Honeymoon in Kenya! Part 3b: Sirua Aulo Academy

Trophies won in the past few years!

** I've already written about all the ways Sirua Aulo is breaking the mold/mould. This post will simply chronicle our trip. **








School tour
- I will post pictures as if you were walking with us, starting from the bottom of the hill and walking up.

Main entrance to main building (with upper primary classes, library, and administrative offices)

Still walking up the hill past the main building. There's the 3-room block in which the middle will be the special education classroom! Behind that building to the left is the NEW dining hall donated by Northpointe Community Church in California.  

They are almost done with construction of the special education room.

Still walking up the hill past the special education room. That is the boy's dormitory at the top. You can see a little of the dining hall on the left. 

Standing in front of the special education room looking down, you can see the lower primary classrooms on the left and main building on the right. 

Same position from special ed classroom looking downhill, but panned toward the right. Main building in front of us, girl's dormitory directly to the right of it, and up the hill, closer to where I am standing, is the the building with the baby and nursery classes.

We are walking toward the lower primary classes...

... where this sign is posted! 

Looking downhill from left side of main building. Recognize that hill with the little bunch of trees? That's home!

Wednesday, September 11

Dan's aerodynamics lesson with Standard 8 students and paper airplane contest

After the lesson, we gave each student a piece of paper and taught them how to fold a paper airplane. Then we had them all write their names on their plane so that when we went outside, we'd know who won the contest!

Linda's first staff workshop: Discipline vs Punishment (The Power of Praise)
The Human Rights Watch published a summary of Kenya's culture of corporal punishment in September 1999. In it, it recommends that the international donor community:

• Fund workshops to train Kenyan teachers in non-physically abusive methods of classroom management, tie contributions to attendance and participation in these workshops, and support the creation and distribution of materials to instruct teachers in these methods.

That's YOU! Everyone who supported our trip and the special education classroom! From the inception of Sirua Aulo Academy in 2008, Emmanuel has established a firm no-physical-abuse policy in the school. However, neither he nor the staff had learned of any effective alternatives for discipline. They have been issuing detentions, extra homework, or labor tasks around the grounds. Some teachers are still in the habit of making negative examples of students, saying things like "Joey came late. Don't be like Joey."

This is not unusual anywhere in the world, both in the school and home environment. Dan says his art teacher used him as a negative example in his Australian elementary school. I myself have been given extra work for misbehavior in the American education system. The methods I shared over the next few days are considered the latest in evidence-based practice in special education. However, it is all entirely applicable, and in fact highly useful, for children in general education. And that is how I presented the information to the entire staff.

Staff sitting around the school's library, laughing because I had them partner up and pretend to be their naughtiest student so they can practice using positive language and praise. 

Thursday, September 12
Dan's hour-long lecture on electricity to Standards 6-8 in the new dining hall.
The lecture he gave was similar to the one given at Sister Freda's to the high school girls, except to about five times more students and with a dusty chalkboard instead of a marker board. Even though the subject was a bit over the head of the younger students, the Std 6 and 7 teachers said they didn't want their students to miss out, especially since they will eventually be covering electricity later.

But the older Std 8 students were just as engaged and interested as the girls at Sister Freda's! It was great that Dan brought some demonstration material from Australia because the kids were learning about electricity and electromagnetism without batteries, bulbs, wires, or anything but their textbooks. Two years ago, an engineer volunteer installed and donated solar panels to the school for lighting, but of course the children are not allowed to touch those.

Linda's second staff workshop: The Individualized Education Plan
Emmanuel thought the idea was so good, it should be applied to ALL Sirua Aulo pupils. I explained that it can be quite extensive and over-kill to do it for ALL students... We settled on his implementing this for only the struggling students instead :-)

I went over all the basics... Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance, Short-Term Objectives using the S.M.A.R.T.  technique, and determining the who/what/when/where/how of Long-Term/Annual Goals. Each teacher had to think of one student and one long-term goal, then from there consider how the student is doing now, and what the steps are in between. I made sure to emphasize their consideration of the child's STRENGTHS.

Dan's homework project

The Std 8 science teacher and Dan talked about how he could leave the demonstration materials with him on a set display board. Using found materials, Dan worked on it at home until it got too dark to work...

   

Friday, September 13

There wasn't enough material at home so Dan finished the project at school using more found material.

 

Dan did another paper airplane activity with the lower primary kids
Dan and I made over thirty paper airplanes for the kids, thinking we would work with one class at a time, but due to time constraints and the children's adamant interest, we had three classes at once! So the kids had to throw and then share with their neighbor... They really enjoyed it!

Linda's third staff workshop: Neurodiversity and Positive niche construction
I designed this entire lesson around a book titled Neurodiversity in the Classroom by Thomas Armstrong. It has fantastic information for teachers with kids of any caliber.

"Just as we celebrate diversity in nature and cultures, so too do we need to honor the diversity of brains among our students who learn, think, and behave differently.
In Neurodiversity in the Classroom, best-selling author Thomas Armstrong argues that we should embrace the strengths of such neurodiverse students to help them and their neurotypical peers thrive in school and beyond." 

Using the book as a guide, I compared teaching a child to growing a garden. If you want your plants to thrive, then you give them every necessary element. Why wouldn't you do the same for a child? Thomas Armstrong calls the creation of more favorable conditions so that the child has the best chance for growth "Positive Niche Construction."

Plants Need	and Children Need
- Sun	- Strengths-based learning
- Water	- Positive role models
- Fertilizer	- Assistive technologies/Universal design for learning
- Soil	- Environmental modifications
- Space	- Positive career aspirations
- Air	- Strength awareness
- Pruning	- Human resources

Saturday, September 14
Linda's fourth staff workshop: Intro to ABA and PBS... And conclusion
I talked about Applied Behavior Analysis and Positive Behavior Support only as an introduction to the concepts and theory behind them. I have no formal training in these areas, so that is my disclaimer. It was important to emphasize that childrens' behaviors tend to have a communicative or functional purpose. It was another way to help the teachers get out of reactionary punishment and into positive discipline development.

The drawings on the chalkboard are my attempt at explaining which children need our extra effort and care. I drew a bell curve and said to imagine that this was a graph of their students' academic and functional achievements. Teachers have the habit of teaching to the students in the upper 50%. That's because they usually behave better and accomplish more, so it's natural to cater lessons to them. They're the "easy" ones. However, I argued that though they get high grades, you shouldn't be too proud of their achievements. You didn't need to tend to that garden; it was already flourishing. If you left it alone, it will likely still do well.

Contrast them to the the lower 50%. These are the ones for whom you will have to till the soil, add more fertilizer, and give more sunlight. If you left this garden alone, it will likely not improve. But when they start to get better grades, behave more appropriately in class, work harder, you know it was because of your input.

Updates with sponsored kids
I've been sponsoring Brian and Lerionka since 2008. They have really grown!

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