My last week in Kenya

     “The students were very happy,” were the teachers’ reports when we met in final sessions after the three days of training.  The cause of students’ happiness was their teachers using some of the new strategies in their classrooms that they had learned in the training.    As you can imagine, the teacher reports made Nancy and me very happy, as well.

    The teachers who attended the seminars had received the new strategies with enthusiasm, but the proof is always in the actual application for each teacher in each classroom.  The seminars were scheduled with three days of training and two to three days for teachers to try out something that they learned, and then a final meeting day to share the outcomes. 

    First of all, Nancy and I were impressed that each teacher had implemented several things in the few days that they had between the three day training and the final session.  Teachers shared how they had used the strategies in creative ways with a wide variety of subjects.  And with success!  All the songs that Nancy had taught the teachers were immediately passed on and now hundreds of Kenyan children will be forever singing “Fish and Chips and Vinegar” in rounds and “Who Stole the Ugali from the Cooking Pot.” A group photo, presentation of certificates, and exchanges of email addresses completed the satisfying experiences of working with some outstanding Kenyan educators.

     I have never had the challenges that my Kenyan colleagues face every day in their overcrowded classrooms with few resources.  Most children, especially in rural schools, do not speak English in their homes, yet the curriculum and the government student exams are in English.  I think that one of the biggest challenges for the newly trained teachers will be to return to their schools and continue to try the new student centered strategies, while all around them their colleagues will be doing things the old way which is often punitive.  When I read the evaluation responses from the teachers, they gave me great hope that the 2012 teacher trainees are prepared to overcome all the challenges in front of them.  This is what one teacher wrote to Nancy and me:

I found Mary’s and Nancy’s approaches in teaching quite useful because of the way they were patient and appreciated all our answers.  I wish to be patient to my learners and appreciate their responses.  This will encourage them, because I too was really encouraged.

            I have had the great satisfaction of accomplishing what I came to Kenya to do, and Jim and I have enjoyed our month here very much.  We leave Saturday for Lisbon, Portugal for a belated 45^th wedding anniversary trip before we return to California.  Once home, I will post some photos of the people and sights of Kenya.

            Thank you for your interest, prayers and comments to us.

Mary

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