Sunday, February 28, 2010

St. Lawrence Students Come for a Visit

All what was taught during the LitWeek is never a forgotten story. The pupils have continued reading and writing for practice and perfection.

Furthermore, students from St. Lawrence University joint the pupils this week and did more work with the pupils. The group of students are on the Kenya Semester Program (KSP). They study many different subjects, for example History, Biology, English, Psychology, Gender Studies, Politics, Economics, Art, and Environmental Conservation among other things.


St. Lawrence students were split up into different Red Rose classes to mingle with pupils and learn more from each other. For instance, in Class 3, we had PJ Miller who studies American History as a second year student. He did a great job of teaching the pupils.

The pupils have benefitted very much from the St. Lawrence students' visit. They found their teachings very interesting and it expanded their knowledge and skills in their day at school. The college students taught them about Geography, Food Production, Housing, Religion, and Culture in Kenya and America. The Red Rose School gives the St. Lawrence group a lot of credit for their great job with the students. In exchange, the group also appreciated the warm welcome of the Red Rose Children's Centre.

"Teacher PJ" took right off where Class 6's teacher left off and read the students a chapter from Charlotte's Web. Below: Students enjoy their visit to Red Rose.
by Teacher Joyce

Monday, February 22, 2010

LitWorld visits Red Rose Again!

It happened to be a fantastic week since we were blessed to have some visitors from the LitWorld Organization. The organization's Director Pam Allyn, along with her LitWorld team consisting of her husband Jim, Annie, a kindergarten teacher, Jonathan, a teacher and co-founder of a literacy building NGO in Ghana. Our visitors attended different classes where they shared their knowledge of reading and writing learning skills with our children. For example. Teacher Annie attended the baby class and practiced reading skills with them through the power of pictures. Even the youngest class at Red Rose was able to improve their reading skills by forming ideas and stories through story books full of captivating images and Teacher Annie's enthusiastic reading aloud.
Jonathan taught classes one through six skills they could use to begin writing their own books. He stressed that anyone can write a book, and becoming an author is a very empowering feeling for a young student and certainly improves their reading and writing skills. Our students gained the confidence and skills to put their original thoughts into book form and were even able to produce books using "Reale" online book making technology. In the afternoon hours, the LitWorld team held seminars for Red Rose teachers. Teacher Pam and Teacher Annie shared their teaching knowledge and experience to give us some new and innovative ideas on how to teach our students to read. Teachers began by asking any questions they had about teaching reading, and the seminar proved to be very helpful. In addition to all of the fun and informative activities above, the kind people from LitWorld generously provided every student and staff member with a lovely LitWorld T-shirt. We were all very thankful.
On the final day of the LitWorld workshop, we celebrated with a party to say our goodbyes. Our visitors were entertained by the presentation of songs and poems that the children sang and recited for them. Later on, our visitors were showered with presents as a thank you for the wonderful job they did at Red Rose. Us teachers were so thankful to our visitors and will continue to use the new teaching techniques, games, books, and skills that we learned.

Monday, February 8, 2010

NEW RED-ROSE MIDDLE SCHOOL EXPERIENCE!!

A cold drop of water on a thirsty, hungry throat is how I can describe this new school. It wouldn’t have come at a better time than this! Children of Kibera Foundation (CoKF) have just made it happen! They have just made sure that these children, most of who are orphaned, don’t end up homeless and on the street because to many, Red-rose is home away from home. It came as a surprise to these students but they took it calmly. Most of them couldn’t hide their joy. It is their dream opportunity, their newly founded middle school!
This is a big impact to these vulnerable children. The smiles and grins on their faces couldn’t pass without notice. As their teacher, I couldn’t hesitate to ask a few of them to share their experience with me and here are some of the answers I get.
‘My name is Quinter Atieno. I am in sixth grade. Our new school is located at a quiet and peaceful environment different from the previous school which was full of squeaks and screams of the little ones of the pre-school.’
Another sixth grader with similar opinions is Brian and he has this to say. ‘My name is Brian. This school is nice!’ he says jovially. I ask Brian to expound on what he means by nice and he continues; ‘Now more than ever, I feel as playful as a kitten. The playground here is bigger and green. While playing, I don’t have to worry about stepping on or hitting the babies in pre-school and spend a lot of time trying to apologize.’ The same sentiments are made by Quinter. ‘I was worried about more classrooms being constructed at this already squeezed place.’ Brian says.
They both think that their new classes are spacious with concrete walls for easier hanging and sticking of learning materials and other aids. It is evident that this new school is an unveiling story. It is a whole new experience!!