Warren's Workshop Blog

If I were to give my workshops a title and theme, it would be Nothing is Impossible. That phrase developed from a discussion during one of the workshop days when I presented a problem on making a solution of a specific concentration and one of the teachers pronounced that it was impossible.  “Really?” I replied and a discussion ensued about how to solve difficult or challenging problems or more importantly how these teachers could teach their students the skills and mindset that would allow them to do the same. This was essentially the reason we were here - to work with teachers on using hands-on experiential activities to stimulate student learning, understanding and involvement instead of teaching science by rote.

John Magee and I worked together (although John did the heavy lifting and wrote the curriculum) to create a four day workshop for science teachers in the Hai District near Moshi, Tanzania which was hosted by Tuomona School.  Tuomona is the secondary school where John has developed a solid relationship with the headmaster, Lukumay, and where I had volunteered in June, 2011 with a group of Drew students to rebuild the administrative building offices, plant trees and work on projects around the school.   This time was quite different for me because in this setting I was using my teaching experience, chemistry knowledge and skills to try to improve, albeit in a small way and to a small group of teachers, the quality of science education in Tanzania.   Thank goodness to all that I didn’t have to work directly with students in Kiswahili (which I don’t speak at all) or English (which some students understand at a rudimentary level).   The teachers we worked with are smart, capable and dedicated, plus quite receptive to gaining new skills and teaching with a different pedagogy.   It is truly a challenge and tough to teach in the Tanzania government schools where resources are slim, facilities are primitive, books and internet access virtually non-existent and students arrive with weak educational backgrounds.

Our workshops focused on a)  problem solving and deeper understanding of principles of science  (John’s workshops) and b)  Chemistry (my workshops).   We each worked with a group of teachers for 2 days and then traded groups.  

Day one of my chemistry workshop focused on solutions, dilutions and understanding the concepts of moles.  Two of my simple lead-in activities of doing a serial dilution with food coloring, pipets and spot plates and learning how to count numbers by using mass of rice grains, using a balance and average mass for a specific number of grains were well received.  More importantly they laid the foundation for using multiple dilutions to obtain a weak concentration of a solution from a strong concentration of a stock solution and making molar concentrations, the practical applications for the second half of the day.  

Day two was focused on rates of reactions and factors effecting reaction rates.  We started with a demonstration of why you can oxidize/ burn steel wool but not an iron rod due to surface area, then expanded with a discussion of building a fire, which all of their student do quite well.   Then we moved to the factors of concentration and temperature as part of kinetic collision theory.   The practical applications were collecting data around those factors and then plotting graphs.   Graphing was a challenge, quite similar to my experience with high school students in California and we consequently spent a fair amount of time and discussion about how to do it and the values of graphing in science to visually show relationships.      

So back to the “theme” – Nothing is Impossible.   The “impossibility” of creating a weak solution of known concentration was discovered to be truly possible when they applied the concept developed in the serial dilution lab and fundamental math.   More  importantly, as a result of our workshops and by looking at science teaching from a different perspective, I believe the teachers I worked with gained a better understanding of how to solve a complex problem by applying skills they have, by breaking the problem into smaller steps and not giving up.   Hopefully these workshop days were challenging and fun but not impossible.   We received excellent feedback and evaluation from the workshops, so we think they were of great value.   For me, teaching here in Tanzania was important and rewarding as well as fun.   I’d like to come back, not only to work more with these teachers or others but to also hear about the results of how they applied what they learned to student learning in their classrooms.   

    

Tumona Workshops

When I first came to Tumona Secondary School, brought by Foot2Afrika, I assumed that most of my work would be with students.  As it has turned out, working with teachers has been equally, if not more, fruitful.  This year Warren Long, a friend and former teaching colleague from Drew School in San Francisco, came together to do another workshop for teachers.

Since Monday, Warren and I have been teaching a four-day workshop for twenty-three chemistry teachers from the area around Tumona Secondary School.  Some of the teachers were at my workshop last July, and others are new.  We have split the group in half and we each have each group for two days.  Warren is teaching some advanced chemistry topics – focusing on rates of chemical reactions and preparing solutions, but actually teaching deeper knowledge of the mole concept and data analysis.  I am trying an experiment, teaching a lot of simple, short challenges, activities and demos to increase students’ understanding of chemistry from the younger grades on up.  I can’t speak to Warren’s experience, but he seems very happy with how his workshop has gone, and his students have described it as fantastic.

My own workshops have gone well.  It’s a bit challenging because I’m not teaching material that the teachers came in expecting to learn. It’s also interesting to discover how many teachers do not themselves have a deep understanding of some basic concepts such as atmospheric pressure, chemical equilibrium and how a candle burns.  Still, they readily acknowledge the need to expose students to more different types of activities to enhance their understanding.  They just don't have any experience using them.

They themselves are products of a strict lecture/memorization education system, and although they understand its flaws they are almost doomed to perpetuate it.  They also under tremendous pressure to teach an overstuffed syllabus, and their performance is judged almost entirely on the rate at which their students pass the national O-level examination.  The combination of the pressure of the examination and their own educational experience leads them to rely almost exclusively on lecture, and to regard what they call “practicals” as a time-consuming, if important, supplement for the older students.   

The teachers are participating willingly and are receptive to the idea that the students will enjoy the subject more, understand it better and possibly even perform better on the exams if they are exposed to hands-on science teaching starting in the younger grades.  They also are enjoying the opportunity to do these activities.  Nevertheless, if they had to rate the workshops on value I suspect that most of them would rate Warren’s much higher than mine since it directly addresses material that appear on the national exam.  That’s okay with me.  I think I am achieving important goals, at least with some of them.  I have had some great conversations and am developing friendships with several of the teachers.

On another note, the Form 2 exam results came out this week, and all of the Form 2 students we sponsored in 2013 passed and qualified for Form 3. To boost the passing rate, the government lowered the passing score to 20%, which is pretty horrifying; but all our students would have passed under the old standard (which wasn't super high to begin with).

Gratitude

Ever since I first came to Moshi in 2010 to volunteer with Foot 2 Afrika - Tanzania I have been volunteering at the Tumona Secondary School, a village school about 10 km from Moshi.  Before I left home, I had a phone  conversation with Abihudi Lukumay, the headmaster of Tumona, in which we planned the schedule for the science teaching workshops Warren and I will be doing.  As part of that discussion, he let me know that the parents of the students who were sponsored by Friends of Foot2Afrika wanted to have some kind of a party in my honor. I had the impression he had something modest in mind, but when Saturday came it turned out to be anything but modest.  I have repeatedly stressed that the help that Tumona has received has come from a lot of individual donors and a few organizations, but since I’m the one who keeps showing up, I got to receive the credit.  I had some ideas of what to expect, and in some respects the party unfolded along predictable lines (many speeches); but in other respects I was overwhelmed.  By the end of the day I was exhausted and elated.

 Parents and students waiting under the canopy for the party to begin

The party was scheduled to start at 11:00 AM.  Two large canopies were set up, one for the V.I.P.s and one for everyone else.  A fair number of students were already gathered at the school when Warren and I arrived around 9:00 to try to do a little prep work in our classrooms for tomorrow's workshops.  Down behind the school by the kitchen area a group of women were cooking lunch.   

 Around the edges of the school a crowd of rather dusty young children had gathered to watch the goings on and probably hoping to get something to eat.  By 11:00 there was a fair-sized crowd of parents and students waiting in their seats, but some of the V.I.P.s hadn’t yet arrived.   

Watching and Waiting

 Just Waiting

Warren and I went into the office to take tea with the School Board Chairman, the Ward Education Officer, and a few others while we waited.  The party finally got underway about two hours later.

After the national anthem and the school song were sung, Lukumay introduced the important guests and the event was underway.  There were speeches by parents, students, officials – all mercifully short and mostly in Swahili.  My Swahili has improved a lot, but I’m still not up to understanding speeches, though I could follow to some degree.  I was particularly moved by the student and parent speeches, despite my difficulty with comprehension.  Probably the highlight for me was when a group of students danced and sang songs they had written for the occasion. 

A parent reads a speech of thanks.

Students dancing and singing a song they wrote.  I wonder if they changed the words 

that morning to include Warren, or if they knew all along that he was coming.  

Either way it was one of the nicest moments of the day.

 Students Reading Their Speech

After everyone but me had spoken, it was time for the presentation of gifts.  First I was given “traditional Chagga clothes” so that I could be the “father of Tumona.”  The traditional clothes consisted of a string of plastic beads and flowers that must have come from china, a safari hat with the “big five” embroidered on the front, and a Maasai shuka.  (I later checked with Lyimo and Sarafina, who work at the Foot 2 Afrika hostel and who are themselves Chagga.  They cleared up for me that for parties Chagga wear necklaces made of bougainvillea flowers and that elders sometimes wear a blanket like a Maasai shuka.  I’m still not convinced about the hat.)  I was then given a lovely carved stick which, before being presented to me, had to be touched by parents, teachers and the headmaster.

Me Being Dressed in Traditional Chagga Clothes

 I guess I'm a real Chagga now!

 Finally the parents brought their gifts, including a handmade clay pot with wooden utensils, a handmade wooden tray made by Peter’s father, and a large mat made of banana leaves which I can never get onto an airplane even if the U.S. Department of Agriculture would let me bring it into the country.  Warren also received gifts.  This was an incredibly sweet moment.

Presentation of Gifts

I'm just not sure this mat will fit in my carry-on, or if the U.S. Government 

will let me bring it into the country.

Unlike me, who just stood there gaping, Warren got into the spirit and danced with the women.

Now it was time for my speech.  In the morning I had written a short speech in Swahili, but it really couldn’t express what was in my heart and my mind by the time I was supposed to deliver it.  I tried to improvise a bit, but although my Swahili is adequate for asking for food or for discussing the weather it really isn’t up to the task of describing the mix of emotions I was experiencing.  I tried to make a few points:  that I alone had not given all the help that Tumona has received, but that a large number of people from America and Europe had contributed; that I hoped we would be able to continue supporting the school and its students; and that we had chosen to support the village through the medium of education out of a belief that an educated person has the ability to improve his or her own life.

 My Swahili Speech

Then it was time for lunch.  While the serving tables were being set up there was music and dancing.   The students danced in the party area while the other children danced in the driveway.   

 

 The Village Children Dancing (the new Village People?)

As an aside, one of those kids really has the moves.

When the food was ready, it was served in strict order of precedence; I went first, followed by Warren, the officials, the teachers, the parents and the students (oldest first).  After all the guests had eaten, the other children were lined up – there was some fighting for position though we assured them that there was enough for all – to get the leftovers.  After lunch was more dancing and then goodbyes.

Aside from the fun, the gifts, the celebration, this event really brought home to me how much of an impact we have had on the people of the village through the help we at Friends of Foot2Afrika have given them – help which seems rather modest by the standards of what we in the rich countries are really able to do.  We have entered into a relationship that has meaning far beyond what we can fully realize.  And despite all the gratitude I received, what I mostly felt was gratitude that I found my way to this community.

Getting settled in Tanzania, January 2014

Warren and I arrived in Tanzania about a week and a half ago -- I arrived on Monday night January 6 and Warren was to arrive on Wednesday; but his flight was canceled due to the arctic vortex and so he arrived on Saturday the 11th (at 3:20 in the morning).

Our first few days were spent getting oriented.  Also, this is our first time visiting Tanzania at this time of year, and it turns out to be the hot season.  It took some adjustment before we were really functioning.  Finally, the wireless internet at the hostel has not been working; now I am working with a rather slow USB modem, but at least I have a fairly reliable connection.  I'm using all of that as my excuse for only blogging for the first time today.  Those who know me might point out my natural tendency to procrastination, but that would be an unkind act.

A few highlights of the past week-plus:

Last Sunday Johnson took a group of us down to a Maasai community located in the middle of TPC, a gigantic sugar plantation south of Moshi.  I am sponsoring the school fees for Raphael, a secondary student there.  Some other volunteers are sponsoring two girls and a boy from the same community.  I am pretty sure the girls have a different mother than the boys, but it’s rather confusing.  We took all the money for school fees for all four children, and after Johnson struggled to work out the rather complicated fee structures of the different schools we handed the money over to the students’ mothers.  They photographed me handing over each set of fees, so the photojournalistic record will show that I contributed all the fees for all the students.  Don’t believe it.

 Me handing over Raphael's School Fees (That's Raphael next to me).

The whole process took several hours.  We intended to go down early in the morning and to return fairly early so Warren and I could go over to Tumona and set up our classrooms for the science teacher workshops we are doing next week.  Of course we got off about an hour and a half late, and by the time we got back to Moshi it was getting late and Lukumay could no longer meet us at Tumona.  However, we did get over to Tumona and Matei met us and let us into our rooms so we could set up.  The new science classroom looks great, though it needs a few more tables, as well as stools and cupboards.  Warren will be in that room; I will be in an unused classroom which was not ready for me to do anything. However, Warren’s part of the workshop is a lot more complicated than mine, so it’s good that he was able to get settled in to his classroom.

On the way back from the Maasai village we got news through the rumor mill that Monday would be a national holiday.  Apparently the 50^th anniversary of Zanzibar’s independence fell on Sunday, but at the last minute the president announced that the holiday would be celebrated on Monday.  Since Tuesday was a major Muslim holiday (Eid-al-Moulid, or in Swahili, Maulidi, which celebrates the birth of the Prophet), this made for three days on which most businesses were closed.  We were completely unprepared for this, and it has been a bit of a scramble to get all our necessary arrangements made.

I’m exaggerating slightly, since we really didn’t plan to do any business on Tuesday, because that was the day we took off on safari.  We worked with Bamba Tours, the safari company that Johnson runs (and which largely funds the operations of Foot 2 Afrika - Tanzania).  The advantage of working with this company is that Johnson can plan any type of safari, including unconventional ones.  The safari doesn't really relate to our work for Foot 2 Afrika, but for friends who are interested, here's a short summary: we left Tuesday and drove to Kenya on back roads; we spent three nights at the Voyager Ziwani Tented Camp; and we returned on Friday.  Highlights included a morning nature walk outside the camp, which was spectacular for birding, and also included some close encounters with hippose and crocodiles (small ones).  For me, another highlight was the bush-babies resting in the trees.  It's uncommon to see them.  We also visited a large farm close by the camp, owned by the Kenyatta family.  Finally, we spent a day in Tsavo West National Park.  The park is beautiful, with interesting volcanic geology and great wildlife.

Pin-Tailed Swallows at the Tented Camp

Hippos in the Pool

We met this crocodile on our walk.

Bush Babies sleep by day and yell by night.

Today was a special day at Tumona -- I'll give it its own post.  Monday we start our workshops for science teachers.