So incredibly proud

My Nigerian Graduate Volunteers (NGVs) in Nassarawa make me feel proud over and over again. It is such a nice feeling. It is great to see my lovely students grow the way they did. Starting out as un(der)trained teachers and now becoming basic trainers ….. I can find no other word than ‘WAUW’ to express myself.

Last week I was again invited to be a resource person during 2 workshops, one in GSS Kokona and one in Technical school Nassarawa Eggon. The first one involved all my NGVs in Nassarawa, except for one as he was in a road traffic accident a month ago and broke his hip. Three from this group need to be mentioned separately as they work their asses of for all these workshops in all the schools within their local governments, they are Fatima, Clements and Steve. Thumbs up for them. What they established in their area is enormous. Together they provide workshops every week in different schools. The workshop is always about learning and the influence a teacher has on the learning of a child. It is amazing to see how much they picked up from my own workshops for them and how they translate it in their own way. Standard sessions are:

the learning tree – to get the participants to realize that learning is a natural fact and to let them experience that people learn easily from peers and from groups though imitation, trail-and-error and so on. 

Small theory on learning – to make people aware of the process of learning and the definition we give it. During this session participants are encouraged to think about their role as facilitator of learning.

Learning styles – people learn in different ways. How does a teacher participate on this knowledge in the classroom?

Practical examples of games – During the workshop in February, Vonny and I, introduced some games for in the classroom. The NGVs use these as examples for their own participants. Some puzzles, games, or introduction activities. 

In the workshops where I am asked to come I always do the bit on ‘theory of learning’, and have discussions about ‘what is learning?’, ‘what happens in our heads?’, ‘when are children ready to learn?’. For this I use the theory on how the brain works, a simplified model of the brain divided in 3 major pieces, the ‘reptilian brain’, the ‘limbric brain’ and the ‘neo-cortex’, but also I connect this with ‘Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs’ to show when children are ready to develop. Almost always these sessions come down to the question ‘how to direct children without corporal punishment?’. This is considered a scary question as corporal punishment here is so imbedded in the culture. It took me at least 5 months to feel self-assured enough to start this discussion and provide teachers with alternatives. I don’t advise my NGVs to have this discussion yet, as also they still have to learn to be assertive enough in the classroom so they don’t need punishment like that anymore.

The whole think is so well organized that there is a market for follow up on this first workshop. I promised Fatima, Clements and Steve I would help them think about the possibilities and different sessions, but that is not that easy as the power of this on is that they felt the impact of the workshop for themselves as participants last February. Maybe we should pick some sessions from that one again as follow up. Time is short though, Holidays are almost there.