Global Service Learning

While at ISTE last week, I had the pleasure of meeting Bob Greenberg, who interviewed me for his Brainwaves Video Anthology series. Bob seeks out "thinkers, dreamers, and innovators; some of the brightest minds in education" and seeks to record their stories to help inspire other teachers.  It was an honor to be chosen by Bob to be a part of this project.  Below is my 4 minute talk about the power that global service learning has had on our students at the Wallenpaupack South Elementary School.

Adventures in Kenya Series - Day 5 - Project LINC

It's had to believe that I've only been here a few days. I've been so busy that it seems like months. Today was another day packed with awesome.

I started the day by walking to Havilla Childrens Center again with Livingstone. I used the GoPro camera and head mount that I have to record the walk to the school. I'll be posting that to YouTube along with many other videos when I get back home.  I had to bring extra camera equipments today because my mission today was to document everything I could as the water filters for which our Wallenpaupack students, the children in the Andover Middle School, and students in Trikala, Greece had spent the past few months raising money were installed and distributed. For more information, check out the Project LINC website.

Around 8:30, I started recording interviews of students and teachers about the water situation in Kibera, and how the filters will help them. Teacher Tyson told me about the Cholora outbreak in Kibera which has killed 7 people. One student shared a story of a friend who drank dirty water and ended up in the hospital.

At 9AM, Nancy and the Vestergaard team arrived.  All the students were gathered in the "courtyard" to learn how to use the Community Filters that were being installed at the school. There were 115 students crammed into a space about 8x20 feet. I set up the GoPro on a tripod in the back and recorded parts of the demonstration using the GoPro App on my iPhone. Hiding in a doorway to a classroom, I took the best photos I could without stepping on the "baby class" that was sitting in front of me. The kids also learned about the importance of using clean water to wash their hands, and how to use the LifeStraw Family Filters that 64 of them will be taking home. 

After the presentation, I took some pictures, recorded an interview between Nancy and Head Teacher Domitilla, and packed up all my equipment. The Vestergaard team was now headed to Cheery Children Education Center, and I asked them to give me a ride. 

When we got out of the car much deeper into Kibera near Cheery, I again attached my GoPro to record the walk.  I was determined today to document as much as possible, both for the project and because it's likely the last time I'll spend much time in Kibera this trip.  

It warmed my heart to be greeted with smiles, joy, and shouts of "Teacher Mike!" when I arrived. I took some pictures and video of stuedents learning in their classrooms and the schools as the Vestergaard team set up for the next demonstration.  The demonstration was basically the same here, but since we were deeper in the slum, you could sense a difference. The students at both schools need the filters, but the kids at Cheery NEED the filters. When you see the videos of the two areas, you will understand better. I took video with multiple cameras, took a ton of pictures, and tried to document as much of the process as possible. I've shot lots of good pictures in my life, but video is somewhat new to me, so I'm hoping I did a good job.  

After the demonstration, we again recorded a few interviews with students and teachers.  One students shared a story of a cousin who was hospitalized from drinking contaminated water, and the costs of the resulting hospital visit caused great hardship for the family.  She was very greatful to have a filter to bring home to her family.  

Around 1:30, when Nancy left with her team, I started making sure that everything was set for the 7 school, 3 continent Skype that was scheduled for 3:15, in which all the students who raised money for filters were going to meet all the students who received filters. It was hard to make any progress, though, because the students kept begging me to do other things. During the students' lunch time, I showed a few kids some math games they could play with the bag of random kinds of dice that I brought to the school. They LOVED playing with the dice, and for many of them it was the first time they had ever seen them. I had to show many of them how to roll the dice when their turn came.  We practiced multiplication and math facts through dice games.  

I told them to take the dice back to their classrooms, and to play on their own now that they knew how.  They were excited to hear that I was leaving the dice for them and not taking them with me when I left. Then, one of the 4th grade students brought me a lunch of ugali, eggs, and kale, which was very tasty.  I really do like Kenyan food. 

Where lunch is prepared at Cheery

When I finished my lunch and tried to get back to work, a few second graders came in to the office and begged me to come teach them math.  So, I went next door to their classroom and taught a math lesson for them. 

Finally, close to 3PM I had to get away to set things up for the call. Since Friday is classroom cleaning day, many of the student desks were brought to Cheery's "courtyard" and Jairus, the director's, laptop was put on a stand for the students to see. Even though I had brought them a projector for Skype calls yesterday, they need to get an adapter to be able to use it. 

At 3:15 the call started, and once we got the microphone muting squared away, each school took turns having a representative share their part of the Project LINC story.  It was great for all the students involved to see how connected they were. I ended the call by sharing how much I've come to love and appreciate the students at Cheery and Havilla that I've worked with over the past 3 days, how sad I am to be leaving them, and how the kids in Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Greece could not be helping a more incredible group of students. 

After school, Jairus again walked me back toward Barnabas's house.  We took a different route this time - staying along main roads in Kibera instead of walking by the train tracks.  I wore the GoPro again to get video footage. During the first part of the walk it was very dusty, and we coughed as dust kicked up from a passing truck.  About halfway back, it started to rain.  By the end of the walk, I was slipping on mud. 

Along the walk, Jairus took me to his youngest son's school. Since I had met his son once before on a Skpye call, his boy had asked if Jairus could bring me by the school to meet him.  When I got to the school and met him, he was very shy and didn't know what to say to me. As we left, I chucked with Jairus about how I could see my son Michael, who is almost the same age, doing something similar.

I said goodbye to Jairus near the busy road that Barnabas lives on, and thanked him for letting me work with his students over the past few days and for helping me understand life here in Kibera a little better. After meeting on Skype many times, it was great to meet he and his wife Emmily in person and to work with them for a few days.

The rest of the walk was uneventful and wet as I walked past the shops and vendors selling everything you could imagine.  I saw a shop that sold some nice looking African earings and would have liked to stop, but it was raining pretty hard and I had a backpack full of electronics, so I didn't.

When I got into the house, Livingstone was there waiting to talk to me about plans for the rest of the trip.  He had stayed at Havilla this morning to facilitate the Skype call there.  As we were sitting at the table, a class from Florida Skyped him and asked to learn how to count in Swahili.  I joined him on the call, which was fun. 

Tomorrow I have a morning flight to the Masai Mara reserve, where I will be relaxing on safari for a few days.  I'll be staying at the Mara Intrepids Tented Camp, going on several game drives, and taking lots of pictures. I fly back to Nairobi on Sunday night before heading out to rural western Kenya very early on Monday. I may combine the next two days into one blog post.

Adventures in Kenya Series - Less than a Week to Go

(Image - Wikipedia Commons)

Last spring I applied for and was approved to receive the Helen Villaume Education Enrichment Grant from the John and Helen Villaume Foundation.  My proposal had three goals: to develop a Distance Teaching Project collaboration between our students and children in the Kibera Slum of Nairobi, to travel to Kenya to document the benefits of peer-teaching service projects, and to present the project and documentation at ISTE and other conferences afterward.  The Distance Teaching Project has since grown to include schools in China, India, Venezuela, France, and around the United States. Also, our students have joined children in Greece and Kansas to raise money for water filters and school supplies for schools in Kibera through Project LINC. I have been invited to share these projects, as well as others our students have collaborated upon, as part of a talk on the power of partnering students with social innovators at the Africa Summit 2015, which will be held at the University of London this July.

Within a week I will embark on my trip to Kenya to document the Distance Teaching Project, to learn from teachers and students in Kibera and Kimilili, to share my expertise with teachers at three different schools, and to create some amazing leanring opportunities for our students back home in my home district.  Since I anticipate this to be an experience that is potentially life-altering as well as the adventure of a lifetime, I plan to blog daily to share with all of you just as I blogged our family trip to Europe in 2012.  This is the first post in the series.

Kibera Slum (Image - Wikimedia Commons)

One development that has happened since I wrote the grant is our students' involvement in Project LINC.  Wallenpaupack children have raised over $800 for water filters and over $600 for school supplies for kids in Kibera.  Overall, the project has raised over $6000 for water filters, and the Vestergaard company that produces LifeStraw filters has generously agreed to donate 7 large community filters for the schools in Kibera with which we have been working. I am excited that these water filters will be delivered to families and installed at the Havilla Children's Center and the Cheery Children Education Centre while I am there.  I will be able to shoot video and pictures of this event and I plan to do a live Skype call at that time with children from Greece, Kansas, and home who participated in the fundraising.

I am appreciative to my good friend Livingstone Kegode, who has helped create the projects mentioned above, and has helped me plan my upcoming trip. None of this would have been possible without his guidance. I am so happy that I will get to recipricate when he visits the United States in June/July to present the Distance Teaching Project with me at ISTE.

As of right now, here is my anticipated schedule for the trip:

Sunday 5/3 - Depart Newark for overnight flight to Amsterdam

Monday 5/4 - Layover in Amsterdam. Since it's Remembrance Day in the Netherlands, I am going to do an interview with a Dutch friend to answer questions about this holiday and the Canadian liberation of the Netherlands from the Nazis in WWII.  Also, take a canal tour and have lunch at a nice cafe by a canal.  Maybe buy some clogs.  Overnight flight to Nairobi.

Tuesday 5/5 - Arrive Nairobi. Shop for school supplies.

Wednesday 5/6 - Work with teachers and students at the Havilla Children's Center. Filters will be delivered to the two schools on this day. Shoot footage and pictures to document Distance Teaching Project

Thursday 5/7 - Work with teachers and students at the Cheery Children Education Center. Shoot footage and pictures to document Distance Teaching Project.

Friday 5/8 - I will be spending time at both of the forementioned schools working with teachers and students, and documenting the instillation of the filters.  If all goes as planned I will facilitate a group Skype call with Wallenpaupack students, children from Andover, Kansas, and children from Trikala, Greece to let them see how much good they have done through their project.  There is no better feeling as a teacher than seeing your students experience the joy that comes from using their learning to help others.

Saturday and Sunday 5/9-10 - For my birthday, my wife got me a one-night flying safarin to the Masai Mara.  I will be leaving Nariobi Wilson airport on a tiny turbo-prop plane and flying into the Mara, where I will spend two days on game drives.  My children are excited because this is the same location that "Big Cat Diary" is filmed that they sometimes watch on Animal Planet. I fly back to Nairobi on Sunday night.

Monday 5/11 - Livingstone and I are leaving way before dawn to drive the 5-6 hours to Kimilili, a rural area of western Kenya, where we will spend time working at the HIP Academy.  This school opens for the first time next week.  I will be taking hands-on math materials to the teachers there and giving them training in how to use them with students.

Tuesday 5/12 - We will spend the morning at HIP Academy, and then travel 3-4 hours east to Lake Nakuru National Park, where I have arranged to stay for two nights at the Naishi House - a former Game Warden's residence in the middle of the park that is run by the Kenyan Wildlife Service. There are no fences around this house, and animals literally are all around where we are staying. Lake Nakuru NP is famous for it's huge number of Flamingos, as well as other traditional safari animals like rhinos and lions.  We will use the house as a base for exploring the park.

Wednesday 5/13 - While at Lake Nakuru NP this day, I have arranged for a game warden to meet us at the Naishi House to record an interview about the park and the animals in Kenya. If we can work out the timing and internet connectivity we will do this interview as part of a live Skype call with Wallenpaupack students and others from around the globe who wish to join.  If not, I will record the interview and post it online for students to access.

Thursday 5/14 - I have an 11PM flight out of Nairobi to come home.  There are a couple of options before I fly home.  Either we will come back to Nairobi and see a bit of the city, spend some time at Nairobi National Park within the city's borders, or stop at the Mitahato Teaching Farm on the way back to the city.  The Teaching Farm is a location about 45 min north of Nairobi where a 1/4 acre farm has been engineered to provide food for an entire community. Kenyans travel from rural areas to learn here how to replicate this in their own villages.  Mitahato has agreed to partner with our students next year as we build a community garden that will grow food for our local food pantry, so I would like to stop there if we can.

So, this is the plan.  We all know how plans go.  I fully expect that flexibility will be needed during my travels, and that the unexpected will happen at times. Regardless, I hope that I can do some good during the trip, learn lessons that help me grow as a teacher and a person, bring experiences to our students at home, and make connections that lead to future projects. I know that I'll meet lots of people and add many teachers to my global network.

In the next few days before I travel I'll share my packing list.

(Image - Wikimedia Commons)