Welcome to Zanzibar! First stop... Jozani Forest

Skink

millipedes 

From Nairobi, we hopped a flight to Zanzibar island to begin our work of enhancing our Ocean Sciences unit.  We started in the Jozani forest, home to the endemic and rare red Colobus monkey.  We trekked through the excellent nature trails with a very informative guide, collecting information about the many species of plants and animals that call Jozani home.  The forest is 2 meters below sea level and was once part of a coral reef.  Coral fossils peppered the forest floor and giant mahogany trees towered above us.  Since the water table is quite high in the forest, the mahogany trees’ roots depend upon the coral rock to grow so tall.  The lush understory and dense canopy gave a sense of wonder and mystery, as if maybe someone or something was looming underbrush, perhaps the elusive Zanzibar leopard who is said to feed in Jozani Forest at night. 

endangered red Colobus monkey

Red Colobus with baby

A Powerful Wildlife Message

While in Kenya, we jump started our Science study of the unit question, “How are humans and nature interconnected?” by visiting two important sites – The David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and The Giraffe Centre.  The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is committed to the preservation and protection of wildlife, specifically orphaned elephants and rhinos until they can be reintroduced into the wild.  Elephant and rhino poaching is on the rise in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.  Poachers are currently killing one elephant every 15 minutes for ivory!   At this alarming rate, elephant extinction can be expected in the next 7 years.  There are many complex economical, political, and cultural reasons for the recent rise in poaching of these incredible animals.  If there is one message we have heard loud and clear, it is to NEVER purchase ANYTHING made of ivory or you are profoundly supporting poaching and illegal ivory trade!

The Sheldrick Orphanage has had an influx of orphaned babies in the last couple of years.  In Kenya alone, 20,000 elephants were poached last year!  After observing and being introduced to the orphaned elephants, we were moved to adopt an albino elephant “Faraja” for our classroom.  Faraja is 2 ½ years old and comes from the Amboseli region of Kenya.  He was orphaned due to a human/wildlife conflict.  As we travel to Tanzania, we will learn more about the work being done by in Wildlife Management Areas in collaboration with the Honeyguide Foundation in the Amboseli/ Endumet areas to help local people live more symbiotically with wildlife.

Next, we visited the Giraffe Centre, a non-profit organization whose main objective is to provide conservation education for school children and youth of Kenya.  In 2010, FFT sponsored a field trip to the Giraffe Centre for Kilimani School students.  It was a powerful experience for the children to be so “up close and personal” with wild giraffes.  All of the giraffes at the Centre are endangered Rothschild giraffes.  They come to the Centre temporarily to breed and then are released back into the wild.  As human populations grow and increase agricultural activities, expand settlements, and construct roads, the giraffe is losing acacia trees, their main source of food.  The Giraffe Centre is helping to educate local communities on more sustainable practices.

Similar to the elephants and rhinos, the Rothschild giraffe is struggling to survive.  Imagine a world without these majestic beasts!  All of the contacts we have made so far this trip have informed us that education of present-day students and youth is the answer to wildlife survival.  Once local communities are empowered with knowledge and information, they are making changes at the community level to ensure species survival.  We are hearing “wildlife extinction”.  World wide, no one can sit back!  This is a powerful message that we are bringing home to our students in Boston!

 

Kilimani Continues to Captivate…

Beyond the immediate scope of the VIP partnership, exciting things are happening school-wide at Kilimani under Headmaster Wasike’s leadership.  Here are a few of the highlights:

a.     An Occupational Therapist is now employed at the school with funding from Sense International, servicing students 2x/ week in the Deaf/Blind Unit for therapies. 

b.     Mary Maragia, Deaf/Blind Unit director, is hosting trainings for students, parents, and families in beading and entrepreneurial crafting. (See photos and let us know if you are interested in purchasing any of their crafts!)  

c.      A full vegetable garden (about 100 yards in length) behind the Deaf/Blind unit provides vegetables for Kilimani students’ lunch and is maintained by a part-time gardener and students with disabilities.

d.     The pool is fully functional!  All Kilimani students (with and without disabilities) receive swimming lessons 1x/week.

Mary showing us some of the crafts created by students and parents.

The vegetable garden (photo showing only 1/2 the length)

Student-made bracelets, wallets, handbags, tissue cover, napkin holders.

Mary showing us instructional materials purchased with VIP funds.

The pool newly restored!                                          

Isn’t this exciting?!  In order to continue this great work, we have identified some needs that we thought our community at large may wish to help support:

Kilimani School & VIP partnership needs:

1.)  There are 6 students in the Deaf/Blind Unit who are inconsistent in their school attendance.  $25/ month would pay for transport to school for each of these students.   If you would like to sponsor a student, please let us know!*

2.)  $35/ month will provide greater bandwidth of wifi connectivity in the Digital Hub and guarantee success with our VIP penpal exchange.

3.)  In order to increase the exchange beyond written correspondence, a donation of a webcam, USB microphone, and a printer could further the scope of the VIP partnership.  Two members of our new team at Kilimani will be visiting Boston in April 2015 and again in July 2015 and could transport these items back to Kenya safely.      

4.)  We brought student participants into the team meetings and asked what would be motivating to them as they participate in the VIP partnership.  They had some great ideas about establishing a technology club, as well as having quarterly “Kilimani VIP Tech Luncheons”.  Similar to our Henderson school-based publishing parties, four times a year, we would like to provide the Kilimani students with a special lunch celebration at the cost of $60/ luncheon.

5.)     A one-time cost of $1,400 would allow Kilimani to purchase a JAWS license for 3 computers (2 for visually impaired students to use in the computer lab and 1 for blind/ hearing impaired students to use in the deaf/blind unit).  This is the same software that Dr. Henderson uses to access digital information independently.  Small contributions can add up quickly!

6.)   $85/ month would pay the gardeners salary to care for and maintain the garden, providing fresh vegetables to all of Kilimani’s children.* 

7.) Crafting supplies for Deaf/Blind Entrepreneurial Trainings are needed.* 

     * Currently, Kilimani teachers are personally providing for these needs.  Similar to our American classrooms, teachers personally supplement and are always appreciative of contributions! 

Upon our return to the States, we will be setting up a “Payoneer” account with Bank of America and will let you know more details about how to make tax-deductable contributions if you are interested.    

VIP 2014 – VERY IMPORTANT PROGRESS!!

The teachers, administrators, and students at the Kilimani School greeted us in Nairobi with warm, welcoming arms.  The new headmaster (Mr. Wasike) was filled with enthusiasm for the VIP partnership and even though experienced a personal death in the family, made a point to receive us and meet with us before traveling up country for the funeral.  We were so incredibly encouraged to learn of some amazing developments since the inception of the VIP partnership.  We had heard “rumors”, but as the saying goes, “Seeing IS believing!”  After we left in 2011, members of the British Council and Microsoft, came and visited the Kilimani School.  The representatives saw that Fund for Teachers funding over the course of two consecutive years had helped establish a small computer lab with wifi access where students were learning to utilize technology and communicate with their Boston penpals.  Intrigued by this existing infrastructure, the British Council and Microsoft decided to make the Kilimani School one of their pilot sites in Kenya.  They donated 25 desktop computers, a large flat screen TV for projection, and a full time computer teacher who sees each classroom in the school once per week.  Kilimani’s Deputy Karanja stated, “A seed has blossomed into a tree!”  Staff at the school could not emphasize to us enough that without FFT funding and the VIP partnership, Kilimani would have been overlooked as a site for this program.

As if this was not exciting enough, during our time at Kilimani, we had the pleasure of exploring the new and official Nelson Mandela Library at Kilimani, donated by South African donors.  These donors renovated the small lending library that the 2011 FFT fellowship and the Henderson School parent community started.  They increased the inventory of books, renovated the building, and added a student seating area.  Librarian and computer teacher Sara Moraa is currently working with student librarians to create a digital inventory of all the books.  She also downloads books digitally that specific students express interest in and makes popular titles available to students.   

The library and computer lab have become an integral and bustling part of the school community.  It was so gratifying to see the covers of books that we donated in 2011, such as Charlotte’s Web, falling off from frequent student use.  While we were there, the place was abuzz as students were lining up to return and check out books with student “librarians” managing the scene.  We want FFT and our Henderson community to realize and be encouraged that the 250 lbs. of books we donated in 2011 are still in circulation and well read.  It has also been brought to our attention that because of the lending library started in 2011, the South African donors expanded what was already in existence.  Once again, a seed planted becomes a blossoming tree! 

Over the next couple of days, we met with and planned over many hours with our new team of VIP partners at Kilimani: Sara (computer teacher and librarian), Kevin (computer support technician), Nancy (primary school liaison), Mary (Deaf/Blind unit liaison), and Clara (Visually Impaired Student liaison).  We hashed out a plan for moving forward with VIP to most importantly include students of all abilities to participate in the partnership.

More details to come!  More seeds that need to be planted!  Wait to hear how you can be involved in this exciting work!

 With students in the computer hub.

 Meeting with the VIP team

 2014 VIP Team (wearing Henderson T-shirts): Kevin, Clara, Sara, Terri, Nancy, Danielle, Mary

 Danielle, Deputy Rebecca, Headmaster Wasike

 British Council & Microsoft Digital Hub

 Students in the computer lab.

 Deputy Karanja, Danielle, Assistive Tech Teacher Hesbon, Mary, and Terri at the Digital Hub

 Visiting classrooms

 Mary Anne (student librarian) checking out books.

 2011 Henderson book donations well read!

The Nelson Mandela Library at Kilimani

VIP III - The Expansion

Hello all!

We can’t believe it has been almost 3 years since we were live with this blog!  So much has happened in that time with the Virtual Information Project.  Here’s a recap:

Our first Fund for Teachers fellowship in 2010 (Virtual Information Project – VIP I), allowed us to build a partnership with a sister school in Nairobi, Kenya (Kilimani Integrated Primary School) which also operates within an inclusive model like the Dr. William W. Henderson Inclusion School. FFT funds provided wifi and one laptop computer, a digital photo and video camera, and technology training for a teacher at the school. Throughout the following school year, our students were able to communicate virtually with the students at our sister school and build penpal relationships. FFT also sponsored an educational safari and our students were able to use the information we collected through interviews and photographs to create digital animal adaptation books that they shared with their penpals.

The following year, our colleagues (JoAnn and Ellen) received a FFT grant (VIP II – The Legacy) to grow the work we began. We accompanied them to Kenya on our own dime, and together we worked with teachers and students to build our partnership by creating photo journals; parents from our school donated laptop computers and we were able to build a fully functioning computer lab with 12 computers for student use; families from our school donated hundreds of books to build a small library at the school; and FFT funded wifi for yet another year for our partner school to continue our virtual exchange. We also traveled to the Selekay conservancy and stayed near a Maasai village, learning about Maasai ways of life and local wildlife to enhance our Science study from Kindergarten through 5^th grade via our Science specialist. Our principal, valuing the work we began, allowed us to loop with our students and they were able to sustain and grow their penpal relationships (with greater access to technology) over a second year. Furthermore, a Kenyan teacher from the Kilimani School (Mary Maragia) was awarded a fellowship to study at the Perkins’ School for the Blind. She studied and volunteered throughout the subsequent school year at our school. Our students wrote and published books about Maasai culture and did a comparative study between the Maasai of East Africa and the Native Americans of North America.   

In the next year, not able to travel to Kenya, we continued our relationship with our partner school, virtually connecting through blogging. Our students had the pleasure of meeting & learning from Judith Baker, founder of the African Storybook Project and former BPS teacher. Judith traveled to our sister-school in Kenya and brought letters and small artifacts from our students to their penpals, and included our sister school as a site for the African Storybook Project. Writer Jeremy O’Kasick returned to the States from a 6-month stint with the Maasai people in Loliondo, Tanzania recording proverbs and folktales. He visited and shared his work with our students. They in turn wrote versions of fables and parables, based on Maasai lessons, utilizing photographs from our FFT fellowship and drawing their own illustrations.

This brings us to the present and we are off to East Africa again for  “VIP III – The Expansion”!

This year, there have been changes in administration and staffing at the Kilimani Integrated Primary School.  The new administration is excited about the future of our schools partnering together.  Since 2010, we have dreamt of bringing our students to Kenya to meet their penpals, but have run into some difficulty organizing with BPS International Programs because of the age of our students.   Now that the Henderson Inclusion School is transitioning to a K-12 school and our sister school is already a K-8, it will be possible to begin penpal relationships at the fifth grade level and nurture them until students are in 8^th grade. Then we can organize an international excursion to Kenya, based on the work students have done over the course of four consecutive school years. Also, building this breadth of continuous experience with the students will allow us to begin our fundraising and preparation efforts early. It will also be a wonderfully unique opportunity to add to our innovative inclusive school and be something to distinguish the upper school – virtually and physically connecting students with and without disabilities in inclusive schools across continents and cultures.  So, we are off to Nairobi, Kenya again to visit our sister school and identify a pilot group of students and teachers to join us in this venture.     

From Nairobi, we will travel to Arusha, Tanzania to reconnect with Jeremy O’Kasick. Jeremy is currently working with Honeyguide Foundation. Honeyguide is an ecotourism company striving to bridge the gap between the tourism industry and local communities.  Their aim is to “develop long term, positive strategic links between communities and their business partners, providing mechanisms that contribute positively to community sustainability, poverty reduction, and providing a catalyst for the communities to have a positive influence on their surrounding natural resources.“   

We will travel with Jeremy to local communities around Arusha and learn about the sustainable efforts being made between the Maasai people, as well as other people groups, and the tourism industry to try and conserve and grow their natural resources.  Furthermore, our plan is to visit schools in the region where Honeyguide is developing education and conservation projects in partnership with Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots program and Tanzania People and Wildlife.  We have developed an interdisciplinary Science and Reading unit of study comparing humans and chimpanzees based on our 2010 visit to Jane Goodall’s Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.  We are excited to build upon this as we learn more about Roots and Shoots’ work in Tanzania.

In the past three school years since our first FFT fellowship, our student achievement in Science has skyrocketed, with an over 40% point increase in average 5^th grade MCAS scores. We firmly believe one of the chief contributors to this success is the way our Science instruction has been revolutionized as a result of the FFT fellowships. At the fifth grade level, we were trained this past fall in the new fifth grade STEM aligned Science program-COSEE Ocean.  The aim of this curriculum is to provide high quality, engaging Ocean Science curriculum to a diverse audience of students in urban school districts.  Students explore ocean features, differing ocean biomes and ecosystems, and how humans and nature are interconnected through the ocean. This unit charges us to challenge student thinking around sustainability and making smarter ecological choices.  The overall unit question asks, “How are humans and nature interconnected?”

We will travel to Zanzibar off the coast of mainland Tanzania to visit the Institute of Marine Sciences.  The IMS is one of four of the world’s Coral Reef Targeted Research & Capacity Building for Management Program Centres of Excellence.  The aim of these Centres of Excellence is to “build scientific capacity and research to inform policy, so that coral reef systems under threat from climate change and multiple human stressors can be sustained for current and future generations.”  We will explore through a combination of snorkeling and boating excursions the coral reefs, mangrove forests, seagrass beds, estuaries, and beaches where five of the world’s seven marine turtle species nest (all of which are considered endangered).  We will learn first hand from researchers how marine toxins are damaging organisms higher up in the food chain, how agriculture, mining, and dynamite fishing are destroying coral reefs, and how sand-mining, erosion, and tourism are destroying turtle nesting habitat. 

By first-hand exposure to the work that Honeyguide is doing with local communities in and around Arusha, as well as by visiting and learning about the work scientists are doing in Zanzibar, we will be better equipped to teach the COSEE Ocean unit more effectively. Experiencing this, documenting it, and sharing it with students will be extremely vital in helping us address our overarching unit question: “How are humans and nature interconnected?” We hope to in turn expose our students to ways in which we in the first world can make responsible decisions that impact those in the third world positively.  As a result of this fellowship, we as teachers will better understand how the earth and all its inhabitants are deeply interconnected and will be able to share this knowledge meaningfully with our students.     

We can’t wait for this work to begin!  We look forward to having you journey along with us through this blog as we embark on another life-changing FFT adventure!

All the best,

  Danielle & Terri

Enjoy these photos of our students writing their Maasai fables and parables:

Journals Come to Life

While the children waited for their film to be developed, they got right to work on designing and creating their journals. Their work was so exceptional, it attracted many admirers. Notice photos here of Headmaster Benson visiting the classroom and JoAnn sharing student work with the Headmaster and the Parent Council chairperson, Mr. Francis Mboya.

Photography 101

Once each student completed a final draft of his or her narrative, it was time to move on to the photography lessons. The children were so eager to begin. After teaching the basic parts and functions of the camera (view finder, film advance gear, frame counter, lens, actuating button, shutter, flash), they were ready to “experience” photography. Many of the children had never held or used a camera before and others were the class “experts”, modeling proper form and technique.

The students’ assignment was to document their home and school lives via photomedia and to correlate their photos with their narrative stories. It was so much fun for us to observe the students as they experimented with their cameras and to photograph them photographing their world. Each day, the students reported back about their experiences. We were impressed with how seriously each child took his or her assignment, exercising special care of the materials given. At the end of the week, every single camera was returned and the film was ready for developing!

Enjoy the photos of the children with their cameras!

"Say Cheese!"

The Writing Process Begins...

JoAnn and Danielle began the “Walk in My Shoes” photojournalism project, the aim of which was for students to capture narratives of their daily lives through photography and journalism. Each student was provided a disposable camera to use in school and at home (thank you Henderson Coin Drive donations) and each student compiled a personal journal to share with his or her penpal.

The process began when Kilimani students read Henderson student journals and made observations. After reading and sharing, they then brainstormed ideas for their own journals and wrote a rough draft. When rough drafts were finished, each student conferred with either JoAnn or Danielle and then revised his or her writing in preparation for the final draft.

The process was enlightening to say the least! It was really fun for us to experience first hand in an instructional setting the many similarities and differences between our students and the Killmani students. Enjoy some of these photos of the “Take a Walk in My Shoes” writing process…