Today was one of the most exciting days I have had since coming to Kenya to work on this program. Having the Braeburn teachers agree to come on board and help train the teachers at our donor schools has not only given our project teeth, but has made it sustainable for future donors to adopt. One of the conditions that will be written into the program is that for a school to become a recipient and receive the donations and training, their teachers must in turn train another recipient school when called upon to do so.
Each Braeburn teacher spent time in each classroom, getting a chance to view every class and teacher at Fluorspar. The purpose of this visit was to see how Fluorspar teachers teach, how the use their classrooms, its resources, and particularly, how, if all, they use the smartboards that have been equipped in nearly every classroom. There was a session with all of the teachers in the staff room during lunch break to ask questions and help craft out a strategy, followed by another one at the end of the day.
What was so amazing about these two sessions was the extent to which the Fluorspar teachers opened up, asked questions, and suggested ideas in a way they have never done with me before. I firmly believe that unless we have teachers training teachers and helping implement our program, which after all directly effects teachers of recipient schools, we will not succeed. To me, this has been one of the most exciting steps in the design of the model and implementation of the program.
What will happen next is that, now having located the areas that will need training, we will put together a program and the Braeburn teachers will return to Fluorspar to implement it.
