Ongoing AfterSchool Tutoring for 70 orphans in BIH

BOSANA FOUNDATION

After School Program Quarterly Report

January – March 2014

Number of volunteer instructors: 9

Average number of students: 30

Number of workshops/classes held:  3 times a week each for two hours   

Type of classes held: Intro to Math, English, German, Bosnian language, physics, chemistry, Economics, computer science, guitar and piano lessons, Turkish language classes.  

Program Activities and Goals:

During this reporting period, our beneficiaries were in their exams period, some were on their winter break and all also started the new semester in February. Thoughtout this busy period, our after school program did not take a break because the students needed assistance to pass their exams as well as contructive outlet during the break.  Some of our beneficiares were also preparing for regional competitions with other schools and we helped them prepare for that as well.  Some of the new workshops during the break were free activities like going to the cinema and theatre as well as educational workshops in the nature.  This quarter, many beneficiares who are finishing middle school complained that their English teacher was bad and many truly had not progressed as much in their studies.  To help them over the break, we specifiaclly focused on this group during our fun activities that included learning better English.  To keep the students interested in learning over the break, we had beneficiaries play English language quizz assignments.  Many have learned new words that they did not know, as well as improve their overall language skills.  We did the same quiz in Turkish language as well. 

Noticable Improvements:

Our workshops have proven to develop certain skills and interests in the children that they did not have before. This is most evident when they do not want to finish the class and they pay close attention to our instructors. Grades are the best indication that the program is effective and this reporting period shows that progress due to many beneficiaries drastically improving their grades.  

We would like to specifically mention a young girl (13) who was a constant distraction to others attending the program.  The volunteers struggled to keep her busy and not distracting other participants.  One of the volunteers is studying Pedagogy so she has particularly worked with this student to help her find creative and constructive outlets. They have found out that she particularly likes Playdoo and so whenever she did an assigmnent correctly, they would give her Playdoo to play and keep her busy. This not only improved her attention but also her grades as she was failing in English and now she managed to obtain a B.  (Photo above is a note from her teacher letting us know how much better she is doing).

We are also receiving great cooperation and interest from those graduating middle and high school who come to our workshops.  Their grades are improving, they are talking to our volunteers outside of the classroom wanting to share their ideas and future where they would like to go to school, what they would like to do. 

CHALLENGES:

There are no serious challenges to report as studetns are showing great progress in school, interest in extracurricular activities and their behavior has drastically improved.  However, there is a «good problem to have» and this is that students come when they recieve a bad grade or when they have an exam. As soon as they are helped with their homework or they recieve a good grade on their exam, they stop coming until they again need our help. To keep these students interested, we have included more fun yet still educational activiites that the children would not want to miss.  On the other hand, we have not forced the student to come because sometimes they only cause distraction for those that still need our continued support.