Day 10 - Independence

Our plan for the last day was to check the status of the floors for Grades 3 and 6, the door that the carpenter was making for grade 6 and the mural. We also planned to have a wrap-up meeting with the principal to share our list of potential projects for next year which we developed over the two weeks we've been here. We also wanted to show a picture slideshow to each of the classrooms and say goodbye.

On arrival, we noticed that the mason was still working on Grade 3 and the touch ups for Grade 6. The mural was completed and stunning. The carpenter, however, was delayed, due to wood being too wet to make the doors. He assured us however, he would be able to do it that evening.

Mr. Thasleem, the IT teacher, had found and commented on our blog and subsequently decided to create a separate blog for the school. As part of a future plan to teach basic IT skills to Grade 11, Mr. Thasleem brought one of the donated laptops to show the students how to use the internet. Instead, he showed them our blog. Not understanding exactly the purpose of this in terms of learning how to log onto the internet, we decided to explain our blog to the Grade 11 class. Then, we began to visit class by class and present a slideshow of all of the pictures we had taken over the two weeks. The kids were happy to see themselves and their friends on a computer screen. At the end of the slidshow for Grade 7, one boy came to us and said to me, using his best English, "Please I want a building". It was really moving as 1. he spoke English, and 2. his request was most appropriate- his classroom is a 'temporary' one, that is, outside in the sand. Some students even brought little gifts for us. This was very touching since they have almost no money to spare.

Many of the teachers followed us around with our laptop and took pictures of us in the last few moments of our day. The principal also organized some refreshments for us and the other teachers. Mr. Farzan gave a little speech to thank us for our visit and they presented us with some Sri Lankan souvenirs. Very clearly, they were very happy with our visit and the work we were able to do during our short visit. We invited the teachers to think about next year and submit their requests to the principal so that we have a starting point for our teacher meeting in 2011.

All in all, we had a great day. It was nice to be able to say proper goodbyes to everyone. We are looking forward to next year.

Day Nine- Transitions

When we arrived, we virtually ran to the Montessori wall to see the evolution since yesterday. It was astounding! The backgrounds of each section of the wall were partially painted and the initial outlining for the art was underway. The assigned teachers were in charge and students were busy painting. There was nothing else for us to do but admire their work. And that is exactly what we were aiming for!

Next, we checked the floor of Class 3. That too seemed to be well on its way. Children from that classroom had their lessons under the shade of a large tree to keep cool.

We decided to hold one last Sports Day for the little little ones- again, we used the tires in the Assembly Hall and also used the other equipment that was available (that we bought)- football, volleyball, and cricket bats. This group was definitely more challenging as these young children generally respond slowly to instructions, especially novel ones. We were asking them to do lots of strange things that seemed normal to us. For example, the concept of running towards a target and running back to your team to tag the next runner... completely clueless. But after 4 activities requiring this skill, our little athletes began to get it. We must remember to spend more time with them next year. They are highly under-stimulated; not their fault though or the fault of the school. The government simply hasn't budgeted for a kindergarten teacher or PE teacher for that matter.





Finally, it was time to deliver the much anticipated laptops and digital cameras donated to us by the American School in London as well as the dongle they requested to access the internet. We attempted to give a mini-training on how to upload and email pictures taken with one of these cameras (a condition we have made in order to see the work they are doing with this multimedia equipment)... but very quickly we realized we were not needed. They have an IT guy who was managing just fine... he already has plans to unlock the dongle so you can insert a different sim card!

The transition is definitely underway. Tomorrow, we plan to go in, admire the ongoing work and and say goodbye to each class.

Day Eight- Delegation Day

Another busy day at Al Ishraq! We continued with Sports Day for Grades 1 & 2, with different activities. This time, we incorporated some tire action for the kids. It was very interesting how little understanding kids had of teamwork. But by the third game, they were familiar with the idea as well as competition. The English teacher asked us to provide him a CD of these PE ideas and we replied that we didn't actually have any special resources, just our imagination. New concept!

Then, came negotiating the price of the mason to redo the floors of Grades 3 & 6. The first quote we received seemed too high but to verify the going rate for such a job, we asked for another mason to give us a quote, this time by talking to the English teacher and not us. The Principal found it funny that we were aware of local vs. tourist prices.

Next, it was time to organize and delegate the Montessori Wall Mural Project. We asked the English teacher to supervise the Art Competition of Grades 10 & 11 (we needed to go back to town to buy brushes and paint thinner). Much to our relief, all of these students were busy drawing when we came back. Before we were to have the teacher meeting that we requested to form the Montessori Wall Mural Committee, we rolled our sleeves and began sanding the wall selected for the mural. It took a little teasing and probing to get some of the teachers to join us. In fact, the roles were slightly reversed as they were the ones to take pictures of us!! Soon, though, some high school students came to take over.

Finally, it was time for our teacher meeting. The teachers were giggling at this strange habit of ours to meet and discuss ideas. They think we are mad! Wait till we ask them to join hands and sing a song!! just kidding :) Very quickly, the teachers were chosen by the Principal to select the winning pictures and supervise the painting of them for the 4 sections of the wall (Environment, Sri Lankan animals, Beach Life and Family).

Before we left, high school students started painting the mural wall with primer. And off we went... time for our lime juice (no sugar), lunch and an Arugam Bay Dip before we have to go buy more paint.

Day Seven- Montessori Wall Mural Project

Day 7- July 13, 2010

Today was our first day at Al Ishraq without Aerian, who left last night to join her daughter who is graduating from Medical School. We were a little nervous of how we would get on without Fearless Aerian, but we ploughed forward as we had planned. As discussed with Aerian, we extended Sports Day for another day to include grades 3, 4 and 5. Just like yesterday, the buzz among the students and the teachers assisting was at an all time high. Mr. Farzan and Mr. Ansar were impressed that such simple activities could stir up so much excitement! As a result, we decided that we would organize a Sports Day for the little ones in Grades 1 & 2 tomorrow. Ideas are forming as we are writing this blog. Our Sports Day activities will undoubtedly involve the tires we saw lying around in the Assembly Hall…

We started a new project today, one that has been developing in our minds before Aerian left. Principal Rafeek has expressed dismay at their ‘Montessori School’ and has wanted to do something about the sad environment that surrounds these adorable kindergarten children. Luckily, in anticipation of organizing a school-wide project, we brought multiple paint colours from Colombo for a large mural project. Stars aligned, we were excited that our gift of paints to the Principal could be used to revv up the ‘Montessori’ section of the school. During a meeting with Principal Rafeek and the English teachers, we presented the idea of sectioning off the wall into 4 sections that would cover 4 different themes (the English teachers thought of using the English curriculum for themes). They are: Sri Lankan Beach/Underwater Life, Sri Lankan Animals (land and air), Environment (rainforest) and Family. In order to generate art ideas/items for these sections, we proposed a drawing competition for grades 8-11, where each student from each grade would draw mural items from the themes assigned to them. We only got drawings for Grades 8 & 9 today but we were really impressed with some of the drawings we saw. Principal Rafeek in particular was amazed- almost as if he couldn’t believe he had artists in his student body. It made sense considering the school has not had an art teacher at all this year.

For many reasons such as encouraging autonomy (from the likes of us!), independent creative thinking, community building etc… we requested a meeting of all of the teachers tomorrow to assemble a Montessori Wall Project Committee. It will be up to the Committee to select the winning student art, students who will paint on the wall and the management of the entire project. This is very exciting for us to fade out so early in a project.

Our last order of business today was to have a meeting with a carpenter who would quote the making of 2 classroom doors for the classrooms that we are fixing. The price seems a bit steep but when given the choice between 2 new doors or 2 more fans, Principal Rafeek quickly made the choice of 2 new doors. So, 2 new doors it will be and our budget will be exhausted.

Day Six – Sports Day

We were up bright and early to get ready for sports day. Armed with cricket bats, a soccer ball and other supplies including a mountain of biscuits we set off for school. The children have had no PE teacher this year and so they get no opportunity to run around during the day. We would normally run the sports day on our last day but Aerian is returning to the UK tomorrow for her daughter’s graduation and so we brought the day forward.

On arrival at school we discovered that neither of the two English teachers who were to help us run the day had come to school and neither had the Principal who had given permission for the day to go ahead! This was a language challenge as we recruited other teachers to help us instead. They all cheerfully got involved and soon there was a great game of cricket going between the two 7th grade boys classes.

We organized teams games for the 7th grade girls and the whole of the 8th grade. Four teams of ten competed in running, hopping, egg and spoon (adapted to trowel and tennis ball) and ball games. We modeled the games and asked the teachers to translate for the children. Much hilarity ensued as misunderstandings were ironed out but soon everyone got the hang of it and the children competed excitedly and noisily watched by the younger children.

We then repeated the games for the 6th grade whilst the 7th grade girls went off to do art activities. It is always sad for us that we cannot include the entire school in the sports activities but there is not enough space or enough of us to run the activities simultaneously.

After the games every child in the school got some cookies and we prepared for a meeting with the teachers.

Meeting with teachers
We wanted to meet with all the teachers to make sure that they understood why we were there as we have been mainly working with the English teachers so far this year. We had prepared a short questionnaire to find out if there are any ways that they would like us to work with them next year. We had the questions translated into Tamil and the teachers could answer the questions in Tamil or English.

Next we presented the laptops computers and digital cameras, donated by ASL. We had held back on this until now as we had three concerns. Firstly we wanted to make sure that the teachers knew that these laptops were for them all to use with their classes not just the English teachers. Secondly we wanted to make quite explicit that these laptops are to support them as they teach the children – they are not for personal use and are not to leave the school premises. Finally we had concerns that the computers might reduce further the time that teachers spend with their students.

We also gave them a ‘dongle’, which will allow them to access the internet. We asked them to use the cameras to send us photos to keep us updated with how they are using the computers, with the promise of more next year if they are being used well.

We also gave them the paint needed to paint the 3rd and 6th grade classrooms and explained we would repair the floors and supply 4 fans to keep the children cooler in those rooms.

A busy and successful day!

Day Five - Observing an English teacher

As requested on Wednesday, we watched Mr. Farzan teach a lesson on Transport, hoping that he would incorporate a small group activity in his lesson.

Mr Farzan started the lesson off using visual aids (toy vehicles - an ambulance, a car, a helicopter etc.), labelling each vehicle and having said the students repeat after him.


Then he produced some flashcards which had pictures of different vehicles on them. Again, he said the word in English and students repeated the word after him. He explained to students some of the vehicles they did not know.


On the board, Mr. Farzan drew a column for three categories: land, sea and air. He gave an example of how to do this exercise, writing a form of transport under each category. Then he handed out some flashcards to each group of students by category and asked them to identify the category to which they belonged. Each group of students came up with a list of vehicles under the categories land, sea and air. As a culminating activity, Mr. Farzan had students copy down the list of vehicles into their notebooks. Groups exchanged lists with each other so that all students had all three categories.


On a very basic level, we were really pleased with Mr. Farzan's lessons. It stood out to us that:

• he had prepared his lesson before class (which he wrote out!!!!!!)
• he had attempted to use visual aids to teach vocabulary
• he had incorporated a small group activity so that students had the opportunity to practice speaking English and cooperate with their peers.

After the lesson, we debriefed with Mr. Farzan, pointing out to him the things he had done well, as well as some lesson extension ideas.

We hope that Mr. Farzan was encouraged by his success and that he will continue to use these simple but critical elements in teaching.

Day Four - Visit to Palamunai

Since our first day at Al Ishraq school, we were told of a school where each child had a portable laptop given to them. Very intrigued and very curious about how the use of laptops might be used or integrated in teaching, we requested to visit that school. After a one-hour bus and a tuk tuk ride, we arrived at Tharcel Hasanth Vidyalayam, a primary school in Palamunai. The principal and the English teacher greeted us with enthusiasm and proceeded to explain how they acquired these laptops. They explained that they were selected (because they were small, rural and poor) by the Ministry of Education to participate in a pilot program funded by the World Bank, which we later found out was called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). Insert wiki link

Each laptop weighs about 2 kilos, is ‘weatherproof’, low maintenance and has a solar powered battery which can be used to charge computers without electricity. This feature is extremely relevant for charging computers in areas where electricity is scarce or too expensive to access. A team of computer consultants at the Ministry of Education developed the software inside these laptops to include the entire primary school syllabus in Tamil, Sinhala and English. The English teacher could not elaborate on how long the pilot program would last and which criteria would be used to measure success of the OLPC pilot program by the Ministry of Education. We did find out that the school is visited every fortnight for observations. Depending on the success of that program however, all Sri Lankan school children will receive these laptops in due time.

Our observations:

We observed that students had a good level of comfort in navigating a computer and that the tasks were engaging (except some of the younger children in Class 1 who had difficulty reading the instructions of the computer activities). However we were disappointed not to see the laptops used as part of a lesson. Instead, we saw students in one class choosing any activity of interest and there was little teacher mediation.

Upon reflection, we were pleased to see such high student engagement in the laptops. In addition, we observed collaboration between students where students helped other students navigate the sites. If the objective of these laptops is to familiarize students with technology and give them resources to consolidate their learning, the laptops seemed to serve that purpose. Our concern however is that these laptops would further decrease teacher instruction which is already very minimal.

~Alex & Bindiya

Day Three - Teaching Grades 7 and 8

We were asked to teach a lesson for grade 7 and grade 8.

The first lesson was on the language used in notices. It was quite a challenge to prepare that lesson as the language in the samples of the notices in the children’s books was exceedingly complex for the English level of these students. It was also difficult because some of the examples were not culturally relevant. This time, we decided to use readily available materials (paper and markers) and to use the student book as our main resource for planning and implementing our lesson. Our lesson plan was very simple and consisted of only two parts: First, a whole class discussion of notices and their components with a whole class practice on understanding them and second a small group practice of different notices. Although challenging, some of the students seem to be able to extrapolate the main information of the notices that they were working on after few prompts. Our goal for Mr. Farzan and Mr. Anzar was for them to observe how they can plan a lesson using their own book (no extra resources needed), integrate whole class and small group work and use small group time to attend to every student, especially those struggling ones.

The second lesson was on contractions (he is = he’s). Again, we kept the lesson plan simple, requiring minimal materials (sheets of paper and pebbles collected from the school grounds) and consisting of only one whole class mini-lesson and a small group activity. In addition, we used hand gestures throughout the lesson to visually describe the concept of a contraction. The small group activity was simple, a game of Bingo, that included both a receptive and expressive component. In this lesson, we emphasized the power of small group activities: they allow for peer learning and afford teachers the opportunity to attend all students, particularly those who need additional teacher input.

Day Two - Teaching Grades 3 and 4

This post is somewhat technical - feel free to skim...

Grade 3 English lesson,

Topic: Clothes
Our premise for this lesson was twofold: to introduce teachers to the concept of a three-part lesson design, i.e. model/guided practice/independent practice, and incorporation of receptive and expressive language skills. We also wanted to make the lesson interactive and culturally relevant. I asked the English teacher to bring in some items of clothing typical to Sri Lanka – these included a sari, a salwar kameez, a kurta and a sarong.

Resources: a poster with cutouts from magazines, real clothes, paper cutouts of various items of clothing (skirt, shirt, kurta, sari, trousers), paper cutouts of male/female dolls.

Model: Teach vocabulary words for items of clothing, using the poster, real items of clothing and paper cutouts of clothing. In this section, I basically pointed to the item, enunciated the words to students, and had them repeat the words after me.

Receptive language:
Guided practice: Distribute paper cutouts of clothing to each student. Say to students, “If you have a _________, stand up.” Repeated this for each item of clothing.

Expressive language:
Model: I asked Aerian “What is Alex wearing?”
Aerian answers, “She is wearing a skirt and a blouse”
I write on the board “She is wearing a skirt and a blouse”
I also write on the board “ She is wearing ______ _______ _____ ____”

I ask Aerian, “What is Mr. Ansar wearing?”
Aerian answers, “He is wearing trousers and a shirt.”
I write on the board, “He is wearing trousers and a shirt”
I also write on the board “ He is wearing ______ _______ _____ ____”


Guided practice: I read the question and point to the answer on the board, so that the students can repeat the sentences – “He is wearing” and “She is wearing.” Then together, we practice some novel sentences, using paper dolls and paper clothes. We show students how to use the clothes with the dolls. And then to say “She is wearing…”

Independent practice: In their groups, students take turns dressing the paper dolls and saying the sentences “He is wearing”, “She is wearing” and various vocabulary items.

Culminating activity: Students take turns coming out to the front of the class to tell each other what their dolls are wearing.


Reflection
I think on the whole, the lesson went well. Students loved the paper dolls and paper clothes and being able to dress the dolls up. It would have been great if we had had more dolls (one per student), and more items of clothing, so there could have been variation.

These students are very shy to speak in front of the class – it’s not something they are used to at all. Therefore, when they share, their voices are inaudible. Is sharing in front of a class a cultural thing?

Grade 4

Our first day at Al Ishraq School

Before we arrived at Al Ishraq school we were nervous about what we would find:
. Would any of the supplies we brought last time still be there?
. Would any of the supplies have been used?
. What would the new Principal be like?
. What requests would they make of us?
. Would there be any changes in the way the teachers were teaching?
. Would the atmosphere and energy be different from the post-tsunami Arugam Bay we experienced in 2005?

We were pleasantly surprised to find:
. There is an "Environment Day" every Monday where students are required to clean up the school area
. There seemed to be more children in school
. Most of the outside walls of the school were colourfully painted - albeit with advertisements
. Some outside classroom walls had been colourfully painted with health messages
. A few of the classrooms had been painted
. There has been a program to encourage planting of small trees and they are being watered
. There were some patches of grass shaped like butterflies and flowers - also watered
. Most classrooms had lockable cupboards donated by various organizations (in addition to the four we had donated in 2005)
. One of the primary classrooms exhibited student work and the walls had been painted with the alphabet and numbers
. The 'English Unit' was still there (although not used exclusively as an English unit) and so were the supplies we had donated
. The Principal's office boasted three brand new computers given by the government
. A new classroom had been built in anticipation of a computer unit
. There were new girls and boys bathrooms donated by ADRA
. The children are getting a rice meal at midday thanks to the World Food Program (WFP)
. There is a new building which apparently has been built by the WFP to store and cook food
. There is a new building for teachers quarters donated by the Swedish Government
. There was no mention of the tsunami or the war which recently ended, and no observable stress related to either event.

Still there was much work awaiting us. On arrival we were quickly met by the two new English teachers (Mr Farzan and Mr Anzar) who have replaced Mr Ameer (now at another school in Pottuvil). Their number one request was laptop computers and internet access to support their teaching and to give them access to materials on line.

We took a tour of the school and were again shocked by the high rate of teacher absenteeism and lack of teaching happening in the classrooms. On our tour we only saw teaching happening in one classroom! It was important for us to meet the Principal in order to start a new collaboration. He seemed however unavailable and perhaps disinterested and constantly protected by an entourage of teachers who spoke little or some English. We assumed the Principal's limited English might be a barrier for us. After dodging many solicitations for computers and internet we managed to get the English teachers to concentrate on teacher training which they seem genuinely interested in learning more about. They asked us to teach two English lessons the next day to Grades 3 and 4.