By James Musyoka | Field Director & Director of Operations
Our ongoing training utilizing 21st century skills has gone a notch higher at the Kenya Connect Learning Resource Center (LRC) with the introduction of online STEAM and webinar classes! We recently partnered with Level Up Village (LUV); an organization that partners US schools with global schools in the developing world to offer courses on STEAM. To prepare our students for this course, one of the visiting summer teams comprised of master teachers and led by Board Member Laura Carter, conducted an introduction lesson on STEAM with students of Kambiti PS. In the beginning of September the LUV curriculum started and our students are getting fully immersed! The course will run for eight weeks and will involve students in coding and creating new video games using the scratch program. In addition the students will also be making video letters and learning the Minecraft game. The LUV curriculum has opened a completely new world for our students! They have had an opportunity to interact with their global partners in the US through exchanging video letters. The process of recording video letters for their partners has been an intriguing adventure for the students with the highlight being watching the videos from global peers. By working with these projects our students are becoming critical thinkers and creative innovators in class!
“I am very happy to learn how to make my own games! Before I started taking the LUV classes, I used to play games on the computer but I never had any idea how they are created. Thanks to Kenya Connect and Level Up Village for making this possible for me. (Mumo: A student at Kambiti Primary School)
At the same time, more teachers continue to embrace our programs on professional teacher development. At the start of September, a second group of 22 teachers begun a webinar series course for instructors of English language. During our first webinar series, partnership with the American Embassy, a total of 10 teachers successfully completed the course. This group of teachers and others currently doing the webinar course will take a field trip to the US embassy in Nairobi in early October to receive their completion certificates. During these webinar courses, teachers have been able to exchange ideas on best practices for teaching English language with their global counterparts through Ning platform.
Since I left teacher training college, I have never had an opportunity for continuous job training but I am grateful for the professional development workshops and webinar courses I have done through Kenya Connect. As an English language teacher, I am gaining invaluable skills that I am applying in my classroom. (Fredrick: Teacher at Mwaasua PS)
Most encouraging is that the above two trainings kicked off at the start of September and have continued despite a nationwide closure of public schools in Kenya following a teachers' strike. The caveat on teaching in public schools not withstanding, these students and teachers have defiantly continued with their classes; a true reflection of how they thirst for knowledge and how deeply they value learning in their lives.
Your continued support of Kenya Connect allows us to provide these rich and meaningful learning opportunities that would otherwise not be available. We continue to be deeply appreciative of your support.
By Sharon Runge and James Musyoka | Executive Director and Chief of Operations
By James Musyoka | Field Director & Director of Operations
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