Empower, Engage, Educate in Rural Kenya!

It's an exciting time for education in Kenya.  The Ministry of Education recently adopted a Comptency Based Curriculum (CBC) to be implemented in all schools over the next decade.  The framework has at its core the following tenets to be incorporated by teachers:  critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and imagination, digital literacy, learning to learn, communication and collaboration, citizenship, and self-eficacy.  This is a major shift in how students have been instructed and have learned in the past and teachers have been reticent and unprepared to incorporate these modes of teaching into their classroom.

Fortunately over the last five years, Kenya Connect has been the leader in providing teacher professional development programs incorporating many of these ideas into teacher workshops.  Active learning and engaging students in meaningful ways is at the heart of our work.  Encouraging teachers to use drama, hands-on learning, movement, and open-ended questions in lessons is critical.  Instead of looking for "right" answers, teachers are learning ways to encourage critical thinking among their pupils and designing lessons that are centered around collaboration.  Last year we formed our first Professional Learning Community (PLC) with 18 teachers meeting on a regular basis to design lessons using best practices and incorporating components of the CBC.  These teachers continue to connect through "WhatsApp" sharing lessons they have conducted in the classroom and they are now mentoring a new group of PLC teachers.

The Kenya Connect staff has been instrumental in helping students and teachers at our 55 partner schools become Digital Literate since the opening of our Learning Resource Center in 2012.  Students and teachers are learning basic computer as well as upper level STEAM classes through our partner Level-Up Village (LUV).   The LUV classes like Global Inventors and Global Doctors not only expose the students to technology in a hands-on and fun way, they incorporate collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and learning to learn.  Teachers have commented that after students have taken Level Up Village classes that they are more engaged and willing to answer questions in their home classroom.  In March this year, we hosted a group of teachers from British Columbia, Canada, who met with secondary school teachers to help them incorporate digital literacy into their classrooms using the content-rich Rachel Plus device.  Not only did this team help the teachers understand technology, they incorporated best practices of teaching into the classrooms.

Many visiting teams of talented teachers and professionals have also modeled interactive and hands-on lessons and brought school supplies, manipulatives, and educatonal materials to help foster more engaged teaching and learning.  This, coupled with our Library Card and School Library Day program, is strengthening education with 21st century teaching and learning.

Your support as a donor to Kenya Connect provides the needed financial support to allow these programs to thrive.  When you look back on your own education we are sure there was a teacher or many teachers who engaged you in a way that sparked your own learning and brought the subject matter alive.  Thanks for helping us to provide new tools to our dedicated teachers in Wamunyu and to spark our students' learning.