Today I started the first session with the ECs. I think everyone was a little nervous about how it would go -- me, them, Dilum, Harshani. I decided to try to lower their affective filter by doing some easy introduction activities, then give them a placement test, do some communication games to see what they'd do, then end with a mini-grammar lesson.
My goals for the day were: relax them and get them willing to engage with me; get them engaged and willing to work; figure out their English language level. I met all of these goals today.
The English level of the class is pretty low, and at least 2 students are almost total beginners. But they were very engaged and active, willing to do whatever I asked, unafraid to make mistakes, and got over their natural inclination to be overly respectful to me. I made a little blunder in teaching the grammar lesson in that I asked them to do an activity which was too hard for them, but still I feel like I introduced the material and will go back and reteach next time.
After the class ended, Dilum and Harshani spoke with some of the ECs and the general feeling was that they were surprised at how the class went, thought it would be more tedious than it was, and they were looking forward to seeing what happens next. I told them about the project plans and nobody seemed too worried about it yet.
Having Harshani there was essential because I need to rely on Sinhala some for directions. But I am confident that I can get this group to a place where they can do the project I have planned -- making videos about important things happening on the Farm so that if English speaking visitors come the ECs are prepared to interact with them. Dilum and Harshani and I talked for a while after the class and we all think this project will make the English learning important and immediate for them, which will hopefully allow me to teach them vocabulary and grammar at the same time. If the project is successful, we can build on the learning they made after that.
The caution is that their English level is low, and their confidence in speaking English is almost zero. They all seem to have some vocabulary -- even the lowest 2 students -- but they are virtually unable to construct a sentence. So there is a considerable amount of work to be done here. I am planning to have Elizabeth take over this class almost immediately when she arrives. I also am thinking that 2 times per week is not frequent enough to make any meaningful progress with their English. My suggestion is to add 2 one hour sessions at least while 2 teachers are here, and maybe get some English language cartoons and have them watch those to get practice listening at other times.
Next class is Thursday. I'm not completely sure where to go from here, so more later this week.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
teacher training, week 3
I start every class with a shareout on how their day went, to acknowledge that they are full time, trained teachers who already worked 8 hours. At first, this shareout took 10 minutes and everyone was brief, but they are comfortable enough with me and each other that we have a pretty animated group discussion every day. Today we went on for 40 minutes until I shut it down. Teachers are sharing successes and also bringing issues they want to work through and they are becoming more of a collaborative community. I consider this to be an excellent trend for such a short time.
Also, almost everyone is trying out the activities I have worked on in their schools. They are sincerely trying to get students speaking and listening using all kinds of tricks -- games, pair work, call and response. Most encouraging is that their efforts are not perfect but the students are requesting more activities involving communication and they seem to be more engaged in their learning. The students don't seem to mind that the activities are messier than they are used to, and the teachers seem less worried about experimenting, making mistakes, and then doing better the next time. I am explicitly working on problem solving with them.
We also began planning a project-based unit, and they are nervous and skeptical about the scope of this project. It really is way too far our of their zones of development right now, but I'm going to continue through and then slow it down again and see what I can do with this. I am trying to do a project in the other class i'm teaching and they are interested in following my efforts there.
Most of my goals are being achieved to this point, so the main challenge for me is to keep moving forward without moving too fast.
Also, almost everyone is trying out the activities I have worked on in their schools. They are sincerely trying to get students speaking and listening using all kinds of tricks -- games, pair work, call and response. Most encouraging is that their efforts are not perfect but the students are requesting more activities involving communication and they seem to be more engaged in their learning. The students don't seem to mind that the activities are messier than they are used to, and the teachers seem less worried about experimenting, making mistakes, and then doing better the next time. I am explicitly working on problem solving with them.
We also began planning a project-based unit, and they are nervous and skeptical about the scope of this project. It really is way too far our of their zones of development right now, but I'm going to continue through and then slow it down again and see what I can do with this. I am trying to do a project in the other class i'm teaching and they are interested in following my efforts there.
Most of my goals are being achieved to this point, so the main challenge for me is to keep moving forward without moving too fast.
visit to a local schoolI
On Monday, I visited the school of two of my teachers. The most immediately apparent thing is the competence of the teachers I am working with. The school is more chaotic than what I am used to in the U.S. Students seem to have free periods and are wandering around during class time. The classrooms do not have walls and it is so noisy that it seems difficult to hear the teacher at all. The students in all of the rooms seemed to be respectful and on task, but there also seems to be a lot of sitting around everywhere you look.
It's obvious the challenges my teachers face. The diversity of skill level in one room makes it virtually impossible to educate every student. In one room, there were students speaking English at grade level and other students who could barely write their names in their L1. Still, the English knowledge of the better students was more than I expected.
Further, it seemed to me like both of my teachers have 4 preps each day. Each teachers 2 sections of 9-12th grade. Because they do not have time to collaborate, it would make sense to me to reduce their preps to only 2, which would give them more time to think and prepare and also improve their teaching because they would be repeating lessons every day. This may be because of the transient nature of the teachers in this region.
I was also curious why, in a region which only has 16 trained English teachers for 47 schools, they would choose to put 2 trained teachers in the same school.
The students were shy to talk to me and I had trouble getting conversations going. But they were also extremely interested in me and have been asking for me to return since I visited. One 9th grade class was listening to a story and answering questions, but it did not seem to me like all of the students were engaged. Another 12th grade class was learning about adjectives but the lesson moved pretty slowly. The classes are only 40 minutes long where I am used to 100 minute periods so it seemed like there was not enough time to get much accomplished.
I enjoyed this visit and learned a lot about the local context. I am convinced now that project based learning is possible and am optimistic that given the proper surrounding circumstances, these students can learn English in school. However, I am not certain how to overcome the substantial institutional barriers that exist.
It's obvious the challenges my teachers face. The diversity of skill level in one room makes it virtually impossible to educate every student. In one room, there were students speaking English at grade level and other students who could barely write their names in their L1. Still, the English knowledge of the better students was more than I expected.
Further, it seemed to me like both of my teachers have 4 preps each day. Each teachers 2 sections of 9-12th grade. Because they do not have time to collaborate, it would make sense to me to reduce their preps to only 2, which would give them more time to think and prepare and also improve their teaching because they would be repeating lessons every day. This may be because of the transient nature of the teachers in this region.
I was also curious why, in a region which only has 16 trained English teachers for 47 schools, they would choose to put 2 trained teachers in the same school.
The students were shy to talk to me and I had trouble getting conversations going. But they were also extremely interested in me and have been asking for me to return since I visited. One 9th grade class was listening to a story and answering questions, but it did not seem to me like all of the students were engaged. Another 12th grade class was learning about adjectives but the lesson moved pretty slowly. The classes are only 40 minutes long where I am used to 100 minute periods so it seemed like there was not enough time to get much accomplished.
I enjoyed this visit and learned a lot about the local context. I am convinced now that project based learning is possible and am optimistic that given the proper surrounding circumstances, these students can learn English in school. However, I am not certain how to overcome the substantial institutional barriers that exist.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
my schedule for next week
Monday
am = school visit (Saman)
3-6 teachers
Tuesday
am = preparation
12-2 = class with ECs - placement test and intros
3-6 teachers
Wed
am = planning & work in the Knowledge Center
3-6 teachers
Thursday
am = preparation
12-2 ECs class
3-6 teachers
Friday
am = school visit
3-6 teachers
am = school visit (Saman)
3-6 teachers
Tuesday
am = preparation
12-2 = class with ECs - placement test and intros
3-6 teachers
Wed
am = planning & work in the Knowledge Center
3-6 teachers
Thursday
am = preparation
12-2 ECs class
3-6 teachers
Friday
am = school visit
3-6 teachers
Teachers Taking Risks
At yesterday's training of the 6 Wilgamuwa teachers -- the 3rd day on site -- there was some exciting progress with their risk-taking and application of the teaching methods I've presented.
I begin each session with a sharing of their day at school -- many are teaching 6-7 classes per day. Three of the teachers yesterday said that they had experimented with an activity I'd demonstrated, including the newest teacher who has only been working for 6 months and is struggling. All reported that the activities went well, and most importantly, none of them thought they had done perfectly which suggests they are willing to experiment with their practice even when they are not fully confident with it. Yesterday I modeled 3 more activities and asked them all to agree on one of the activities they will all try in their classes by next Wednesday. Then they will come back and we will problem solve together. I am hopeful that they will begin to see each other as a professional community who can support each other after Elizabeth and I leave.
I have decided to focus the teachers on Project Based Learning -- large projects with many steps that are done over a series of weeks, and ending with a performance based outcome. For example, the students may write and act in a play or plan a lesson to teach to the rest of the class. One of the benefits of this is that it promotes student choice of project, which increases interest in the subject and also ramps up their need for fresh vocabulary. I introduced the concept to them yesterday and will teach them how to plan and conceptualize projects. None of these teachers has ever done an extended project like this before, but I can see when I introduced it that they were interested in learning about it. This type of structure is more appropriate for Saaraketha lessons where they will need to teach for 2 hours instead of the 40 minutes they are accustomed to and where the students will be older learners who may not be excited to spend hours on grammar instruction. The grammar is taught, but rather than dominating the course it is blended more organically with the communicative and social aspects of language development.
I have been worried about the sheer number of days and hours we are meeting and it's clearly going to become an issue, though it hasn't yet. The teachers asked to start later though because two of the teachers have to leave school early, walk a kilometer, then take a bus to the meeting place where the Saaraketha van picks them up. One woman also lives quite far from Saaraketha. I am going to have Dilum discuss this with the teachers today.
One more day this week because tomorrow is a poya day. Then a week alone here while Patrick goes to Colombo before Elizabeth arrives on July 3.
I begin each session with a sharing of their day at school -- many are teaching 6-7 classes per day. Three of the teachers yesterday said that they had experimented with an activity I'd demonstrated, including the newest teacher who has only been working for 6 months and is struggling. All reported that the activities went well, and most importantly, none of them thought they had done perfectly which suggests they are willing to experiment with their practice even when they are not fully confident with it. Yesterday I modeled 3 more activities and asked them all to agree on one of the activities they will all try in their classes by next Wednesday. Then they will come back and we will problem solve together. I am hopeful that they will begin to see each other as a professional community who can support each other after Elizabeth and I leave.
I have decided to focus the teachers on Project Based Learning -- large projects with many steps that are done over a series of weeks, and ending with a performance based outcome. For example, the students may write and act in a play or plan a lesson to teach to the rest of the class. One of the benefits of this is that it promotes student choice of project, which increases interest in the subject and also ramps up their need for fresh vocabulary. I introduced the concept to them yesterday and will teach them how to plan and conceptualize projects. None of these teachers has ever done an extended project like this before, but I can see when I introduced it that they were interested in learning about it. This type of structure is more appropriate for Saaraketha lessons where they will need to teach for 2 hours instead of the 40 minutes they are accustomed to and where the students will be older learners who may not be excited to spend hours on grammar instruction. The grammar is taught, but rather than dominating the course it is blended more organically with the communicative and social aspects of language development.
I have been worried about the sheer number of days and hours we are meeting and it's clearly going to become an issue, though it hasn't yet. The teachers asked to start later though because two of the teachers have to leave school early, walk a kilometer, then take a bus to the meeting place where the Saaraketha van picks them up. One woman also lives quite far from Saaraketha. I am going to have Dilum discuss this with the teachers today.
One more day this week because tomorrow is a poya day. Then a week alone here while Patrick goes to Colombo before Elizabeth arrives on July 3.
Panaramic Views
One of the things that we've been talking about doing at Saaraketha is to use panaramic images to teach content. If we can get high-res panaramic images, then we can use technology to "zoom" in on particular elements to explore issues. There are technologies that will allow us to do this, but here's a first crack at creating one on my own. Not the best quality, but not bad either - given the fact that I was holding my camera rather than aiming it with a tripod.
Algorithms
So, the question of creating appropriate search strategies for effectively utilizing the GIS and survey data comes down to envisioning how the data can be sifted to find very specific events or characteristics.
This is an interesting academic challenge because it requires me to explore the limits of my analytical and logical thinking while missing some rather significant chunks of content. For example, I can write a calculation syntax that allows the database to report out the farmers who have timber of a certain type, calculate how close that timber is, on average, to the closest road, and use that calculation in a rating system to identify farmers who may be the best match with Saaraketha's goals and objectives. What I can't do, however, is know for certain what an optimal distance is for timber from the road.
Of course, there's a theoretical optimal distance from the road of zero meters (imagine a farmer who has timber growing right on the side of his road), but that may not be the practical optimal distance. Also, what is a "likely" result for this mean distance for it to be meaningful. Without that bit of content, I can't really set up a very good ranking system because I can't say whether 10 meters should receive a maximum score or whether 25 meters should.
This becomes even more important when trying to rank someone on a variable associated with the value of the timber that they have. In order to weight the value appropriately, I need to transform it from a raw number (e.g. 36,000 Rupies worth of timber available) to a weighted score (e.g. 36 our of 40 points available). It is pretty straight-forward to calculate the worth of someone's available timber. After all, it's simply the number of trees of that sort times the percentage of trees that are harvestable times the value of each harvestable tree. Where my knowledge kind of falls off the cliff is in trying to see what an "optimal" timber worth score would be for this setting. Is 36,000 Rupies a "normal" score or a "high" score? Is it really low? Would it be more likely that a farmer would have 500,000 Rupies worth of timber? Without knowing the answers to these kinds of questions, I don't know if a 36,000 score should receive high points on a weighted scale or low points.
As I said, this is an interesting intellectual exercise, but it's tremendously difficult to pull off without that kind of foundational knowledge.
This is an interesting academic challenge because it requires me to explore the limits of my analytical and logical thinking while missing some rather significant chunks of content. For example, I can write a calculation syntax that allows the database to report out the farmers who have timber of a certain type, calculate how close that timber is, on average, to the closest road, and use that calculation in a rating system to identify farmers who may be the best match with Saaraketha's goals and objectives. What I can't do, however, is know for certain what an optimal distance is for timber from the road.
Of course, there's a theoretical optimal distance from the road of zero meters (imagine a farmer who has timber growing right on the side of his road), but that may not be the practical optimal distance. Also, what is a "likely" result for this mean distance for it to be meaningful. Without that bit of content, I can't really set up a very good ranking system because I can't say whether 10 meters should receive a maximum score or whether 25 meters should.
This becomes even more important when trying to rank someone on a variable associated with the value of the timber that they have. In order to weight the value appropriately, I need to transform it from a raw number (e.g. 36,000 Rupies worth of timber available) to a weighted score (e.g. 36 our of 40 points available). It is pretty straight-forward to calculate the worth of someone's available timber. After all, it's simply the number of trees of that sort times the percentage of trees that are harvestable times the value of each harvestable tree. Where my knowledge kind of falls off the cliff is in trying to see what an "optimal" timber worth score would be for this setting. Is 36,000 Rupies a "normal" score or a "high" score? Is it really low? Would it be more likely that a farmer would have 500,000 Rupies worth of timber? Without knowing the answers to these kinds of questions, I don't know if a 36,000 score should receive high points on a weighted scale or low points.
As I said, this is an interesting intellectual exercise, but it's tremendously difficult to pull off without that kind of foundational knowledge.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Status Update on Daniel's Tasks
This blog is mainly so I can think through the tasks I have and how they are progressing. I want to organize some of my thoughts so I am clear about what I have to do or what recommendations I need to make. But I think it’s also a good opportunity to inform everyone about the status of my projects.
1. Train 7 Wilgamuwa teachers in innovate methodologies, focusing on speaking/listening and project-based activities
Status: This activity is in progress and going well. I have focused on 4 primary methodologies and have already modeled around 8 activities including an entire lesson. The teachers have been increasingly engaged and animated and we are slowly building them into a supportive professional community. Today they will teach demonstration lessons to each other and I hope, next week, to have them practice a project-based activity on the ECs.
Caveats:
* Some of the teachers are already finding the time commitment to be stressful. They teach an average of 7-8 different classes before arriving here, and yesterday did not get home until 7:30. This type of professional development – every day after work for weeks – is unusual. Normally it’s 1-2 times per week. I worry that by the time Elizabeth arrives the classes may be a burden.
* There is a tension between what they need for their everyday teaching and what they need to teach Saaraketha classes. The things they need to learn and need are related but not exactly the same.
* For this training to be meaningful, it must be sustainable beyond my and Elizabeth’s time in Wilgamuwa. Therefore, I believe it is critically important for the teachers to become a collaborative association that supports each other’s efforts to employ novel teaching methods and professionally develop. The challenge is to create structures that will allow them to meet. Two ideas are to have teas (with all 16 English teachers in the Wilgamuwa District) at Saaraketha every 4-8 weeks where the teachers can meet and practice English. Also, they should be encouraged to create an Association of Wilgamuwa English teachers that will plan its own activities. Otherwise, the professional development begun during my time here may not persist, as the teachers would not have enough practice with new ideas and methods.
2. Teach English lessons to Saaraketha’s youth club, the ECs, and/or local government officials
Status: Harshani is going to try to find 10-16 club members who can participate, beginning next week.
Caveats:
* We do not have enough English textbooks (Language in Use) to offer a class. I emailed Harshi about this issue and expect to hear from her tomorrow.
* If I teach a class from 12-2 every day to the youth club, plus from 3-6 to the teacher trainees, with preparation in the morning plus blogging and reflecting, that is basically the only thing that I can accomplish on that day. Therefore, if I teach 2 additional classes, Monday through Thursday, then the only thing I will be able to do in Wilgamuwa is teach. That is not a problem with me, but it prevents me from doing other things such as visiting schools, planning an English camp, preparing standard materials that future teacher trainees can use, and transitioning Elizabeth.
* I wonder about the curriculum for these courses. My instinct is that just teaching English from the textbook will be less engaging than project-based activities, but this depends somewhat on the level of the students. Two hours is a long time to do book learning but project-based learning requires some dexterity for the teachers.
* If we are only teaching 4-5 weeks, there should be a plan in advance for moving the time of the class from the morning – when I am currently free – to the afternoon when the local teachers are available. It may be difficult for people to free time in the morning for a few weeks and then just switch the time to later in the day.
* My proposal is to teach only one additional class, two days each week, which leaves me free to accomplish other tasks. When Elizabeth arrives, during the 7 days we are both in Wilgamuwa, we will be able to accomplish more
* With respect to the government officials, my proposal is to offer, instead of a formal class, one to three teas or workshops with more specific learning goal related more closely to what they currently use English for.
3. Conduct an English language camp for 20 youth from local schools
Status: Dilum and I met with Mr. Jayamaha, the local ELT administrator, where we discussed this idea and made more concrete plans for putting it into effect:
* We agreed tentatively on a date between July 21-25, to be determined
* When Elizabeth arrives, Mr. Jayamaha will arrange a meeting between us and the Wilgamuwa teachers who will participate. The local requirement is one credentialed teacher is supposed to be present for every 15 students.
* The local teachers will have to be involved in the planning of the activities.
o One idea is to show a movie – Mr. Jayamaha suggested The Sound of Music. After, the students can pick one song, learn the words and act them out.
o Competitions such as a scavenger hunt, telephone game, questioning activities where the students use English vocabulary collaboratively, with movement, and compete for prizes
o Reading scary stories
o They could have jobs/roles assigned to them during the camp
* To increase participation we discussed offering the camp to 40 students instead of 20. (Mr. Jayamaha pushed for 50 but I think that’s too many.)
4. Provide input in creating a learning atmosphere on the farm, learning center, e-library
Status: I have some specific suggestions or plans
* Facilitate the creation of an Association of Wilgamuwa English teachers (there are only 16) that can meet at Saaraketha and professionally develop themselves/plan activities
* Sponsor a “tea” for the English teachers every 4-6 weeks or whenever an English speaker is visiting to discuss some topic – not a lecture where they listen passively but a discussion where they actively participate. Even Prasanna, Charita, Dilum, Harshi could facilitate this tea.
* Movie nights to attract people to come to the Farm. At first, maybe just show the film. Later, organized discussions or conversations about the film could be done afterwards.
* Reading group – people agree to read a book or article on their own and then come to Saaraketha to discuss the book. Most publishers now publish reading group guides that can be printed off the internet and that have discussion questions and activities
* I will create some documents for the learning center that can be used in future teacher trainings or with students
* I will write protocols for using books and materials and replacing/restocking the learning center
5. Create a blog – saaraketha.blogspot.com
6. Promote potential partnerships with Saaraketha after I leave
Status: Some ideas that have already been raised include periodic Skype conversations with the 7 teachers, email exchanges with Sri Lanka and American students, and having Fulbright sponsor a teacher to come train with me in the U.S. These ideas are longer range plans that will likely be something that is part of a continuing conversation once I return to the U.S., rather than things that are finalized before I go. I will, however, get commitments from the 7 teacher trainees to email me regularly before I leave.
7. Submit a final report on experience with Saaraketha, outlining lessons learned and advice.
1. Train 7 Wilgamuwa teachers in innovate methodologies, focusing on speaking/listening and project-based activities
Status: This activity is in progress and going well. I have focused on 4 primary methodologies and have already modeled around 8 activities including an entire lesson. The teachers have been increasingly engaged and animated and we are slowly building them into a supportive professional community. Today they will teach demonstration lessons to each other and I hope, next week, to have them practice a project-based activity on the ECs.
Caveats:
* Some of the teachers are already finding the time commitment to be stressful. They teach an average of 7-8 different classes before arriving here, and yesterday did not get home until 7:30. This type of professional development – every day after work for weeks – is unusual. Normally it’s 1-2 times per week. I worry that by the time Elizabeth arrives the classes may be a burden.
* There is a tension between what they need for their everyday teaching and what they need to teach Saaraketha classes. The things they need to learn and need are related but not exactly the same.
* For this training to be meaningful, it must be sustainable beyond my and Elizabeth’s time in Wilgamuwa. Therefore, I believe it is critically important for the teachers to become a collaborative association that supports each other’s efforts to employ novel teaching methods and professionally develop. The challenge is to create structures that will allow them to meet. Two ideas are to have teas (with all 16 English teachers in the Wilgamuwa District) at Saaraketha every 4-8 weeks where the teachers can meet and practice English. Also, they should be encouraged to create an Association of Wilgamuwa English teachers that will plan its own activities. Otherwise, the professional development begun during my time here may not persist, as the teachers would not have enough practice with new ideas and methods.
2. Teach English lessons to Saaraketha’s youth club, the ECs, and/or local government officials
Status: Harshani is going to try to find 10-16 club members who can participate, beginning next week.
Caveats:
* We do not have enough English textbooks (Language in Use) to offer a class. I emailed Harshi about this issue and expect to hear from her tomorrow.
* If I teach a class from 12-2 every day to the youth club, plus from 3-6 to the teacher trainees, with preparation in the morning plus blogging and reflecting, that is basically the only thing that I can accomplish on that day. Therefore, if I teach 2 additional classes, Monday through Thursday, then the only thing I will be able to do in Wilgamuwa is teach. That is not a problem with me, but it prevents me from doing other things such as visiting schools, planning an English camp, preparing standard materials that future teacher trainees can use, and transitioning Elizabeth.
* I wonder about the curriculum for these courses. My instinct is that just teaching English from the textbook will be less engaging than project-based activities, but this depends somewhat on the level of the students. Two hours is a long time to do book learning but project-based learning requires some dexterity for the teachers.
* If we are only teaching 4-5 weeks, there should be a plan in advance for moving the time of the class from the morning – when I am currently free – to the afternoon when the local teachers are available. It may be difficult for people to free time in the morning for a few weeks and then just switch the time to later in the day.
* My proposal is to teach only one additional class, two days each week, which leaves me free to accomplish other tasks. When Elizabeth arrives, during the 7 days we are both in Wilgamuwa, we will be able to accomplish more
* With respect to the government officials, my proposal is to offer, instead of a formal class, one to three teas or workshops with more specific learning goal related more closely to what they currently use English for.
3. Conduct an English language camp for 20 youth from local schools
Status: Dilum and I met with Mr. Jayamaha, the local ELT administrator, where we discussed this idea and made more concrete plans for putting it into effect:
* We agreed tentatively on a date between July 21-25, to be determined
* When Elizabeth arrives, Mr. Jayamaha will arrange a meeting between us and the Wilgamuwa teachers who will participate. The local requirement is one credentialed teacher is supposed to be present for every 15 students.
* The local teachers will have to be involved in the planning of the activities.
o One idea is to show a movie – Mr. Jayamaha suggested The Sound of Music. After, the students can pick one song, learn the words and act them out.
o Competitions such as a scavenger hunt, telephone game, questioning activities where the students use English vocabulary collaboratively, with movement, and compete for prizes
o Reading scary stories
o They could have jobs/roles assigned to them during the camp
* To increase participation we discussed offering the camp to 40 students instead of 20. (Mr. Jayamaha pushed for 50 but I think that’s too many.)
4. Provide input in creating a learning atmosphere on the farm, learning center, e-library
Status: I have some specific suggestions or plans
* Facilitate the creation of an Association of Wilgamuwa English teachers (there are only 16) that can meet at Saaraketha and professionally develop themselves/plan activities
* Sponsor a “tea” for the English teachers every 4-6 weeks or whenever an English speaker is visiting to discuss some topic – not a lecture where they listen passively but a discussion where they actively participate. Even Prasanna, Charita, Dilum, Harshi could facilitate this tea.
* Movie nights to attract people to come to the Farm. At first, maybe just show the film. Later, organized discussions or conversations about the film could be done afterwards.
* Reading group – people agree to read a book or article on their own and then come to Saaraketha to discuss the book. Most publishers now publish reading group guides that can be printed off the internet and that have discussion questions and activities
* I will create some documents for the learning center that can be used in future teacher trainings or with students
* I will write protocols for using books and materials and replacing/restocking the learning center
5. Create a blog – saaraketha.blogspot.com
6. Promote potential partnerships with Saaraketha after I leave
Status: Some ideas that have already been raised include periodic Skype conversations with the 7 teachers, email exchanges with Sri Lanka and American students, and having Fulbright sponsor a teacher to come train with me in the U.S. These ideas are longer range plans that will likely be something that is part of a continuing conversation once I return to the U.S., rather than things that are finalized before I go. I will, however, get commitments from the 7 teacher trainees to email me regularly before I leave.
7. Submit a final report on experience with Saaraketha, outlining lessons learned and advice.
Working with the 7 teacher trainees, Days 1 and 2
I just finished the second day working with the teacher trainees at Wilgamuwa. They seem totally comfortable with the Learning Center environment, but I am dripping with sweat throughout the lesson. After two days, I have learned some things about the Learning Center. The physical space is nice, it is conducive to learning and feels professional. I do not think the heat is a problem and in fact the atmosphere is very workable. A few issues I’ve discovered include:
Outside noise is a small issue. It rained hard yesterday and we basically had to stop the lesson and wait it out. I wonder whether that may be a problem during the monsoons. Inside noise is more frustrating. The acoustics indoors are not great. I used the CD player for the first time and no one could really hear the recording. There is also a weird echo when you speak which makes it difficult to hear people who speak softly.
The conference table is not good for teaching. There are several places where nobody can sit because there is no leg room. You can’t really fit more than 3 chairs comfortably on either long side. Most seriously, the head of the table is separated from the rest of the table because there is a big gap where nobody can sit because there’s no leg room. The head of the table on the other side is unusable. Also, the table is so long that there is a lack of intimacy.
The lighting is inadequate late in the day.
Patrick and I wonder whether the humidity and moisture will affect papers and materials. We don’t have enough experience in tropical climates to give advice on this but wonder if it’s an issue.
Today we stayed late so Patrick can make a phone call. It’s 7:30 and it’s very buggy. They aren’t biting, but they are all over.
Basically, it feels more like a conference room than a classroom to me.
As far as working with these teachers, they have been very positive with me and seem to be pleased with the work I am doing. I have asked them to write to me at the end of most lessons and they seem satisfied with me so far. Patrick was here today and he confirmed my feeling that they genuinely like me and are relaxed around me. In addition, some of them are starting to look at me as a resource – one person asked me for advice about a lesson she has to teach later this week. One of my major goals is to create a community of learners where they rely on each other, and strides seem to be made in that way. Also, they talk to me more and more honestly. I feel fortunate to be working with this group of teachers.
I have modeled a number of activities for them over the 4 days. One teacher today (Saman) said that he used one of the activities in his classroom today and that it went OK. He was very pleased to have taken a risk with his teaching. Saman is the most likely teacher of this group to try new things, so it is unsurprising that he is the first to use something I’ve done. I think tomorrow or Friday I’m going to model a series of activities, then leave them alone and have them pick one of the activities that they all commit to use the following week. Hopefully the peer pressure will lead them to do it. I need to do more to encourage them to use what I’ve demonstrated. My fear is that some of them just aren’t getting enough practice during the 3 hours to meaningfully change their practice in a permanent way.
Today I had the group teach for the first time. I assigned them in pairs the same content and asked each pair to prepare a lesson teaching the content and focusing on two of the methodologies I’ve emphasized – engagement and speaking. I also directed them to use an activity “call and response” in the lesson. Observing their lessons tells me a few things. First, they are already competent teachers who all have some real strengths. Second, though I haven’t seen them before, it felt like they were not taking many risks with their teaching. They may have felt like they were innovating but to me it felt like they were more or less just doing what they normally do. I could see them trying to get students moving and talking but changing the paradigm will require more time. I have not given them enough opportunities to teach in front of me and need to do more of that in the next few weeks.
I explicitly talked about the problem of teaching 2 hour classes at Saaraketha. Not one of them had ever taught a lesson that is more than 45 minutes, so I am concerned about what they are going to do with that much time. I am going to focus on this problem starting tomorrow and have chosen project-based learning as the way to both help them prepare and also design a communication based curriculum for students. They (and I) are wondering about making projects work with low level English students but until I know more about the students I can’t speak to how to modify a project for the local needs. Elizabeth has some expertise with this, I think, so she will have to be involved in that.
A major issue that arose today is the meeting time commitment. It is almost unheard of to run a professional development workshop every single day for 3 hours after work. I have never participated or heard of one more than 2 days a week or, if more frequent, lasting more than a week. Most of these teachers are teaching 7-8 classes per day before they arrive. That is a lot of work in a profession where you are on performance and is emotionally draining. In their end of day reflection, 2 asked whether we can break earlier and one of those noted that she did not get home until 7:30 last night. While they have all been willing to work so far, it’s only the second day and I’m worried that by the time Elizabeth arrives, they will start to feel that the trainings are a duty/obligation rather than continuing the level of excitement they have now
There is one teacher who is having some issues – Upul. He has only been a teacher for a short time (I think he said 4 months) and is really struggling at his job. He feels unsuccessful at work and last Friday said to Harshi that he feels like it may have been a bad decision to volunteer for this. He just is so raw right now that it’s all he can do to get through his day and he’s not supported at his job – he’s the only English teacher in his entire school. I’ll keep an eye on him and see how he does.
This blog is mostly issue spotting so it may seem more negative than I feel. I am energized by these teachers, by their openness to me, by their friendliness, and by their professionalism. I have really enjoyed getting to know them and feel like the workshops so far have been productive use of time.
Outside noise is a small issue. It rained hard yesterday and we basically had to stop the lesson and wait it out. I wonder whether that may be a problem during the monsoons. Inside noise is more frustrating. The acoustics indoors are not great. I used the CD player for the first time and no one could really hear the recording. There is also a weird echo when you speak which makes it difficult to hear people who speak softly.
The conference table is not good for teaching. There are several places where nobody can sit because there is no leg room. You can’t really fit more than 3 chairs comfortably on either long side. Most seriously, the head of the table is separated from the rest of the table because there is a big gap where nobody can sit because there’s no leg room. The head of the table on the other side is unusable. Also, the table is so long that there is a lack of intimacy.
The lighting is inadequate late in the day.
Patrick and I wonder whether the humidity and moisture will affect papers and materials. We don’t have enough experience in tropical climates to give advice on this but wonder if it’s an issue.
Today we stayed late so Patrick can make a phone call. It’s 7:30 and it’s very buggy. They aren’t biting, but they are all over.
Basically, it feels more like a conference room than a classroom to me.
As far as working with these teachers, they have been very positive with me and seem to be pleased with the work I am doing. I have asked them to write to me at the end of most lessons and they seem satisfied with me so far. Patrick was here today and he confirmed my feeling that they genuinely like me and are relaxed around me. In addition, some of them are starting to look at me as a resource – one person asked me for advice about a lesson she has to teach later this week. One of my major goals is to create a community of learners where they rely on each other, and strides seem to be made in that way. Also, they talk to me more and more honestly. I feel fortunate to be working with this group of teachers.
I have modeled a number of activities for them over the 4 days. One teacher today (Saman) said that he used one of the activities in his classroom today and that it went OK. He was very pleased to have taken a risk with his teaching. Saman is the most likely teacher of this group to try new things, so it is unsurprising that he is the first to use something I’ve done. I think tomorrow or Friday I’m going to model a series of activities, then leave them alone and have them pick one of the activities that they all commit to use the following week. Hopefully the peer pressure will lead them to do it. I need to do more to encourage them to use what I’ve demonstrated. My fear is that some of them just aren’t getting enough practice during the 3 hours to meaningfully change their practice in a permanent way.
Today I had the group teach for the first time. I assigned them in pairs the same content and asked each pair to prepare a lesson teaching the content and focusing on two of the methodologies I’ve emphasized – engagement and speaking. I also directed them to use an activity “call and response” in the lesson. Observing their lessons tells me a few things. First, they are already competent teachers who all have some real strengths. Second, though I haven’t seen them before, it felt like they were not taking many risks with their teaching. They may have felt like they were innovating but to me it felt like they were more or less just doing what they normally do. I could see them trying to get students moving and talking but changing the paradigm will require more time. I have not given them enough opportunities to teach in front of me and need to do more of that in the next few weeks.
I explicitly talked about the problem of teaching 2 hour classes at Saaraketha. Not one of them had ever taught a lesson that is more than 45 minutes, so I am concerned about what they are going to do with that much time. I am going to focus on this problem starting tomorrow and have chosen project-based learning as the way to both help them prepare and also design a communication based curriculum for students. They (and I) are wondering about making projects work with low level English students but until I know more about the students I can’t speak to how to modify a project for the local needs. Elizabeth has some expertise with this, I think, so she will have to be involved in that.
A major issue that arose today is the meeting time commitment. It is almost unheard of to run a professional development workshop every single day for 3 hours after work. I have never participated or heard of one more than 2 days a week or, if more frequent, lasting more than a week. Most of these teachers are teaching 7-8 classes per day before they arrive. That is a lot of work in a profession where you are on performance and is emotionally draining. In their end of day reflection, 2 asked whether we can break earlier and one of those noted that she did not get home until 7:30 last night. While they have all been willing to work so far, it’s only the second day and I’m worried that by the time Elizabeth arrives, they will start to feel that the trainings are a duty/obligation rather than continuing the level of excitement they have now
There is one teacher who is having some issues – Upul. He has only been a teacher for a short time (I think he said 4 months) and is really struggling at his job. He feels unsuccessful at work and last Friday said to Harshi that he feels like it may have been a bad decision to volunteer for this. He just is so raw right now that it’s all he can do to get through his day and he’s not supported at his job – he’s the only English teacher in his entire school. I’ll keep an eye on him and see how he does.
This blog is mostly issue spotting so it may seem more negative than I feel. I am energized by these teachers, by their openness to me, by their friendliness, and by their professionalism. I have really enjoyed getting to know them and feel like the workshops so far have been productive use of time.
J.H.S. jayamaha, Asst. Director of Eng. Education
Yesterday morning, Dilum and I met with J.H.S. Jayamaha, Assistant Director of English Education in the Wilgamuwa District. He has been in Wilgamuwa for 15 years as an English teacher and now as an administrator. Although there is a Ministry of Education that sets standards and policies, Mr. Jayamaha insures that those policies are implemented in the Wilgamuwa District.
Mr.Jayamaha gave me some background information about Wilgamuwa schools:
There are 47 schools in Wilgamuwa but only 16 trained English teachers; 22 others teach English in the District but those 22 have no training.
Of the schools, 7-8 offer up to A Level; 6 offer up to O Level and the rest are primary only (1-5)
There are 7654 students in grades 1-13. 625 sat for the O Level exam last year and 25.4% passed. The drop out rate is very high though he could not give any data. Wilgamuwa does have vocational schools for students who do not finish the public schools but few take advantage of this. Mr. Jayamaha said, “Many have one foot in school and another in the garment factories.”
Although currently, the National Exams have no oral language component, beginning in 2012, oral language will comprise 30% of the final score on the test. As a result, both the Ministry, Mr. Jayamaha and the teachers recognize that getting students to speak and communicate is essential. Currently, the curriculum in the schools requires almost no oral communication—it is exclusively reading and writing.
Mr. Jayamaha will arrange for me to visit schools in the next few weeks. I am going to focus on the schools of the 6 teacher trainees I’m working with, and 3 of them have already told their students to expect me. My ability to visit the schools depends on my other responsibilities at Saaraketha – if I have to teach several other classes in addition to the teacher trainees, I may not be able to visit all 6 schools. I am going to try to make a site visit on Thursday of this week.
Mr. Jayamaha is very focused – almost exclusively so – on the idea of an English camp. I discuss in more detail in my other blog post what we agreed on. Obviously, only a very small number of students can take advantage of an English camp – realistically, no more than 100 or so per year, but I think it’s something that Elizabeth and I can plan and maybe do one while we are here. If nothing else, it will satisfy and encourage Mr. Jayamaha and be a springboard for future collaboration.
Mr. Jayamaha was open to my suggestion that focusing on teacher professional development is the key to pedagogical change. It’s unclear how much effort he’s willing to personally make to organize anything and when Dilum asked if he would release teachers during the school day to come to Saaraketha and participate in activities, he was noncommittal. I think if we presented some specific idea he might agree though he would have to be involved as well because he cannot legally release teachers without his own participation at a PD.
Basically, Mr. Jayamaha is open to ideas, focused on getting students to speak more, and positive about Saaraketha. He listened politely to my ideas about movie nights and teas without getting too excited. (Though he did offer that students like The Sound of Music.) I think he would be willing to support most ideas that are brought to him within reason.
Dilum took separate notes so he may also have some opinions on this meeting.
Mr.Jayamaha gave me some background information about Wilgamuwa schools:
There are 47 schools in Wilgamuwa but only 16 trained English teachers; 22 others teach English in the District but those 22 have no training.
Of the schools, 7-8 offer up to A Level; 6 offer up to O Level and the rest are primary only (1-5)
There are 7654 students in grades 1-13. 625 sat for the O Level exam last year and 25.4% passed. The drop out rate is very high though he could not give any data. Wilgamuwa does have vocational schools for students who do not finish the public schools but few take advantage of this. Mr. Jayamaha said, “Many have one foot in school and another in the garment factories.”
Although currently, the National Exams have no oral language component, beginning in 2012, oral language will comprise 30% of the final score on the test. As a result, both the Ministry, Mr. Jayamaha and the teachers recognize that getting students to speak and communicate is essential. Currently, the curriculum in the schools requires almost no oral communication—it is exclusively reading and writing.
Mr. Jayamaha will arrange for me to visit schools in the next few weeks. I am going to focus on the schools of the 6 teacher trainees I’m working with, and 3 of them have already told their students to expect me. My ability to visit the schools depends on my other responsibilities at Saaraketha – if I have to teach several other classes in addition to the teacher trainees, I may not be able to visit all 6 schools. I am going to try to make a site visit on Thursday of this week.
Mr. Jayamaha is very focused – almost exclusively so – on the idea of an English camp. I discuss in more detail in my other blog post what we agreed on. Obviously, only a very small number of students can take advantage of an English camp – realistically, no more than 100 or so per year, but I think it’s something that Elizabeth and I can plan and maybe do one while we are here. If nothing else, it will satisfy and encourage Mr. Jayamaha and be a springboard for future collaboration.
Mr. Jayamaha was open to my suggestion that focusing on teacher professional development is the key to pedagogical change. It’s unclear how much effort he’s willing to personally make to organize anything and when Dilum asked if he would release teachers during the school day to come to Saaraketha and participate in activities, he was noncommittal. I think if we presented some specific idea he might agree though he would have to be involved as well because he cannot legally release teachers without his own participation at a PD.
Basically, Mr. Jayamaha is open to ideas, focused on getting students to speak more, and positive about Saaraketha. He listened politely to my ideas about movie nights and teas without getting too excited. (Though he did offer that students like The Sound of Music.) I think he would be willing to support most ideas that are brought to him within reason.
Dilum took separate notes so he may also have some opinions on this meeting.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Thursday, June 17th
During the day on Thursday, we had two interesting meetings. The first was with a group from Mobitel, during which we discussed options for providing information to farmers (and gathering information from them) through SMS. The use of navigation menus to provide information, I think, holds potential for making a user-friendly interface for the interactions. By adding in voice response systems (meaning, providing needed information back to the farmer through voice rather than text), we can also lower some of the barriers to entry for the farmers.
The second meeting was with Arjuna, an agrinomics consultant from Tricadence, and was very useful in hammering out some of the details associated with simulating the impacts on a farm based on agricultural, social and financial decisions made by the farmer. For example, we could pretty easily model virtually the current farms based on the GIS data that has been gathered (in fact, this is already being done). The key, however, is not to show the farmer what their farm currently looks like. Rather, it is to show the farmer how it could look if they made decisions over time. Modeling and simulation software should be able to take the GIS data as an input, and based on various decision algorithms "predict" the impact of those decisions over time (think of a farmer planting a virtual crop of dragon fruit on an unused portion of their own land, and the simulation showing them how that dragon fruit crop has impacted the water needs of the farm and the nitrogen content of the soil). In the ideal form, this sort of simulation could take the form of a game where the farmer has to maximize profits while maintaining ecological balance and human potential.
There is much potential with this type of a simulation, but it depends on the format of the algorithms and the data that would allow the software to calculate the predicted outcomes over time based on changes that were made virtually.
The second meeting was with Arjuna, an agrinomics consultant from Tricadence, and was very useful in hammering out some of the details associated with simulating the impacts on a farm based on agricultural, social and financial decisions made by the farmer. For example, we could pretty easily model virtually the current farms based on the GIS data that has been gathered (in fact, this is already being done). The key, however, is not to show the farmer what their farm currently looks like. Rather, it is to show the farmer how it could look if they made decisions over time. Modeling and simulation software should be able to take the GIS data as an input, and based on various decision algorithms "predict" the impact of those decisions over time (think of a farmer planting a virtual crop of dragon fruit on an unused portion of their own land, and the simulation showing them how that dragon fruit crop has impacted the water needs of the farm and the nitrogen content of the soil). In the ideal form, this sort of simulation could take the form of a game where the farmer has to maximize profits while maintaining ecological balance and human potential.
There is much potential with this type of a simulation, but it depends on the format of the algorithms and the data that would allow the software to calculate the predicted outcomes over time based on changes that were made virtually.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Skyping
Prasanna Hettiarachchi speaking via Skype with Philip H. Wainwright, the CEO of SpataMatrix. This company not only provides solutions for the use of RFID technologies, but also has some very interesting thoughts about the use of alternative fuels.
RFID
After meeting with Tissa Jayatilaka, the Executive Director of the Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission, and a very nice lunch, we went to a meeting to discuss the possible uses of RFID technology on Saaraketha's farm. If you're unfamiliar, RFID stands for "Radio Frequency Identification", and is a technology that allows the tracking of lots of different types of goods. There are two specific types of RFID technologies, Passive and Active. Passive RFID is unpowered and simply waits for a device to send a radio frequency. That radio frequency powers the device when it is received and the RFID tag sends out information that is then interpreted by the RFID reader. Active RFID, on the other hand, is powered by a small battery, and can be read over a much wider region.
There are lots of interesting uses for RFID technology, from tracking farm equipment to providing farm workers the ability to hit a "panic button" that lets others know that they're in trouble.
At the end of the day, however, this technology is really only as good as the reasons for its use. Active RFID is often used to "tag" livestock so that ranchers can keep track of their herds. When using this technology with farm workers, we must make sure that they don't simply feel as if we're trying to track their movements as if they were cattle. This, I would say, is a delicate balance to achieve. The technology can be tremendously powerful if we can create more efficient farms, but it must be done so that we don't lose the human touch.
There are lots of interesting uses for RFID technology, from tracking farm equipment to providing farm workers the ability to hit a "panic button" that lets others know that they're in trouble.
At the end of the day, however, this technology is really only as good as the reasons for its use. Active RFID is often used to "tag" livestock so that ranchers can keep track of their herds. When using this technology with farm workers, we must make sure that they don't simply feel as if we're trying to track their movements as if they were cattle. This, I would say, is a delicate balance to achieve. The technology can be tremendously powerful if we can create more efficient farms, but it must be done so that we don't lose the human touch.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Two LOOOONG days of planning...
The past two days I've been with Lesley Dick, a teacher trainer from the British Council, learning about the differences between EFL methods here and ESL methods in the US, reviewing materials and planning a 2 day long conference for the teacher trainees. Lesley is extremely experienced and so we were able to cover tremendous ground in a short time, completing our original two day agenda on the first day and using today to create curriculum plans for the conference.
The teacher trainees are going to be taking the TKT exam offered by Cambridge University, which would be an impressive certification here, and one of my main tasks is to prepare them for that exam and use the preparation to improve their teaching here. I have not yet met these teachers, but everyone who talks about them suggests that they will have a rigid teaching style that relies on rote instruction and slavish attention to mediocre textbooks. Everyone also suggests that their English language level may be somewhat inexpert. My task seems to be to invigorate their teaching methodology and by doing so allow them to teach classes at Saaraketha that will be fun for the local community and promote interest in Saaraketha's education center. Lesley and I planned 2 LONG days -- we will be teaching and learning for 8 hours Thursday and Friday -- but with dynamic lessons and a lot of modeling and reflection. If in fact, the teachers are rigid or not well trained, I think we are off to a good start and have set up something that we can build on.
I do have some anxiety about the tasks I have been asked to do here in Sri Lanka and am taking it on trust -- and on the word and passion of the Saaraketha folks who obviously have more knowledge of the local context and what can be achieved -- that I will be able to start something lasting in the short time I have here. To give a sense of the things I am wondering about:
> Am I condescending to the teacher trainees by assuming they need training basically from scratch when they are already full time teachers?
> Teaching and modeling best practice does not mean that these teacher trainees will reach mastery with what we discuss. I have very limited time with them, and to cover too many things mean they won't learn much. Less is more, obviously, but can I change their attitude toward their practice in such a short time.
> How my time at Saaraketha is structured is somewhat bizarre. I am working with the teacher trainees every day from 3-6, but they are not going to be teaching real classes at that time. We will have people to experiment practice with, but not a real class. In the meantime, I am going to be teaching 2 clusters of students in the mornings myself, but the teacher trainees are at their regular work during that time so they won't observe me or know what I'm doing. Presumably, the teacher trainees are going to take over these courses when I leave but how are they going to be prepared to do that effectively.
> The teacher trainees, once I leave, are coming from their regular teaching jobs to Saaraketha, but without much time to prep or reflect. As a result, they may inevitably go back to an over-reliance on the books which would make the classes seem less innovative or interesting to the participants. This type of pedagogy they can already do.
At a minimum, I am confident about the next 2 days and I am also confident that I can meaningfully begin to impact the teacher trainees in the time I have. I also hope I can be an advisor to the Education Center and help to set it up on a strong beginning. The work I've done over the past 2 days has been creative and challenging, forced me to innovate in my own practice and bring together my background experience in a novel setting. From what I understand, the challenges in Sri Lanka are similar to the type of challenges I face every day at my school in the US which has a largely immigrant, ESL, socio-economically poor population of students who do not have academic parents or community role models. Thus, I am teaching in my element here and am excited to meet the teacher trainees tomorrow.
The teacher trainees are going to be taking the TKT exam offered by Cambridge University, which would be an impressive certification here, and one of my main tasks is to prepare them for that exam and use the preparation to improve their teaching here. I have not yet met these teachers, but everyone who talks about them suggests that they will have a rigid teaching style that relies on rote instruction and slavish attention to mediocre textbooks. Everyone also suggests that their English language level may be somewhat inexpert. My task seems to be to invigorate their teaching methodology and by doing so allow them to teach classes at Saaraketha that will be fun for the local community and promote interest in Saaraketha's education center. Lesley and I planned 2 LONG days -- we will be teaching and learning for 8 hours Thursday and Friday -- but with dynamic lessons and a lot of modeling and reflection. If in fact, the teachers are rigid or not well trained, I think we are off to a good start and have set up something that we can build on.
I do have some anxiety about the tasks I have been asked to do here in Sri Lanka and am taking it on trust -- and on the word and passion of the Saaraketha folks who obviously have more knowledge of the local context and what can be achieved -- that I will be able to start something lasting in the short time I have here. To give a sense of the things I am wondering about:
> Am I condescending to the teacher trainees by assuming they need training basically from scratch when they are already full time teachers?
> Teaching and modeling best practice does not mean that these teacher trainees will reach mastery with what we discuss. I have very limited time with them, and to cover too many things mean they won't learn much. Less is more, obviously, but can I change their attitude toward their practice in such a short time.
> How my time at Saaraketha is structured is somewhat bizarre. I am working with the teacher trainees every day from 3-6, but they are not going to be teaching real classes at that time. We will have people to experiment practice with, but not a real class. In the meantime, I am going to be teaching 2 clusters of students in the mornings myself, but the teacher trainees are at their regular work during that time so they won't observe me or know what I'm doing. Presumably, the teacher trainees are going to take over these courses when I leave but how are they going to be prepared to do that effectively.
> The teacher trainees, once I leave, are coming from their regular teaching jobs to Saaraketha, but without much time to prep or reflect. As a result, they may inevitably go back to an over-reliance on the books which would make the classes seem less innovative or interesting to the participants. This type of pedagogy they can already do.
At a minimum, I am confident about the next 2 days and I am also confident that I can meaningfully begin to impact the teacher trainees in the time I have. I also hope I can be an advisor to the Education Center and help to set it up on a strong beginning. The work I've done over the past 2 days has been creative and challenging, forced me to innovate in my own practice and bring together my background experience in a novel setting. From what I understand, the challenges in Sri Lanka are similar to the type of challenges I face every day at my school in the US which has a largely immigrant, ESL, socio-economically poor population of students who do not have academic parents or community role models. Thus, I am teaching in my element here and am excited to meet the teacher trainees tomorrow.
Belated Greetings
My name is Daniel Javitch and I am an English as a Second Language teacher and teacher trainer in San Francisco, California. I was invited by Saaraketha and Fulbright-Sri Lanka to come to Sri Lanka to train 6 young rural teachers who will be offering English language classes at Saaraketha and to teach some classes myself. I was in Sri Lanka in the summer of 2008 for 10 days, mostly in the Cultural Triangle, and am extremely excited to return, renew some friendships and learn more about this fascinating country.
I have been so busy since I arrived that I have not had an opportunity to post anything yet, so to catch up a bit...
I did not know too many details about Saaraketha before I arrived in Sri Lanka. I had been sent many materials and emails but was unclear about the scope of the project. Prasanna, Charitha, and Harshi have spent some time explaining the work that has been done at The Farm, and that is planned in the future, and the only words to describe their vision is fascinating and a bit overwhelming. Their commitment to social and environmental justice in an underdeveloped area of the country is admirable, and they seem to have persuaded many people to contribute to their cause because of their vision and also their passion.
Over the past few days, Patrick and I have walked more miles around the city than most westerners seem to be allowed to do. Virtually every few feet a tuk-tuk pulls up and tries to cajole us into the vehicle. "You want to walk... really?" is the most common thing we've heard. Strangely, we have not seen so much cricket this visit but maybe that is because the World Cup in soccer is going on. We did have a chance to play with some boys in Pettah though we would have done better if the game had switched to basketball. I also made the mistake of buying some food on the street without regard for the spiciness of Sri Lankan food, which was not a wise decision. Every morning when I wake up, with a view of the Indian Ocean out my window, I shake my head at how unlikely it is that I am in Sri Lanka again for the second time in 3 years.
I have enjoyed learning the background of Saaraketha and visiting in Colombo, but I am here to teach -- which is my passion -- and I cannot wait to meet the teacher trainees and students at Wilgamuwa. All the rest is somewhat prelude to that.
I have been so busy since I arrived that I have not had an opportunity to post anything yet, so to catch up a bit...
I did not know too many details about Saaraketha before I arrived in Sri Lanka. I had been sent many materials and emails but was unclear about the scope of the project. Prasanna, Charitha, and Harshi have spent some time explaining the work that has been done at The Farm, and that is planned in the future, and the only words to describe their vision is fascinating and a bit overwhelming. Their commitment to social and environmental justice in an underdeveloped area of the country is admirable, and they seem to have persuaded many people to contribute to their cause because of their vision and also their passion.
Over the past few days, Patrick and I have walked more miles around the city than most westerners seem to be allowed to do. Virtually every few feet a tuk-tuk pulls up and tries to cajole us into the vehicle. "You want to walk... really?" is the most common thing we've heard. Strangely, we have not seen so much cricket this visit but maybe that is because the World Cup in soccer is going on. We did have a chance to play with some boys in Pettah though we would have done better if the game had switched to basketball. I also made the mistake of buying some food on the street without regard for the spiciness of Sri Lankan food, which was not a wise decision. Every morning when I wake up, with a view of the Indian Ocean out my window, I shake my head at how unlikely it is that I am in Sri Lanka again for the second time in 3 years.
I have enjoyed learning the background of Saaraketha and visiting in Colombo, but I am here to teach -- which is my passion -- and I cannot wait to meet the teacher trainees and students at Wilgamuwa. All the rest is somewhat prelude to that.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Second Day
The second day working with Saaraketha went pretty smoothly. I spent the day mostly attempting to find solutions for the issues that were raised on Monday. Had a nice conversation with Thane Terrill about the database issues that are slowing down the extraction of data from the GIS database.
Sent lots of emails to various folks to try and address issues like the modeling and simulating of farmer's land usage, setting up effective queries of the GIS database, and organizing this blog. I'm looking forward to those emails paying dividends, but the time difference between Sri Lanka and the US have made it difficult to know how quickly people will actually be able to respond.
Sent lots of emails to various folks to try and address issues like the modeling and simulating of farmer's land usage, setting up effective queries of the GIS database, and organizing this blog. I'm looking forward to those emails paying dividends, but the time difference between Sri Lanka and the US have made it difficult to know how quickly people will actually be able to respond.
Urban Development Authority
We had a meeting with staff of the Urban Development Authority. They have gathered a huge amount of GIS data on the area surrounding the Saaraketha farm (even getting information about the individual trees that are available in the area), and have done a wonderful job using this data to model the environment. I think that there is power in that data set because it has been supplemented with a qualitative survey of the farmers that live in these areas. This will allow the project to eventually identify very specific needs within the environment.
There are some technical hurdles that need to be overcome - for example, making the huge amount of data that has been collected easily searched - but those hurdles can be overcome with time, patience and technical support. I have every confidence that this will happen.
There are some technical hurdles that need to be overcome - for example, making the huge amount of data that has been collected easily searched - but those hurdles can be overcome with time, patience and technical support. I have every confidence that this will happen.
Initial Thoughts
I arrived in Colombo early Sunday morning, and spent most of that day trying to avoid napping. Went for a really nice walk, although it was pretty hot, and got to see some of the city of Colombo. After that, Daniel and I went back to the apartment and rested until dinner time when Prasanna and Charitha came by to take us to dinner, which was wonderful.
On Monday we received an overview of what Saaraketha is all about. I won't review those details here because they can be found on Saaraketha's website and are much more eloquently stated there than I could provide here. The thing that I would like to share is my initial impressions of what Saaraketha is doing. Put simply, I was very impressed with the philosophy behind the actions here. As with any business venture, there is a profit motive behind the project, but that is not the only motivation. The project staff are focusing on positively impacting people's lives while remaining environmentally friendly. All of these are things that I can totally support (including the profit motivation). The key for me is that this project is not simply about profit, but is attempting to put profit within a larger context where other human and environmental actions are just as important. With this as the foundation, and the truly awe-inspiring amount of work that has been put into this project over the last 18 months, I believe that the project is well positioned.
On Monday we received an overview of what Saaraketha is all about. I won't review those details here because they can be found on Saaraketha's website and are much more eloquently stated there than I could provide here. The thing that I would like to share is my initial impressions of what Saaraketha is doing. Put simply, I was very impressed with the philosophy behind the actions here. As with any business venture, there is a profit motive behind the project, but that is not the only motivation. The project staff are focusing on positively impacting people's lives while remaining environmentally friendly. All of these are things that I can totally support (including the profit motivation). The key for me is that this project is not simply about profit, but is attempting to put profit within a larger context where other human and environmental actions are just as important. With this as the foundation, and the truly awe-inspiring amount of work that has been put into this project over the last 18 months, I believe that the project is well positioned.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Introduction
Welcome to Saaraketha.blogspot.com, a blog about our experiences while working with the Saaraketha organization in Sri Lanka. As the website says (http://saaraketha.com/), Saaraketha means "bountiful field", and this project believes in sustainable agriculture and that "man and nature can exist in harmony".
My name is Patrick O'Shea, and I've been invited to participate in Saaraketha through the Fulbright Specialist program (http://www.cies.org/specialists/). In this capacity, I am helping the organization to envision new and innovative ways to incorporate technology into their educational initiatives.
This blog is intended as a repository of my thoughts during the three weeks that I'm spending in Sri Lanka. In addition, other authors will be posting to document their thoughts as well as they spend time participating with Saaraketha in other capacities and at other timeframes. I'll let these individuals introduce themselves, but suffice it to say that I won't be the only voice that is heard on this blog.
My name is Patrick O'Shea, and I've been invited to participate in Saaraketha through the Fulbright Specialist program (http://www.cies.org/specialists/). In this capacity, I am helping the organization to envision new and innovative ways to incorporate technology into their educational initiatives.
This blog is intended as a repository of my thoughts during the three weeks that I'm spending in Sri Lanka. In addition, other authors will be posting to document their thoughts as well as they spend time participating with Saaraketha in other capacities and at other timeframes. I'll let these individuals introduce themselves, but suffice it to say that I won't be the only voice that is heard on this blog.
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