Saturday, June 19, 2010

PLEASE PRAY ABOUT

1. For each TE staff member to always live and grow in wisdom and in the Holy Spirit
2. For development of the International TE Leadership Team
3. For development of the Sierra Leone TE Leadership Team
4. That TE’s relationship with the Ministry of Education and other organizations will be Christ-centered and bring glory to God
5. Increasing number of supporters serving as the Lord leads (coming to teach, financial, spreading the news, prayer, expertise contribution…) specifically for 13 qualified Christian model teachers to come from a “developed” country to model and mentor in TE schools
6. Spiritual transformation for individuals and the nation to God’s glory!
(seek first God’s kingdom and all shall be added…increased knowledge, infrastructure, good government…)


PRAYER FOR HEAD TEACHERS
1. As they motivate their teachers to implement the new methods in their classrooms
2. As they deal with government officials because some of their teachers are not receiving salary
3. As they search for supplies and resources for their schools
4. As they strive for order in the midst of much disorder (changing school calendar schedules, people frequently sick and dying, unreliable transportation, electric, and water systems
Here are the names of the Head Teachers and schools again—maybe put each on a note card in a visible place to pray for:
1. Mrs. Jestina Mendes at Buxton Methodist Boys PM
2. Mrs. Comfort Campbell at Buxton Methodist Girls AM
3. Mrs. Patience Macauley at Buxton Methodist Infants AM
4. Mr. Mohamed Thoronka at Regent Road Baptist AM
5. Mrs. Juliette Bangura at Regent Road Baptist PM
6. Mrs. Williet Tucker at Samaria Primary
7. Mrs. Sawudatu Raschid at Regent Square Jr
8. Ms. Violet Dawdeh at Methodist City Mission
9. Mrs. Abigail Juana at Mother Esther Preparatory
10. Mrs. Bernadette Rhodes at Modern Elementary Jr
11. Mr. Samba Conteh at Modern Elementary Sr

Events and Opportunities we are prayerfully looking forward to.

I. Hope Corps Volunteers:

1. Brian Gangloff, a School Psychology doctoral student at University at Buffalo, (NY) is bringing training for Positive Reinforcement in Classroom and School Wide Management. (May -July )
2. Audra O’rouka, a Biology student of Grove City College, (PA) is bringing science and health training. (June – July )
3. Marianne Kinney, a recent graduate holding a masters degree from Teachers College, Columbia University (NY) in International Educational Development with a concentration in African Education and International Humanitarian Issues. She has acquired a Project for Peace grant to meet literacy training needs and constructive classroom discipline. See Project for Peace article for more information. (July )
4. Joshua Karoud a Canadian is planning to work with TE to discipline the youth in the school and through clubs. (September-?)

II. EduNations Three EduNations representative will be exploring the progress of the schools they are sponsoring.

III. Logos Hope Ship (bringing knowledge, help and hope) plans to be in Sierra Leone the last few weeks of June. They offer special programs to the local schools. One program allows the schools to take their students onboard the ship and the other is for a ship team to come to the schools.

IV. Vision Sharing / USA Visit: the Director Gwen Smith’s will be in the USA August to share the vision of Transformation Education at the Forth Annual TE event, churches, clubs…

V. Transformation Education Resource Centre establishing, opening and ministering. Samuel the resource centre manager will be transferring the supplies to the new space in June. He will lead in establishing a catalog and lending system, train our pilot school teachers on the centre procedures and help them use resources that are most relevant to their students.

VI. Mercy Ships’ (bringing hope and healing) plans to be in Sierra Leone for ten months in 2011. TE’s director, Gwen is a Mercy Ships’ alumni. It is Mercy Ships’ that introduced her to Sierra Leone. We look forward to opportunity to host and minister together with the crew member.

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Project for Peace / Transformation Education:
Marianne Kinney wrote for a grant to for Transformation Education. She will be in Sierra Leone in July to implement the project with the following goals.
1. Professional development: We will conduct a full week of the professional development that the 120 teachers in Transformation Education partner-schools regularly request. The sessions will focus on the Four-Blocks Literacy Model and constructive discipline classroom management. The teachers are growing in these areas, yet need help in content competence and teaching methods so that the students are engaged in their learning and so that growth is holistic, i.e. behavioral, cognitive, and social. The workshops will model the active-learning methods, not simply dispensing information, but allowing teachers to practice and reflect on their teaching content and pedagogy and their pivotal role in Sierra Leone’s renewal.
2. Physical learning environments: In many classrooms of the 11 partner schools of Transformation Education (TE), teachers have no place to secure materials over night. A colleague in the Ministry of Education quickly identified this as one of the teachers’ biggest physical needs. We will coordinate the installation of at least one securable storage cabinet in each school. Teachers will then be able to access and use instructional materials that allow them to vary their teaching methods and engage their students while meeting their learning objectives.

2010 to present TE update

I. Activities with 11 pilot schools
A. TRANSFORMATION EDUCATION HEAD TEACHERS FORUM


a. We created by-laws
Aim: Review, evaluate and update the implementation of Transformation Education in the pilot schools.
Mission: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27 (Bible)
Membership: Opened to Head Teachers and a specified representative from the pilot schools.

b. We elected facilitators
Chairman Mr. Sambia Conteh: He is the head teacher of the Jr. section (3rd -6th grade) of Modern Elementary (a private school)
Vice Chairman Mrs. Jestina Mendes: She is the head teacher of the Jr. Section (3rd -6th grade) Buxton Boys (a government assisted school.)
Secretary Mr. Bockarie Kallon: He is a Senior Teacher of the Jr. school, Methodist City Mission (a government assisted school.)

B. SCHOOL VISITS
Each month Gwen spent one day in each school teaching to model implementation of Constructive Discipline, Biblical Based Character and participatory teaching/learning methods.

Here is an example of the lessons: We integrated learning the Fruits of the Spirit Galatians 5:23 into other subjects as we learned the following song. “The Fruit of the Spirit is not a ___(name a physical fruits_. If you want to be a ___________ you need to know, you can’t be a Fruit of the Spirit because they are LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS and SELF-CONTROL.” During this lesson we integrated:
a. Science by helping them discovered the definition for physical fruit
b. Religious Moral Education by discussing God being spirit, yet he came to earth physically as Jesus the Messiah, in attempt to restore the relationship our sins are ruining.
c. Math by having the children fold the paper into fractions, then learn the position names of the lines and boxes (ex. Centre, Vertical Line, Top, Right, Middle Box)
d. Language by practicing correct spelling, sounding out the letters in the word and defining words.
e. Social Studies by explaining how the Presidents call for Attitudinal Change can be accomplished through individuals like themselves allowing the Holy Spirit in their lives to grow and strengthen them to produce the Fruits of the Spirit.

II. Teaching Team: Six retired teachers from the UK help bring transformation to education in Sierra Leone. Please read the article.

III. Computers that were shipped in the October 2008 container were shared to people who can use them (6 to Ministry of Education for staff and a teacher resource center, 8 to various Non Government Organizations like Compassion Action Ministries, Hope Micro, and World Hope International, 7 to schools like Mother Esther, Samaria Primary, Methodist City Mission, Albert Academy, St. Edwards

IV. FLAXIS (First Ladies Attitudinal Change In Sierra Leone) TE staff participated in the ceremony launching the FLAXIS project, then with the teachers and writers in the editing process.

V. New Staff: Samuel Saidu Sesay joined TE in May. He is a valuable contributor. Please read the article about him.

VI. Transformation Education Resource Center space rented! In addition to the government teacher resource center, TE has recently been blessed with no just one but two much desired building spaces that will be use for training and equipping of educators, and church leaders. One of the TE sites in near the center of the city easily accessible, while the other site has a wonderful facility, but is accessible only by foot or 4-Wheel Drive vehicles.