Kenya Connect Making A Difference

Pin It My friend, Tim Gregory, came to my school about 8 years ago to introduce the students to the life of a child in Kenya. He was part of an organization entitled, Kenya Connect. He is energetic and passionate about helping these students. Below you will find a excerpt from the summer newsletter:

Social Entrepreneurism Takes Root in Maryland    What do you get when you combine the energy of a forward thinking principal interested in global studies (Principal Sharon Stratton of Arundel High School in Maryland), two world-traveled teachers who are passionate about students' cross cultural connections (Sherri Billheimer and Barbara Dziedzic) and two students who represent the next generation of social entrepreneurs (Aashi Parikh and Jordan Luber) -- an exchange like no other!    The culminating gesture of this energetic bunch was a significant investment in the computer hardware at the Learning Resource Center in order to create live discussions among Kenyan secondary students and a community of students at Arundel High. The first discussion centered around the book The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. There was an emotional introduction as the groups finally succeeded in hearing and seeing each other through Skype after months of fundraising, old-fashioned letter writing, and anticipation. The students had remarkably similar responses to literature prompts making the distance between the two groups all that much smaller.    A Growing Team For the past eight years a small but growing number of teachers has traveled to Wamunyu to meet and work with their Kenyan colleagues, on trips hosted by Kenya Connect.  A free-flowing exchange of strategies, ideas, questions, and concerns naturally grew out of these experiences as teachers from opposite sides of the world found common ground in their shared passion for helping students succeed in the 21st century global community. The seeds were planted for an innovative teacher training program designed to meet the particular needs of our partner schools in Kenya.  This past summer, that program blossomed in the new Learning Resource Center, as 38 Kenyan teachers gathered to attend Arts Integration workshops led by Maryland teachers Laura Groo and Tiffany Nichols.  A New Approach  A typical classroom in Kenya finds 40-50 students crammed into a dirt-floor classroom, seated three to a desk, sharing a few textbooks, and feeling lucky to have a pencil.  Their teachers live locally, walking miles to work after taking care of their own small farm or homestead.  Educators receive little or no ongoing training and have very limited access to the resources needed to grow as teachers.  Students strive to pass their yearly national exams, struggling to overcome the additional challenge of doing so in English, their third language.  Arts Integration is a research-based, experiential teaching strategy that engages learners by exploring meaningful connections between core curriculum and the fine arts.  This approach teaches critical thinking skills, creative problem solving, collaborative learning, communication, and leadership while capitalizing on multiple learning styles.  Like Them on Facebook