their time in order to succeed, for example the minute I get home from practice, I take a shower, do my homework and/or revise for a quiz/test then I go to bed, I understood that this method was better then coming from practice, taking a shower, and going straight to bed, to then waking up at 2-3am to do homework, that never works.

For creativity, the main activity I participated in was being part of MUN, my objectives were to gain great research skills, and public speaking skills, along side interacting with people and cultures all over the world, and enjoy an international and professional environment. I was able to achieve that by attending the 30^th annual EAMUN here at the United Nations office in Nairobi, I was proud to be representing for the first time ever, Antigua and Barbuda, in the Human rights committee at the conference.  EAMUN was a once in a lifetime opportunity; I say this because I got to meet about 950 high school students from 61 schools [from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sweden, Tanzania, and Uganda. Students from the DRC, Malawi and Sweden were participating in the conference for the first time]. Surprisingly, we all were involved in the same projects at school! During this conference we were challenged to adopt views and attitudes other than our own; breaking away from narrow self-interest and developing international cooperation, which is one of the core values of the United Nations. We also met Ambassador Solomon Maina, the Director of the International Organization and Conferences Directorate in the Kenya Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he urged us to engage our energies in "activities that would help make a difference in the environment, culture and enhance diversity in the world.”  He underlined how the Government had pursued the youth agenda through the Ministry of Youth and Sports by establishing the Youth Enterprise Fund. The Fund has been instrumental in the creation of over 300,000 job opportunities and disbursement of KSh 5.9 billion to over 157, 000 youth enterprises across the country. The EAMUN conference is one of three such conferences hosted by the UN in Nairobi. Thanks to the EAMUN Conference I was exposed for the first time to authentic simulations of the UN General Assembly, Security Council and other multilateral bodies, which introduced me into the world of diplomacy and negotiations.  EAMUN provided a forum for discussions on different topics of international concern, and since I was in the Human Rights committee, we addressed issues such as; Women’s rights, Child labor in Africa, Human Trafficking, Modern day slavery, Education in south Sudan, and Malnutrition in central America. Currently, we are writing resolutions and preparing for the Portugal MUN Conference! With the skills I have learned I am ready to face what’s coming next.

For service, I had two major projects, which were the Interact Club and Brainshine School on Wednesdays, but the main one was the Nairobi service Trip to Brainshine. The Nairobi Service Trip for me was more than just traveling daily to the Brainshine School and teaching small children between the ages of 4-12 years old for 7hrs, this trip was all about reaching out to these children as well as facing and studying about Kenyan culture and building a relationship with the local community. Leading an educational curriculum was no easy job, we had to put into consideration not only the grade level, but also knowing our roles at all time, being very flexible, developing a high energetic voice, making the kids participate more in what we are teaching, having a good pace and speed, and lastly constantly defining vocabs. However, what we thought was going to happen didn’t, given that the local school gave us a whole different teaching schedule, which left us to make one ourselves. This situation shows the Kenyan culture, as Kenyans love to please to make their visitors feel more contented which however backfires on them most of time so giving us a different teaching schedule at the beginning was to make themselves look good, Nevertheless the bright side is we got to experience the culture and we as a group we not only quickly adjusted and able to adapt to these last minute changes but also made the effort to do what we have now, like Mr. Bismeyer said “you do what you can with what you have”,  in other words we’ve shown as a school that we were resilient. Teaching the kids was no easy job too as most of them didn’t speak English and looked puzzled, so we’ve tried every possible angle for them to learn as well as understand, we’ve used methods like taking them outside to teach, known as “exploration time” and we’ve also tried incorporating our teaching with singing and dancing known as “sing a song”. The effort of not giving up in trying to reach out to the kids was something we definitely took from. This trip became a very significant part of my life, because I not only bonded with these kids but I feel like I’ve known them for such a long time as I cared for them like my own sisters and brothers would to me. No matter what the lesson was that we were teaching them, confused or not, they never gave up, they would always be smiling and looked forward to seeing us, they just loved us. Its really fun working with kids, it was a great experience, especially knowing that we are making a difference for these kids’ lives. We learned a lot for example; the adaptation skills we used are gifts we will carry on for the rest of our everyday life. Most importantly everyone on the trip made some sort of contribution, like Mr. Bismeyer said “its like putting together a big puzzle” without everyone’s contribution it wouldn’t have happened.

Like I said before, CASL has taught me that volunteer work is not something you just do for the sake of it; it is something you love to do and most importantly something you continue no matter what, because you love it. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do next year and the years to come; I’m going to continue to reach out to children at OVC, Runda and Brainshine.

Creative - EAMUN 30TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE (3)

30^TH ANNUAL EAMUN AT THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE HERE IN NAIROBI, KENYA

I had the opportunity to participate and be part of the 30^th annual EAMUN Conference at the United Nations Office here in Nairobi Kenya, from the 13^th to the 17^th February 2012.

EAMUN is a once in a lifetime opportunity; I say this because you get to meet about 950 high school students from 61 schools [from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sweden, Tanzania, and Uganda. Students from the DRC, Malawi and Sweden were participating in the conference for the first time]. Surprisingly, we all were involved in the same projects at school!

During this conference we were challenged to adopt views and attitudes other than our own; breaking away from narrow self-interest and developing international cooperation, which is one of the core values of the United Nations.

We also met Ambassador Solomon Maina, the Director of the International Organization and Conferences Directorate in the Kenya Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he urged us to engage our energies in "activities that would help make a difference in the environment, culture and enhance diversity in the world.”  He underlined how the Government had pursued the youth agenda through the Ministry of Youth and Sports by establishing the Youth Enterprise Fund. The Fund has been instrumental in the creation of over 300,000 job opportunities and disbursement of KShs 5.9 billion to over 157, 000 youth enterprises across the country. The EAMUN conference is one of three such conferences hosted by the UN in Nairobi.

Thanks to the EAMUN Conference I was exposed for the first time to authentic simulations of the UN General Assembly, Security Council and other multilateral bodies, which introduced me into the world of diplomacy and negotiations.  EAMUN provided a forum for discussions on different topics of international concern, and since I was in the Human Rights committee, we addressed issues such as; Women’s rights, Child labor in Africa, Human Trafficking, Modern day slavery, Education in south Sudan, and Malnutrition in central America.  

Service-BrainShine School on Wednesdays (15)

J BRAINSHINE SCHOOL LAST WEEKS ON WEDNESDAYS J

The last 2 weeks [on Wednesdays] was real fun at Brainshine! We continued the “Cleanliness is godliness” activity, this time we taught the children how to brush their teeth properly. That [Wednesday] day we provided each child with a toothbrush [they were so happy to get free toothbrushes, the girls wanted the pink princess brushes, while the boys wanted the panda brushes] and toothpaste.

Srusti and I partnered, and we took charge of the Pre-Unit class, they were so adorable and eager! When they finished brushing their teeth, we moved to the next activity, which was showing them how to wash their hands and face properly, they lined up with the pieces of cloths we provided them with.

Soon after, we showed them how to cut their nails, using gloves and detol [disinfectant] we cut each of the children’s nails. At first they were a bit scared, but we assured them that if they don't cut their nails it will be filled with dirt, another problem we had was that all of the children had really short nails, so we had to be extra careful when cutting their nails.

The holidays are coming up for the Brainshine children; they will be on holiday for the next 3 weeks. I am really going to miss them! I really enjoy spending Wednesdays with them, I get to no them more and more, for example Kariuki [he is in “baby class” he is super active!] his best friend is Simon, and in pre-unit class there was a new girl, her name is Mary. Tracy loves number, if I asked the class to count to 10, she is the first to raise her hand and recite [she is sooo cute!]

Service- Interact CLub (14)

Today was the last Runda Feeding Activity for this year.

We all met at Gigiri Java, then we set off to the Runda Feeding place promptly at 10:45am. The minute we arrived, we helped the Rotary International people to set up; we opened tons of biscuits, breads, milk, candies, bananas and croissants. Then we waited for the women and children to line up.

These unfortunate people, who come to the Runda Feeding Program to be fed, come from different parts of Nairobi, some of them didn't eat for a week or more, so when they hear about the Runda Feeding happening, they all gather, young, old, men and women.

I was stationed at the Banana and croissant station, so whenever a child comes to my station I give him or her a banana and a croissant, but when they are siblings we are supposed to give two of everything.

Towards the end, one adult didn't get enough food like the small children, so he picked a rock and was drawn to get food by force, but later he was ashamed and dropped the rock. Sometimes the food we distribute is perfectly enough for the hundreds of people, and sometimes it isn’t, five to ten persons don't get enough or hardly anything.    

I was particularly pleased when this little boy said to me “THANK YOU” so sincerely, I had tears in my eyes, the fact that I gave this boy food and he said THANK YOU honestly was the most touching thing ever. I am really privilege to have participated in this program, and I will continue to do so the following years to come.

Volunteer work is not something you just do for the sake of it; it is something you love to do, as you reach out to children.      

Service- Interact Club (13)

Today was finally the “Easter Party” for the OVC children.

First things first, I arrived in school promptly at 9:30am, I met everyone in Mrs. Henderson’s room, then we divided ourselves into groups, my group leaders were Ashika and Chloe. The plan was to go get the kids then come back to ISK with your group of OVC kids.

Each group was required to complete the following activities: Swimming, Multi-court, Playground and have breakfast. My group had 22 kids, we first went to play basketball at the multi-court, most of the kids just wanted to play with the mini scooter and the hula hoops, they really enjoyed themselves. When it was time to go swimming, they changed their clothes in the changing rooms, most of them were at first very scared to go in the water, but later they had fun playing with each other and splashing water at us everywhere. When 30 minutes was up, we went to have breakfast; the menu was hot coco, chocolate milk, sausages, eggs and mandazis. Yumi!

Today was really amazing, I was especially really happy that all 60 OVC children received clothes, toys and reading books, which we had collected from the clothes drive we did at ISK weeks ago. Dorothy, one of the OVC children, told me that she enjoys spending time with us, because it is really memorable! These OVC days will stay with me, probably for the rest of my life, because I know that I touched a kid’s heart, I reached out to these kids!

Action- Zumba (6)

J ZUMBA ZUMBA ZUMBA EH! J

Since the Zumba program has began at ISK, I have been a regular student every Fridays, as I had previous experience in Zumba, specifically during last summer holidays in June, I signed up for Zumba classes at the Silver Springs Hotel here in Nairobi. However, the minute I heard Zumba was going to start here at ISK I decided to instead continue Zumba here in school, along side with my friends. Even though it’s an hour-long class, it’s really exciting. I’ve been learning the basic steps in “salsa”, “calupso”, “samba” and “meringue”. I learn something new every time. And I’m planning on continuing on improving at it. Last class on Friday, Assiatou, Danielle and I conducted the class, we worked together as a group and conducted the class, I used all my knowledge in  “Cha cha” steps in Zumba, it was really electrifying!

I am really glad that many people joined Zumba classes Fridays here at ISK, we’ve almost become a family, and we now know all the steps the Instructor conducts by heart. In my opinion, we should also have this as an option during our fitness days in the 10^th grade PE class, along with Yoga, Dance, and Team sport.       

Action-Soccer (5)

JUNIOR VARSITY GIRLS SOCCER

November 2011- 6^th March 2012

JV Soccer Season was AMAZING! We were like a family, given that we COMMUNICATED really well on the field and off the field.

Our objectives during the season were ‘FUN’ and ‘LEARNING’! As coach wanted us to have fun while at the same time learn new things in an “individual/team” disciplined way.

First things first, we were expected to be at each practice early, Tuesdays in the morning, Thursdays afterschool, and Friday mornings, even though I live significantly far from school, I would still make it to practice before 6:50am (start time) as I was committed to training and learning.

We were expected to follow these 3 simple rules. First you are expected to attend all training sessions and matches, uniformed absence from either will result in suspension from the following match. Second you are not eligible to compete on a match day if you have not attended school on that particular day. Third you are expected to maintain high academic standards throughout the season, as your training/match commitment do not serve as excuse for incomplete/ unsatisfactory work.        

We regularly worked on so many skills and drills that helped us in both offense and defense mode and I showed a marked improvement in these areas:

            One-on-One: this was the area that needed work, we would pair up with a ball, player 1 has the ball and is ‘on the attack’, while player 2 is ‘on defense’. Player 1 would try to dribble to any cone; at the same time ‘defense’ player 2 tries to prevent this from happening. Here I was required to move and think quickly at the same preventing the defense or attacker player from possessing the ball.

            Endurance: speed is important as you can blast past defenders, which creates openings and increases the chance of scoring a goal.  Shuttle runs, 3 lap runs and bleep tests in soccer are really fun, given that we run together as a team and we don't let anyone down, instead encourage them to keep up. Endurance was a main key I improved in soccer before I would stop at 4 in my bleep tests but now I was able to go as far as 6 or 7.

            Ball handling: this included many different drills that had to do with controlling and handling the ball in a very small space, we also did ball tap drills which including taping quickly the ball, and lastly maintaining possession of the ball with first touches. This helped me a lot as an offensive and defensive player in matches.

            Shooting: This was an area that needed the most work from the beginning, so we would line up and take turns shooting at our goalie, we all improved on our shootings, including our goalie.  Given that we would first dribble up, then shoot, our goalie would roll the ball to the   shooter, and just like that we would also practice one-touch shots.

            Rules of the Game: My knowledge of the game improved this year as well as my knowledge about the positions. Since I’m mostly in defense during the matches I learned that my defensive girls and I are supposed to play narrow and in a chain like, while the rest of the team is suppose to play wide and passé to one another.

In terms of winning we only won 1 game, which was against St Christopher School, 2-0. Even though we lost the other games, we made them look bad and good, otherwise we were terrific we made several attempted goals, and we did a lot of passing between us. Nonetheless I believe we, the JV Girls, are winners in our hearts.     

Service-BrainShine School on Wednesdays (12)

J Brainshine School on Wednesdays J

Ever since my Nairobi Service intercultural trip to Brainshine School; I made a decision of going to Brainshine School every Wednesday from 1:30 to 3:20. Last time Ms. Irene and the group of us decided to organize a mini international day for the Brainshine children just like the one we do every year here at ISK. The Brainshine Children came dressed in their ethnic outfits for example Luo, Kikuyu, Luya, Maasai, and Kakamenga and we the ISK students came dressed in our nationality outfits, such as Niger, South Korea, Canada, USA, Somalia and India. Everyone, including the Brainshine children came with their cultural group’s traditional food. Everyone described the food they bought and shortly after that we all had a taste. You could see how excited the children were to share their delicious food with us. In the end, they sang and danced traditional songs for us, we joined in too. I told the kids a popular folktale originated from my country, Niger, it is called “How the crocodile got his skin”, they really enjoyed the story, this lead them to ask questions about my country, Niger.

Two weeks ago, when we went to Brainshine we organized an activity called “cleanliness is godliness”, we demonstrated to the kids how to shine shoes, first we told them it is important to buy liquid and wax shoe polish in the color of their shoes, in this case all of their school shoes were black, we especially warned them that this cannot work on sport, sneakers and plastic-like shoes, then we continued demonstrating, by brushing the shoe with a larger brush in a side-to-side fast action. After that, we broke into two groups, my group was with the Pre-K (Pre-Unit) kids each one had a chance to do the activity, they were so great. Afterwards we went outside and played games as a group. It was really fun. I was really happy to know these kids; we’ve grown so fond of one another, as they remember Paul, CC, and I, from the intercultural trip.

Service- My debrief: "The Invisible Curriculum" Brainshine school (11)

The Nairobi Service Trip for me was more than just traveling daily to the Brainshine School and teaching small children between the ages of 4-12 years old for 7hrs, this trip was all about reaching out to these children as well as facing and studying about Kenyan culture and building a relationship with the local community.

Leading an educational curriculum was no easy job, we had to put into consideration not only the grade level, but also knowing our roles at all time, being very flexible, developing a high energetic voice, making the kids participate more in what we are teaching, having a good pace and speed, and lastly constantly defining vocabs. However, what we thought was going to happen didn’t, given that the local school gave us a whole different teaching schedule, which left us to make one ourselves. This situation shows the Kenyan culture, as Kenyans love to please to make their visitors feel more contented which however backfires on them most of time so giving us a different teaching schedule at the beginning was to make themselves look good, Nevertheless the bright side is we got to experience the culture and we as a group we not only quickly adjusted and able to adapt to these last minute changes but also made the effort to do what we have now, like Mr. Bismeyer said “you do what you can with what you have”,  in other words we’ve shown as a school that we were resilient.

Teaching the kids was no easy job too as most of them didn’t speak English and looked puzzled, so we’ve tried every possible angle for them to learn as well as understand, we’ve used methods like taking them outside to teach, known as “exploration time” and we’ve also tried incorporating our teaching with singing and dancing known as “sing a song”. The effort of not giving up in trying to reach out to the kids was something we definitely took from.

This trip became a very significant part of my life, because I not only bonded with these kids but I feel like I’ve known them for such a long time as I cared for them like my own sisters and brothers would to me. No matter what the lesson was that we were teaching them, confused or not, they never gave up, they would always be smiling and looked forward to seeing us, they just loved us. Its really fun working with kids, it was a great experience, especially knowing that we are making a difference for these kids’ lives. We learned a lot for example; the adaptation skills we used are gifts we will carry on for the rest of our everyday life.    

Most importantly everyone on the trip made some sort of contribution, like Mr. Bismeyer said “its like putting together a big puzzle” without everyone’s contribution it wouldn’t have happened.      

Service- Day 4 Brain shine School (10)

February 2^nd 2012

Today is the day! Our brain shine kids came over at ISK (last minute plan but we adjusted quickly and talked to the ES teachers and everything worked out) they came around 9:00 am, given that they were stuck in traffic; nevertheless we welcomed them very warmly at the gate as they came off the buses all smiling.

First things first we divided ourselves into groups, Miguel, CC, Zach, Ha Un and I volunteered to take care of the Pre-K Brain shine kids while the others took on the Grade 1&2 brain shine kids. From 9:00am to 10:50am my group and I were in class with Ms. Bogging’s ISK Pre-k class, who didn’t mind at all having the brain shine kids play and be in class with them. Each one of them did their own drawings (Simon’s was real artwork), they got to play in the playground, some of them have never seen swings, slides and playhouses so it was a great opportunity for them to paly and have fun.

After that we switched, we went off in the art center department, we first went to the dance studio where we plugged on my IPod and danced to the jams at the same time we played the “freeze game” it was real fun. Afterwards, we went to the auditorium they sat on the chairs, then we went on the stage and played “Nya ma nya ma game”, at the same time my group and I performed like tour guides, as we exhibited them every part of ISK.

At precisely 11:40 we went back to ES for lunch, each kid waited in line for food contently, they were served spaghetti bolognaise, a piece of cake, salad and a glass of juice. You could see how happy they all were, because throughout the day they were very thankful to be there. I was especially pleased seeing them eating every thing on their plate (especially Kariuki he ate every bit) as in my culture not eating everything in your plate is taken as rudeness.

Later on, as a whole we went to the lower field, did activities, played soccer, watched and laughed at Paul being pulled by the kids, (I was on bathroom duties laugh.out.loud).

Today was really fun, when it was time to go the kids didn’t want to leave as they kept on waving at us, I feel like I’ve known these kids for such a long time, they were like my own siblings,  they were so sweet and well-mannered throughout the trip. 

Service- Day 3 Brain shine School (9)

February 1st 2012, 

Today was our last day at Brain shine

(We found out later in the day that they were having visitors on Friday so we couldn’t go there, so now the plan is Thursday they are coming to ISK from 8:30 to 1:30) Nevertheless we made today our best last day, we started the morning with PPI Religious class with the whole school (which was just   Pre-K and 1&2 grade) CC and Alex started off with the Jesus story then we did the “cuckoo” song it goes like this “cuckoocukoorookoo it is time to pray with daddy cuckoo before the sun is high…” the smile on these kids faces was pure happiness as we joined them eagerly. After that we helped hand out Jesus coloring pages for the kids to color. Shortly we had a break, all the kids were given their porridge in their classrooms and I took advantage of that time to go around every classroom from my pre-k babies to grade 1&2 and gave each kid a spoon of sugar in their porridge, they were so pleased, I felt great to see them enjoy their “now sweet” porridge.

After the break, Miguel, Priyanka and I went and taught both grade 1 and pre-k revision work of last time shapes, counting and the alphabet, to my amazement they all remembered, especially Nicole the youngest of pre-k class, then we went on and taught “naming of clothes” a lesson in Swahili our objective was for the kids to be able to name clothing pieces in both English and Swahili for example Viatu in Swahili equals shoes in English.

After lunch (we had Ugali + Sukumawiki = delicious!) we did environmental activity with the kids, we first did environmental clean up, which was basically picking up any trash around the whole school then we planted 3 trees around the school. This activity was to enforce the importance of trees and keeping our environment clean.   

Service- Day 2 Brain shine School (8)

Jan 31 2012

Today was “the big day”, we were both nervous and excited to teach the students at Brain shine school.

Early in the morning we set off to the school, but we came a little late and classes already began, so there was no time to take a mini tour of the school. Mrs. Eunice, the head mistress, welcomed us at the entrance, she introduced herself and the classes that were currently present, given that grade 3 and 4 were missing today, she went on about not fearing the children as they are sweet little angels who at first will be shy but later they will open up to us. Miguel and I was assigned to teach the kindergarten kids, which was a bit confusing as we only planned to teach P.E and S.st. to grade 3 so at that moment we had to teach the s.st lesson to the kindergarteners but on a lower level so they could understand and participate.

Today was challenging most of the time we didn’t know what to teach or had to re-plan what to teach as the schedules given to us was not what was being followed currently, nevertheless it was really fun Miguel and I really got along with the KG kids they were focused, hyper and mainly understood what we were telling them. We taught them Math- counting numbers, shapes, and recognizing colors, as well as Social studies- we talked about houses in Kenya then later they went off individually to build their own Lego houses. After that, we taught them English- reciting the alphabet along with words that go with the letter and sang songs. Last but not least, we read them books in Swahili and English they loved the “Mcheshi goes to the market” book  (they enjoy listening to stories very much) at the end of the story we asked them questions. They were so hyper and cheery. When it became too hot in the classroom we would tell them to make a line, then we would set off outside and continue our lesson in numbers, we did the “tap head” number they had to count everyone going around in circle, and “ball” number they had to hold the ball and count. These were great activities Miguel and I came up with.

Another challenge we had was that one of the kids was a “mini Paul” his name was Kariuki, at first we didn’t know what to do with him as he was creating chaos in the classroom, but thankfully Mr. Bismeyer was there, and showed us what to do, we took Kariuki outside the classroom where he had to stand there for a minute until we told him to come back in, and it worked. 

Service- Day 1 Brainshine school (7)

January 30th 2012,

Today was like a “workshop and practice” day,

We came to school at exactly 8:00 am and met up in Mrs. Osborn’s room.

First thing in the morning Mrs. Osborn gave us an hour to prepare and polish our lesson plans for the three days. Miguel and I went to the library he researched on the social studies our community, the different types of housing used in Kenya, as I photocopied coloring pages for the kids to cut and paste body parts in Swahili. At that moment we felt pretty confident with our contents. Later on, we had a tea break, then we went off to the elementary pre-k and kindergarten, we observed how the teachers interacted with each student, their techniques they used, for example I was going with the 1^st grade class to the library and one boy kept on stopping and causing chaos in the line (they were supposed to walk straight in line to the library) so the teacher just hold up her fingers and counted to three, this was a great technique of control as the boy quickly understood the warning and went straight in line without a word. Afterwards, some of us went to the music room with another class, some of us stayed and talked to Ms. Little the KG teacher, and took a look at her classroom and see if we could use any lesson idea at the brain shine school. After that we had lunch, then we met at exactly 11:20 in her classroom. Meanwhile we were given 10min to gather our plans and present them group-by-group to the rest of the class. 

When it was Miguel and I’s turn we began with our first class on Tuesday which was “our community”, we thought of printing out pictures of different types of housing in Kenya explain it to the kids then we will separate them into groups and give them building blocks to create their own ideal houses. The same day we have P.E we thought of having balls and hula-hoops. On Wednesday we have P.E and “our leaders” social studies to teach, we thought of searching Kenyan traditional leaders and explain the different types of leaders. On Thursday we have 2 Kiswahili classes to teach one is “Naming of clothes” for the 1&2 graders, we thought of doing a clothes line hanging paper clothing parts in a string and have each student name them in Swahili as well as English, the other one is “body parts” for the 3 graders, we thought of photocopying cut and paste body parts coloring pages and as the students are doing they will name the parts in Swahili after that we will learn a song on body parts. We were given few minutes to pick a lesson and teach it to the class. As all the groups including mine went, then later we talked about what they did well, what went wrong, and what didn’t seem interactive enough. 

In the end, we came up with the following objectives for the next three days while we are teaching: Know your role, be flexible, high energetic voice, make the kids participate more in what we are teaching, have a good pace and speed, and always define fancy words/vocabs. These were great objectives we as a class and Mr. Bismeyer and Mrs. Osborn came up with as most of us lacked these objectives during our first trial of teaching, for example Miguel and I got the energy, the pace and the kids participating but we lacked organization like who is going to say what and when. 

The goal for this trip is to have fun and learn, it’s like a great opportunity to be silly and exploring a whole new side of us.