Vusumnotfo Pilot Teacher Training

The important part about this picture is the dog sleeping on my chair; his name is Rhino.

On December 7 and 8th I traveled to the northern region of the country and facilitated a two-day training for 8 community preschool teachers. It was the first training for a pilot group of teachers as a part of grant that I received in conjunction with a grassroots organization called, Vusumnotfo, from Open Society Initiative (OSI). The December training was a kick-off for the pilot teachers so that they knew what to expect in 2011 in terms of our work together. I was basically introducing them to the concepts of 'vision, assessment, and planning.' If you are currently working for Teach For America (or ever have) and are reading this blog, you are likely laughing right now. It is confirmed, you can take the girl out of TFA, but you can't take TFA out of the girl. Thankfully, all that I learned while working for the organization in Los Angeles applies to rural Swaziland. It truly is a universal, leadership model!

Anyways, back to the training. Since there are no 'standards' for early childhood care and development (ECCD) in Swaziland, I used the California standards for learning to help introduce the idea that there are certain skills and knowledge that every child should have upon completing preschool. It was really interesting to work with the 8 teachers because they are doing a lot of good work and many of the 'right' things (some with a dirt floor/mud hut of a classroom); they just don't have the 'terminology' or perhaps a full understanding of 'why' they are doing what they are doing. So, it was my job to really drive home the 'why' (based on child development) and to introduce the 'terminology' so that we'd have a common language for the duration of the project and for their continued professional development with Vusumnotfo after I leave in early June (gasp). As with introducing any new information, I started simply. I used three, guiding questions as the framework on which to hang everything learned throughout the workshop and modeled each of the concepts using activities that they already do with their pupils. Our priority outcomes by the end of the two days were that the teachers would understand: 1) the five areas of child development, 2) the California standards for ECCD, and 3) how the activities that they do on a daily basis are aligned (or not aligned) with the five areas of development and the standards for ECCD. Lastly, leaving the two days, the teachers needed to select 13 standards to begin teaching in Term 1 2011. Although there are 39 standards and all 39 standards should be taught every term, we are starting gradually and sticking to the promise of 'keeping it simple.' We're going to start with 13.

So, now it is January and I am writing activities and assessments for each of the 13 selected standards. Then, in February, I'll train the pilot group of teachers on the package of activities and assessments and perform follow-up observations in each of their classrooms (twice) throughout March and April. To wrap-up my participation in the project, I'll meet with the pilot group again in May and assist them in creating activities and assessments for the remaining 26 standards. The goal is for me to model with the first curriculum package and for them to use what they've learned to complete the curriculum - as to build capacity and make it so that the community teachers can continue to share ideas with each other monthly at their professional development workshops.

The last piece of the puzzle will be introducing 'tracking' of results (like I said, you can't take TFA out of the girl!). Since tracking is such an important concept, we're introducing 'assessment through observation' in the pilot phase and tracking teacher performance in order to model the concept that will be later applied to pupil learning. It blows my mind to think of the full scale implementation of the project, but I am confident that it will mean really good things for the community children who count on these preschools to get ready for primary school. It's just all about having a goal, knowing how you are going to measure the goal, and then making your plan to achieve that goal. Wish us luck!

When I travel to Pigg's Peak I stay at Kathy's and on Vusumnotfo property. There are two 'wendy' houses; one with bunk beds and the other is a kitchen. There's no hot water and pit toilets, so it is a bit different then our luxurious Mbabane accommodations.

Wendy Houses

Bunk House

Kitchen

Apart from community preschool teacher development, Vusumnotfo also does sustainable gardening projects; therefore, we eat a lot of fresh produce during our trainings!

Here are a few shots of the pilot group of community preschool teachers: Nkosingiphile, Irene and Catherine

Jabulile and Busisiwe

Babe Mamba and James work full-time for Kathy and Vusumnotfo. Since they will be implementing the project in the longterm, they participated in the training and will continue to do so. They are also very helpful when it comes to translating from English to siSwati (when necessary!).

Our classroom

Our guiding questions. Amen.

The first activity was about the areas of child development. I asked the teachers to list 10 activities they normally do with their pupils and then we aligned these with the corresponding developmental area(s).

Then, we grouped the 39 California ECCD standards into the same developmental buckets. This task was completed in two separate groups and the picture below shows us comparing the answers from each group.

Next, we selected the first group of standards to begin teaching in Term 1 (initially, we planned for 12, but then 39 was so neatly divisible by 3 and there are 3 school terms...so, we added one more. Not quite sure whey we picked 12 and not 13 to begin with?!).

Lastly, we introduced the concept of using observations to assess pupil understanding through a role play. If you'll notice, I even whipped out a little siSwati on my rubric poster to describe the 4 levels of mastery.

I mean, even though they are not quite ready for tracking, there can't be a vision and plan if there is no assessment...so, we're squeezing a little in during the pilot phase. Like I said, wish us luck!