Thursday
These past five days in the classrooms of St. James Primary have made me 100% supportive of the OLPC program. Theoretically, I knew it was a good thing to teach children computer science because we are, after all, living in a digitally connected world. Our major infrastructure systems--transportation, media and communications, government, energy, education, etc.--all rely heavily on computers. After this past week, I can now say that, experientially, the OLPC program is a win-win situation, not only because it builds crucial technological skills, but also because it keeps the focus on people. In other words, people seeking to understand and interact with and learn from others. Both the St. James students and the CSG teachers "win" because they're communicating across age, culture, dialect, and attitude differences. The St. James students are stretching beyond rote memorization. They're being asked to connect what they are learning (coding) and what they are personally interested in (gaming, singing, sports, etc.). I'm not sure the students have ever been asked what they like, much less what they are passionate about. When you ask them what they'd like to do next or what they wish they could make their sprite do, they are often at a loss to answer. Our girls are asking them to be curious, adventurous, creative, logical, patient, persevering, and independent--all at the same time. What are our girls learning? Many things about effective teaching, which is really all about effective communication. They're learning they need to have a game plan for the eighty-minute period, and while they're at it, best to have a back-up plan as well. They're learning to meet individual students where they are--not where they want them to be. They're learning when to be firm, perhaps even stern, and when to be warm and encouraging. They're learning that these kids have the same worries (about bullying, about fairness, about "not getting it") that kids back home do. Most importantly, they're learning to be flexible and to step into the roles in which they can have the most impact. I've observed one girl be the primary "explainer" for the whole class, and another spontaneously take a smaller group of boys who were behind on the lesson out onto the verandah for more intense instruction, and still others be extremely effective in one-on-one interactions. It's been an inspiring week.
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Wednesday
Hi everyone, it’s Katie! Yesterday was half way through our trip. I can’t believe how fast it has gone by! The kids yesterday were great, and we started our new maze projects. They listen very well, but my goal for the rest of this trip is to teach them to think creatively. It seems that they have some trouble with making their own ideas, and I think creative thinking is essential to any student, and person in general. After class yesterday we went on a turtle watching boat and got to snorkel and we saw turtles! We also got to snorkel over a shipwreck and jump off the top of the boat. I am extremely interested in marine life and thought that the turtle and the fish were beautiful! I am so sad that we have to leave soon, but at the same time I am so happy that I have had this incredible experience. Wednesday
Today we started new projects with the kids that involved them creating their own maze games. Yesterday we had a hard time getting them to focus so we wanted to find a better way to make it more fun and to help get them more interested. My first class had a rough time understand all the Scratch coding they needed in order for the sprite to actually move. They eventually caught on but weren't 100% understanding everything. However they were very willing to listen and learn in order to try to understand and make the game on their own. The second class was the opposite of the first. They caught on right away but they had no interest in moving further after they had finished what we had given them to do. They kept wanting to do other games and it was a bit frustrating and hard to keep them on task. While it was stressful it was still a successful day and we made great progress on their maze projects! After teaching we first got a lunch at a great restaurant located right on the beach! Then we had an amazing day snorkeling! We went on a boat with a great captain and our first stop was to see the turtles! It was so cool because the turtles were literally in our reach and we even saw sting rays! After the turtles we got to see a ship wreck and some coral which was also very beautiful! At the end of the boat ride we all got to jump off the roof, including Ms.Miranda and it was overall an awesome day! Wednesday
Today was our midpoint in teaching the students here. We started our morning with three lessons done and three to go. Also, Charles Cyrus visited our classrooms, which was very generous of him. Charles is my contact here on the island who works for the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation, and is the one who finds schools willing to host us for the week. He also lends out the laptops throughout the year when we are not here. We had an interesting conversation about what it would take to bring this program to the next level. He is sending me back home with some great ideas about how to expand what we do to reach more students. I’m excited about the possibilities. After observing our students in the days prior, we’d determined that our final project would be a maze with words in it. The sprite would navigate around the maze using the arrow keys in order to collect the words, which would disappear on contact. The “game” ends when the sprite navigates to a target on the opposite end of the screen. We planned to take three days to do this with them, and so far so good. After today’s lesson, they all have a sprite that you can navigate using the arrow keys, and many of them have three words on the screen that will be the targets for the sprite. They made good progress, but it’s unclear how much they will take away from this experience. Will they remember computing concepts, or just that they made a little character move around the screen. Or even less? Perhaps all they'll remember is that they had fun with some girls from the US for a week. This is what I struggle with. I guess it's all good. At the very least this is a great cultural exchange. In the two classrooms where Eleanor, Merrill and I teach, the first period is our older class. You’d think they would be better at the concepts than the younger students. But in reality, they struggle with the concepts more than the younger class. However, they are exceptionally well behaved, they seem to want to do everything that we ask them to do, and the class is really calm and peaceful. The other class, the younger ones, grasp the concepts much quicker, but then they don’t know how to keep themselves going. Once they do what we ask, they can’t seem to keep exploring on their own. So they get bored waiting for their slower classmates to finish and chaos ensues. It’s really unexpected. But Merrill and Eleanor are working on strategies to keep them motivated – particularly during that last half hour before their lunch break. That last half hour is a struggle. After school we went back to the beach in Holetown where the girls had arranged for a snorkel boat to tour us around. This was one of the more fun experiences snorkeling that I’ve ever had. First they brought us to a place where they knew we’d see turtles. In addition to a couple of turtles, there was a flounder, stingray, jelly, and myriad other fish to see. The next stop was really fun. It was sort of high-speed snorkeling. They had us jump in and hold on to a rope while they slowly dragged us around over a reef. It was filled with interesting fish and corals, but because we were moving, it was a little like people watching on North High Street during Gallery Hop… you sit and watch as a huge variety of people walk by. I’d never “snorkeled” quite like that but it was a blast! We ended up over a sunken barge which was teeming with fishes. It was simply gorgeous. We ended our tour by jumping off of the top deck of the boat. (See the gallery photos for what this actually looks like.) It was really fun! Another delicious dinner – tonight was curry night – a meeting to plan our last two days, and some more hang-out time rounded out the day. Tuesday
Today at the school we taught the basics of Scratch and continued working on our 1st project. We learned how to use controls, and how to have sprites talk when they are clicked. The kids were eager to learn and were a blast to work with. When I arrived at the school some of the kids had made me cards and sung to me for my birthday. I am grateful to have spent my birthday working with these kids in Barbados. Later we went to the beach, and there we rented jetskis which was really fun. Later we took a walk on the beautiful Barbadian beach and took lots of pictures. |
Trip BlogWe will post daily during the trip. Please also check the photos page for peeks into our experiences. Archives |