First Day of Facilitator Workshops

Monday, August 9, 2010

This is the first day of facilitator workshops with the Kenyan teachers at Utimishi Academy. Many of the facilitators arrived last night so we had a chance to get to know
each other over supper. Today there was an amazing amount of great discussion
about Professional Learning Communities (PLC), the graffiti activity questions
prompted thinking from all of us while the development of a community agreement
helped to make sure we were all on the same page for workshop expectations.
There are lots of questions about our schools in Canada: class sizes, schedules,
grades taught, university requirements and testing. Our theme for the workshop
is “Focus on Learning. Not on Teaching.” In the PLC sharing session the purpose
for a PLC was established:

Sharing Experiences

Sharing Challenges

Establish roles, wants and needs

Opens door for interactions

Team building

Common goals

In a conversation with one of the headmasters I found out that it’s their job to secure outside funding from donors to make improvements to the school, build new classrooms or purchase resources. In the seven years
he had been at his school he has secured funding to build 8 new classrooms and
a computer lab with 6 laptops. He has been very successful in finding funding
to improve his school.