Teacher Training Week

This week is dedicated to teacher training. Last year when we did teacher training, I was working with one teacher and we did it when the students were on school vacation. I was able to give ideas and I showed some techniques, but if I did modeling, it was to Sarah and the teacher.

Building words with syllable cards

Building words with syllable cards

Modeling read alouds

Modeling read alouds

This year is very different in many wonderful ways. First, we have three teachers. Second, Veronika is very knowledgeable and has been with the project for over a year and really understands the point and why we need to change some of the teaching techniques. She is a mentor for the other two teachers and she directs them. Third, I got to do teacher training while children are present. That means that we are using a much more effective model of training, practicing, and more modeling by me, and some coaching as the children are present and they are working together. It is really awesome to see the teachers pick up so quickly on the new ideas, but also to have a vibrant conversation with Veronika about pedagogy and how to balance their traditional pedagogy with new ideas. We are slowing introducing new concepts, but at the same time because these children will go back to the typical methods of teaching in their general education classroom, we need to continue to respect these methods and find ways for them to learn in that situation. Some of these children have made astronomical gains that I didn’t expect. I think it will be critical to see how they continue to do in their general education classroom next year and the year after. Was this enough of a boost? Are they now learning from that teacher and that classroom?

Teacher training with our three teachers

Teacher training with our three teachers

Children practicing writing during individual work time

Children practicing writing during individual work time

This has brought me also to think more critically about training in other countries with different techniques that we typically use. First, they need to teach Swahili differently than I learned it, because it is their native language, but also because Swahili functions as a language much differently than English and some of the ideas like rhyming just don’t work well. Furthermore, I think that to make teaching methods sustainable they need to be modified and enhanced slowly so that there is buy-in and comfort with the procedures and teachers continue to use them. In addition, we want to develop a model that is transferable and sustainable across many schools in Tanzania. Because that involves working with many teachers and principals, we need cooperation amongst all. To gain that support and cooperation, it will be important to provide a model that has proven results but also is feasible and functioning with the resources available in a typical Tanzanian school. Change is slow, but then leads to last changes and lasting success.

Beyond the pedagogical techniques, I believe strongly that the growth has been made because of the individual attention that children have received. If you have been in a large classroom (70-100 students) in Tanzania or another country where class sizes are large with one or two teachers, you will observe that children fight to be noticed or to answer and make sure they are right or blend in and get lost in the crowd. Children give choral responses to questions and copy and fill in answers off the chalkboard. If they make many mistakes, they have to go back and do it again and again. Sometimes, they will copy off their neighbors, but that doesn’t help them to learn. While the best and brightest can thrive in this environment, many children in the middle get lost and may or may not catch up over time.

I have observed through the work on this project the real power of working children individually and in small groups doing much of the same thing as in a big class, but by giving them the opportunity to express themselves and frequent practice and feedback. Because these children come to work with Veronika and the other teachers in small groups 4-5 days a week, they receive an immense amount of feedback and support to learn their basic skills. Children with learning disabilities need that additional support and feedback. This alone has made huge difference. When children aren’t getting something, they notice and try something different. But, I think the most important change for many of these children is that they have found their voices. Some of the children I saw last year were timid and knew that they were not doing well in school and hid out of shame, because that was how some were taught to feel. They thought it was their fault or they were doing something wrong. This year, the children have come out of their shells and are confident and talk to us and joke with us. Many of them I see are smiling and more confident. Finding their voice is the best outcome, even though we can’t measure it.

Veronika reading a book

Veronika reading a book

We are focused on strategies to enhance literacy and math skills, but as I mentioned earlier in other posts, we work on many different skills.

The Roads of Tanzania

On Sunday and Monday, Sarah and I made the long drive to Lushoto from Moshi. It is not nearly as far as you could go, but it is 4-5 hours and it seems long because there are long stretches of road with similar scenery. As many people know, I don’t like to drive and I really don’t like car rides. But, I am thankful to Sarah for driving so I didn’t have to and for driving so that we didn’t have to take the bus. On this trip, you pass through at least two different biospheres (Tanzania has 5). The lowlands are tend to be hot and dusty. Going to Lushoto, you drive up a road that is literally on the edge of the mountain. Since they drive on the left, driving up can be a little scary as cars, buses, and trucks come by at high speeds on a road that was’t really made for two cars. Luckily, there are often little extended spots to stop and let the larger vehicles pass. In addition, there are not tons of paved roads in Tanzania. In cities, like Moshi, the main roads are paved, but sides roads are still dirt. The road Sarah lives on is dirt but connected to a paved road.

Here is a video of some of the landscape along the main highway between Moshi and where we turn to go up the mountain to Lushoto. Please note these clips are not necessarily in order.

In Lushoto, there is one main paved road. While we were there, they were fixing/enhancing it. In addition, they were paving the road up to the Irente Viewpoint and up to Irente where Keith and I lived and worked for a year when I did my dissertation.

In the morning, I was walking up the road to Irente to go visit the school where I did my dissertation research. I passed a group of women with what seemed like garden tools and a man with a notebook. They were walking up the mountain. Several of them wanted to be my friend and asked me where I was going and if I would come to their house later. I asked where they were going and they said work. I enquired as to the work. It turns out these 20 women were making the road. Trucks had dumped piles of rocks at various places and they had to move and smooth the rocks so that the steamroller could squish and mold the rocks together for a road. They also had to break the bigger rocks apart into smaller chunks. There were no men working. Now I know the road to Irente is being build by strong women. Here are some pictures of the road as dirt and  packed stones.

stoneroad

Stone road

Dirt Road

Dirt Road

Puppet time

On Friday, the project does art activities and games with the students that are different from the normal small group instruction they receive Monday through Thursday to support their academic skills. These activities are designed to be creative and let the children experience additional opportunities to work on their social skills, social-emotional development, and their executive functioning. In addition, these are activities that would not occur in a normal primary classroom in Tanzania but are designed to support their development by thinking in different ways. Given that we are trying to help these students make big gains to close the achievement gap between them and their peers, it is important to use multimodal teaching techniques and multisensory activities to help them integrate what they are learning.

artsuppliessnacktime

This week we taught them to dance the Makerena, we bowled, and we made paper bag puppets. This was all really fun, but a different type of fun and experience than in the United States. I will post pictures later of the Makerena. The biggest challenge for both the Tanzanian teachers and students was the idea that this activity was creative and there was no right or wrong answer. We had to keep saying that “Usiwezi kukosea” or you can’t make a mistake. Sarah had made an example, but at first they all wanted to copy the example. After a while, the teachers started to understand, but the children were still timid in picking materials to use. They were expecting to be told what to do and how to do it and whether it was right or wrong. This was the first time they had done an activity like this. Typically, art in Tanzanian schools is drawing and they draw and color pictures based on real objects and there is a right and wrong way to do it. This is very reminiscent of the Harry Chapin song “Roses are Red and green leaves are green.”

glittertime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeJJOjb7fj4

childpuppet Overall, the kids did great. Here are some examples of their work.

art activity

puppetart3puppetart4puppetart2

Back to the Assessment

Today, we started to assess the students who started with the project last year. These students are in standard 2 (grade 2) now and are making tremendous progress, in general.  We did our first round of assessment of the students in grade one in June 2013. I used this data to determine who needed Tier 3 services and Tier 2 services based on a Response to Intervention (RTI) model. The NGO provided Tier 3 services to a group of students based on their needs exhibited in the general education classroom and on their assessment scores. The classroom teacher offered after-school and vacation time tutoring to students who needed Tier 2 services. The Toa Nafasi students were retested after six months of Tier 3 services and one year of services. These services included small group and individual tutoring in various subjects and group games to promote executive functioning and social skills.

For more information on the RTI model see: http://www.rtinetwork.org/essential/tieredinstruction

Or watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkK1bT8ls0M from AtlasInitative.org

The missing link in the Tanzanian system is that it does not offer evidence-based practice or any level of differentiation for Tier 1 students in the general education classroom. The teachers we are working with are aware of the issues and would like to do more, but have trouble with so many children in the classroom and limited pedagogical options with this situation. The teacher shortage in Tanzania is a real issue.

A Tanzanian teacher assessing a student in the new space

A Tanzanian teacher assessing a student in the new space

We will finish all the assessments for the third time on our first cohort and see what type of progress they have made since the first and second assessments. As with any project, a few students have moved and a few students have already been sent to a special school because of their needs. We tested 21 the first time, 18 the second time, and are testing16 this time.

Back in Tanzania

I am thrilled to be back in Tanzania and with the Toa Nafasi Project. I had a great trip and got here just fine and Sarah picked me up last night. Today, we saw the kids and started reassessing the kids from last year for the 3rd time and then started doing some planning  for the weeks that I am here.

The new Toa Nafasi classroom at work

The new Toa Nafasi classroom at work

And, I got to see the mountain again. Yeah!

The mountain, but not a great pic. Still beautiful

The mountain, but not a great pic. Still beautiful

 

Many steps in Shanghai – Day 1 continued (6-9-14)

Outside the Yuyuan garden area

Outside the Yuyuan garden area

At lunch, we we tried a mix of Shanghai and Szechuan dishes, where we learned that Shanghai dishes were traditionally sweet and Szechuan dishes are spicy. We tried lotus root, a spicy fish dish, a sweet soup that had balls in it sort of like gnocchi, a beef dish, greens, 100 year eggs, and several other things. It was all really good, but the fish was excellent.

After lunch, Qianqian took us on a wonderful adventure into the city of Shanghai. First, we went to Nanjing Road with all kinds of shops, because we needed to stop at Apple for an adapter we had forgotten. It was fun to walk through the shops and see the mix of people. Many of the shops were the same as you would find in the US or in Europe, but the feel was definitely different. It was a representation of the modern part of Shanghai. After we finished at Nanjing Road, we walked over to the Yuyuan garden. The area outside the actual garden is a series of tourist shops and restaurants where the buildings on the outside look old, but they are selling more modern things or here they are selling all the different traditional tourist items. We saw many fans, chopsticks, tea, scarves, cat and Buddha statutes, jewelry with old coins, and purses and books with traditional fabric. After a little shopping, we went into the actual garden. It was very peaceful and beautiful. There were several halls that you can look at and some that you can go in. There are also many water features throughout. We also tried tea at a tea ceremony there. We forgot to take pictures of that tea ceremony, but I will post pictures in the next post about the tea ceremony we did the next day.

The large sign outside the Yuyuan garden

The large sign outside the Yuyuan garden

 

In the tourist shopping area at the Yuyuan garden

In the tourist shopping area at the Yuyuan garden

 

Inside the Yu garden

Inside the Yu garden

 

In one of the halls at Yuyuan garden

In one of the halls at Yuyuan garden

 

In the Yu garden

In the Yu garden

We finished in the garden and got in a taxi to go to a different area of Shanghai where the buildings on the outside look old in a different style, but inside are very nice and expensive restaurants and stores. This area was called Xintaindi and means “New Heaven and Earth.” I thought it had a somewhat old European look, like France or Italy.

My noodle dinner with chicken and veggies and miso soup

My noodle dinner with chicken and veggies and miso soup

From there we walked to a noodle shop nearby. Qianqian asked us whether we wanted wet or dry noodles and meat or veggies or both. After ordering something that sounded good, we were very pleased with our dishes. They were wonderful and so much food for such a small price. Zhen joined us for dinner and then she took us on our last adventure of the day, trip to see the Bund where you can see all the colorful lights and animated lights at night.

The lights and radio tower at the Bund; It was so awesome in person

The lights and radio tower at the Bund; It was so awesome in person

After taking a taxi there, we walked around for awhile and took pictures and then we took a boat ride on the Huangpu River at about 9pm. It was so beautiful and all that walking kept me awake all those hours.

Zhen (left) and Qianqian, our fantastic guides

Zhen (left) and Qianqian, our fantastic guides

The whole day was fantastic thanks to our wonderful student guides, Qianqian and Zhen, and we also thank Dr. Yang for his generous support while we were there. Not only did we so a lot of Shanghai and cross off many of the top items in one day on our sightseeing list, but we learned so much about taxis and key places and other important ideas so that the next few days we were able to explore more on our own safely and easily. They also continued to all provide us support all week and helped us with the Chinese characters for where we wanted to go for the taxi and what items to order for food on our own. I am so happy we could have both the guided and the exploring experiences.

A building by the Bund

A building by the Bund

Lianna and I on the Bund

Lianna and I on the Bund

Zhen and me on the boat looking at the Bund and city lights
Zhen and me on the boat looking at the Bund and city lights

 

Our first lunch in Shanghai

Day 1 –June 9, 2014

While there are many wonderful highlights to this trip of different kinds, we definitely took a lot of pictures of the food. Overall, we very much enjoyed the food that we ate found it all very tasty. On our first day for lunch with the graduate students and Dr. Yang, they took us to a nearby restaurant and we sat in a private room with a large lazy susan on the table. This would prove important in sharing all the food. After we got our drinks, we ordered from the pictures. They had a little square area with pictures on three sides of all the food options. We learned that the Shanghai style food tends to be a little sweeter, but there were also Szechuan style spicy options as well. We told the students to pick traditional dishes of Shanghai, but that we also liked a little spicy. They asked us if we liked fish or beef or pork and then would order. We didn’t know what we were going to eat but were willing to try it. All of the options were wonderful.

We also learned about some of their interesting juices. Corn juice is very popular and it tasted just like drinking the juice in creamed corn.

Corn Juice

Corn Juice

Here are wonderful student lunch companions in a picture taken at the university in their department. Meng Lu Tu (Tutu) is a first year Master’s student, Qianqian Pan is a graduating Master’s student who will go to a doctoral program in the US in the Fall, and Zhen Zhao is a first year Master’s student. All of them have been helpful and contributed a lot of time during our stay and also contributed a lot during our presentations. Qianqian and Zhen Zhao were especially helpful picking us up from the airport and taking us all around the city and answering our questions. We are very grateful to them.

Our new friends and guides

Our new friends and guides

During this meal, we ate lotus root with rice inside, a sweet soup with balls made of a kind of flour, some very good spicy fish, steamed shrimp, a tofu dish that was also wonderful, 100 year old eggs (pickled or preserved eggs), a mushroom dish, a beef dish, and a dish that looks like a tabuleh salad but it was it was warm with the greens and had a different but fresh flavor. I took the picture before all the food came.

Some of our lunch dishes

Some of our lunch dishes

Everything was wonderful, but after some lovely conversation with Dr. Yang and the students, it was time to explore the city. Qianqian was our guide for most of the day and then Zhen Zhao joined us for dinner and stayed with us for the evening.

We started with a taxi ride to our first destination, the Yuyuan Garden.  Traffic in Shanghai is more congested than Boston and the driving is definitely more aggressive, although I didn’t find it concerning at all. All of our taxi rides were good and didn’t take an incredibly long time or I never felt we were sitting in traffic for an extra long time. But, there are so many buildings to look at and things to see that it is very entertaining. As a pedestrian, you are one of many, and it is a good idea to go only when the green person tells you, but you still need to watch for motorcycles, bikes, and turning cars, because they will go regardless of the indicator for the pedestrian turns. It is a dance between all of those people to move about the city. There are many motorized bicycles or mopeds.

Shanghai in 25,750 steps — Part 1

This blog is going to be done in parts and the story will develop over time to share all our experiences, even after we get back so I can tell the full story and have time and energy to write it all.

Shanghai at night

Shanghai at night

Tuesday June 10

We have two days to explore Shanghai before we start our training, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, we made the most of it.

After arriving on Monday afternoon, we relaxed in our hotel and slept. Because of jet lag and sleeping in the afternoon, we both woke up early on Tuesday morning. I woke up at 4:50am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I started my day with some yoga and email.

At 8am, we went down for the breakfast buffet. It was a mix of European and Chinese options. We tried a few Chinese choices, but stuck mostly to eggs and toast and tea.

We were supposed to meet our university host, Dr. Yang for lunch at 11:30. We decided to explore our neighborhood a little and see if we could find an ATM. We accomplished both tasks and got back the hotel to meet three students who took us to lunch. Dr. Yang was finishing a morning of defenses for Master’s theses.

At lunch, we talked with the students about what we wanted to see and do in Shanghai. Our graduate student assistant, Xiaoqing, gave us a great list of activities, shopping, and restaurants to try, in addition to suggestions for food that was unique to Shanghai. We handed them the list. We didn’t realize that we would do almost all of the tourist attractions in one day. That is how we got to 25,000 steps. As a teaser for next time, at the end of the day, my phone pedometer said that we walked 25,570 steps or 11.3 miles.

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Shanghai during the day from my hotel

Shanghai during the day from my hotel

Today, Thursday (June 12), we started the training at ECNU that we came to do. We think it went well, but was very strenuous for everyone because it was a lot of new information for our participants and intense training for us. We have two and one half days of training left before we leave for home. It is time for bed as we have another big day tomorrow.

Our first night in Shanghai

Lianna and I arrived safely in Shanghai. We had a nice flight, although it was very long. Our short flight to Detroit got in a little early and then we went right to our flight to Shanghai and it was already boarding our zone. Over the 14 hours in the air, we had three different meals and I watched several movies and a little TV in addition to sleeping.

When we arrived in Shanghai immigration and customs went smoothly and quickly and we went out to meet our hosts. When we first looked at the long line of people waiting with signs, it was hard to find our hosts, but there were actually fewer people than on some flights I recall in the Middle East and the people were very orderly. Near the end of the line, we found our names on two signs held by two very nice graduate students at ECNU who took our bags and directed us to the car. We rode about an hour to our hotel. We were both struck by the size of the city and the large number of high rise apartment buildings.

When we got to our hotel, the students helped us get checked in and take our bags to our rooms. We each have a nice big room with a view of the city.

Tomorrow we will meet more of our hosts and see some of the city. Good night/Good morning.

This summer is starting and so are the adventures

My summer is starting and I am off again on two trips this summer. On Sunday, I will be heading to China with my colleague, Lianna Pizzo, to go some training at East China Normal University in Shanghai. We are really excited. This will be our first trip to China and we are ready for this new experience. I was reflecting on the fact that I have done some trainings  and teaching in languages that are not my first, but I have always had some knowledge of the other language. This will be the first time a do a training that is being translated.

I will be posting pictures and details about our trip and training, so stay tuned.