Day one of the summer 2010 Red Rose seminars was a hit, if I do say so myself... Any day that begins with an assembly of children singing and dancing is marked as spectacular in my book.
We unpacked and took Jennifer and Lucas on a tour of the school. Our good friend Teacher Sophia was our initial guide, showing us the room arrangements that for PreUnit, Class One and Nursery. She is now teaching Class One, a change from PreUnit since we were last here.
The principal, Mr. Buluma, took us through the back of the school, to the Class 2, 3, 4 and Baby Class. We then took a walk across Kibera to visit the new middle school building. The Children of Kibera Potomac High School students had been there last week and helped with construction of 4 new classrooms. Each have 2 skylights which brighten the room considerably, making them cheery and filled with hope.
After tea the teachers all gathered eagerly for our workshop. Every teacher attended! It was truly fantastic to have the entire staff in the one room learning together with us. Jennifer presented a terrific synopsis of the reading process, true "cutting edge" stuff. (Thanks Jim!!)
After lunch we practiced differentiation techniques to expand student comprehension. Lucas told the story of Abiyoyo (a teacher favorite!) with gusto, and we took turns acting out parts of the story. This activity really got the teachers loosened up, laughing and playing with literacy.
We finished the day with song, journal reflections and one word that summarized our work for the day. Words like visualize, laughter, dramatize, learning, oral, access, inspire, perfect...
Annie
We unpacked and took Jennifer and Lucas on a tour of the school. Our good friend Teacher Sophia was our initial guide, showing us the room arrangements that for PreUnit, Class One and Nursery. She is now teaching Class One, a change from PreUnit since we were last here.The principal, Mr. Buluma, took us through the back of the school, to the Class 2, 3, 4 and Baby Class. We then took a walk across Kibera to visit the new middle school building. The Children of Kibera Potomac High School students had been there last week and helped with construction of 4 new classrooms. Each have 2 skylights which brighten the room considerably, making them cheery and filled with hope.
After tea the teachers all gathered eagerly for our workshop. Every teacher attended! It was truly fantastic to have the entire staff in the one room learning together with us. Jennifer presented a terrific synopsis of the reading process, true "cutting edge" stuff. (Thanks Jim!!)After lunch we practiced differentiation techniques to expand student comprehension. Lucas told the story of Abiyoyo (a teacher favorite!) with gusto, and we took turns acting out parts of the story. This activity really got the teachers loosened up, laughing and playing with literacy.
We finished the day with song, journal reflections and one word that summarized our work for the day. Words like visualize, laughter, dramatize, learning, oral, access, inspire, perfect...
Annie