Sheffield All Ages School

The Lisle project is planning to visit Jamaica again over Thanksgiving, November 21 – 28. We will be adding to the blog with further information about this trip over the next few weeks.

We at Lisle are always looking at ways to interact and support people from many cultural backgrounds.  We offer consultation in community development, environmental awareness, and education.     

  We also support others striving to achieve greater cultural awareness and understanding through our Global Seed Grant program.  If you or your organization would like assistance with an intercultural project please visit our website at http://www.lisleinternational.org/.

 

UPDATE:  Sheffield Teachers To Visit Bellevue, WA

Ms. Manning and Mr. Bremmer of the Sheffield All-Age School are confirmed attendees of the inaugural cross-cultural teacher training seminar taking place in the Bellevue School District. Their two week visit will include instruction in curriculum development, technology integration, and familiarization with current educational technology tools. Both participants will have plenty of class observation time made available to them with emphasis on their specialization. Ms. Manning, who in addition to teaching plays a dual role as her school’s vice principal, will spend a few days job shadowing a middle school administrator who was a participant in our inaugural trip to the school in Jamaica. Both teachers will arrive the 3rd week of March 2009 and will spend a few nights as guests of past participants families in our attempt to provide a small window into the lives of Americans. Stay tuned for more updates and daily updates during their stay. Upon their departure back to Jamaica I will follow them and get things prepared for the third student visit in June. Please contact me directly if you have any questions or would like to help. Peace

jb

 

DAY 1, November 19, 2008

We’re sitting here in our room at the Blue Cave Castle, after an easy one connection flight to Montego Bay. Detroit had light snow when we left.

Steve met us, with his son, at the airport right on time and we had a wonderful time driving to Negril. We had a nice meal at the Blue Cave, both Anisea and Teddy recognized Mark as Bill’s Dad. It sure is nice to have a famous son. Oh, yeah, mon, Steve recognized me as Bill’s dad also. Just a bit humbling!! Thanks for all your calls and IM’s to various people, James. Petrona came by saying she was pleased to meet us and that you had called within the hour, too.

We are planning to visit the Sheffield All Ages school tomorrow at about 10 AM with Steve. That should be very interesting. Steve was saying that two problems in education here are large class sizes, and small classroom space. Putting those two characteristics together is a real challenge for creativity, for sure.

It is cooler than normal here today, high 70’s, the clouds are pretty thick, and the wind is really crashing around us. They have even moved us away from the surf, so we don’t get salt all over us from the spray.

Cordially,

Mark

DAY 3, November 21

Good morning! The roosters awoke us, rather than yesterday’s “reggae radio.”
The sea has calmed down a lot and there are still waves breaking on the
cliffs, but no spray splashing up over the seawall. The sun is coming up and
the breeze is blowing in the window.

Yesterday we went to the school and found that they were having an “expo” for
the parents. There were several government agencies represented and lots of
information available on health, good dental habits, STD’s, maternal health,
etc. Needless to say, the children were not in concentrated learning mode with
all the action in their customary classrooms, but it was good to know that the
school serves public purposes.

Today we are going back to observe classes in session and to once again meet
teachers and kids. Hopefully we can establish a schedule for next week’s
training sessions and get a little better organized. The first of the others
in the group will arrive today. More later…

Nancy

DAY 4, November 22

Everyone on the project arrived last night. Great group. Katie and David and James will work on the Bio-diesel project while Andrew, Bill, Nancy and I will work with the Sheffield school project.

Weather has turned windy and the surf is back up. Temp near 80 and sunny. Very nice indeed.

Mark

DAY 6, November 24

We spent some time today at the Sheffield All Ages School. Our time was designed to accomplish two goals. One was to meet with Assistant Principal Jean Manning and Principal Somerville and explain the three options we had developed for teacher training events and to see which one or ones they would like us to do, etc. The second goal was to meet with selected teachers from each grade level and find out from them what training needs they want help with.

Our first meeting was held in Somerville’s office with Mrs Somerville, Jean Manning, Bill, Andrew, Mark and Nancy. I had put together a powerpoint show to outline what we had in mind. Jean and Mrs Somerville were excited about the possibilities and said let’s do all of them. So we decided to do the Brainstorm and Force Field analysis process and hopefully some learning theory when we get all of the teachers together on Wednesday and then return on Friday and fill in the other training for those teacher who would like to participate.

We also will offer some computer software training in using Word, etc on Friday. The meeting fully met our expectations.

Then we met with three sets of teachers. First we met with two sixth and one fifth grade teachers. The teachers were very articulate about how they use teaching strategies in their classrooms and what their needs were. They need help with reading. Primarily strategies for moving to comprehension. The fifth grade teacher really wanted more books so that kids could explore ideas on their own. They mentioned how crowded the classrooms were and how difficult that makes teaching. One of the teachers mentioned that the posters on the wall are often damaged by the rain and she would love to have a laminator machine to save the posters. She also would love to be able to use a computer data projector to display her teaching goals and activities.

Then it was two first and two second grade teachers. They were a little more reserved in their requests. They expressed the desire to have more books that they could read to the class.

Finally the third and fourth grade teachers were quiteable to share about their needs. They mentioned on the difficulty to teach with so many students. Nancy mentioned that the classroom we observed on the previous Friday only had 23 students, but Ms Patterson told us that there are 36 students in the class. We could all see how that would really crowd the classroom space which is available. They were really interested in how to keep the kids focused on learning, and as well they asked for strategies for being able to teach students from widely different reading ability levels.

Mark, Nancy and Bill

DAY 7, November 26

Today was a special day. The group went to Sheffield School where we were given the teachers’ customary Wednesday afternoon planning time for a short workshop on group methods. The well-prepared sixth-graders assisted us by brainstorming ways to make their classroom better despite rain and heat.

They concentrated on what to do about some spaces getting wet in the classroom. The teachers took on how to impact an undisciplined society. Their most creative and challenging possibility was that they should socialize more in their own community–a tall order for busy teachers! Both groups used the Force Field Analysis technique.

A dinner meeting with the Rotary Club gave the Biodiesel Group a chance to meet local people who are trying to make Negril a better place. The Rotary group was fascinated by the possibilities of converting waste cooking oil to diesel fuel. One great contact was a Peace Corps volunteer, Tammie Wallis, who is already working with the Negril Recycling Center.

Another great day!

Nancy

DAY 8, November 27

Once again, today more than met our expectations. We had decided to travel to Montego Bay and visit the Sam Sharpe Teachers College to see if we could begin to develop a relationship with them which would bring some teacher training, and computer lab support to Sheffield All Ages School. So Bill, Nancy, Andrew and Mark went with Steve our driver to Mo Bay.

What we found was principal Dr Cecile Walden and the Instructional Technology instructor, Michele Pinnock who were very enthusiastic to help out. Ms Pinnock offered to come and visit the Sheffield school and talk with Mrs Somerville and Jean Manning about how they might help out. She also suggested that she has been pretty successful in finding a student who would be able to come and assist in keeping everything running well in the lab, for other schools. She thought that perhaps students could be placed at Sheffield during their 3rd year internship, if appropriate supervision can be arranged. As you can see the response was all we could have hoped for and more.

After a day of enthusastic meetings and several hours of riding, we are now back at the Blue Cave Castle awaiting our home cooked Thanksgiving meal with thanksgiving in our hearts!!!

Mark

DAY 9, Friday November 28

Another beautiful day in Paradise. Suddenly the water is calm and the waves are small.

Our plan for today was to go to Sheffield School to hold small workshops for interested teachers on reading strategies and learning theory. Bill Kinney, a former elementary reading teacher, along with Sheffield fourth grade teacher, Ms. Brown, showed ways to enhance interest in the children and , therefore, reading skills, by using videos and the Know,Want,Learn,How technique, along with a reading wheel.

Mark used his considerable skill with groups to demonstrate more cooperative group techniques that teachers can use in small, crowded classrooms. He also started a discussion of Piaget and his learning theory.

Reports of trying the brainstorming/ force field analysis techniques introduced on Wednesday were not abundant, but the 9th grade teacher Jean Manning said she tried it with great success. In a lesson on Bauxite production in Jamaica (which had the potential to be boring) she asked the students to think about why bauxite mining was good or bad for the environment. She said that they enjoyed the discussion and that some of the students who normally are very quiet in class participated with their ideas. They also had some creative solutions to mitigating the harmful effects of mining.

Katie and David Cerra went to a third grade class to tell them about the work they do at Boeing. Katie asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. They had all kinds of ideas, such as nurses, teachers and doctors and one boy said that he wanted to be a pilot. She said that the kids had never heard of Boeing, but they were impressed that she builds and tests airplanes.

We wrapped up the week with Andrew Bollman taking pictures of the teachers and all of us for the website. The teachers at Sheffield were very cooperative and willing to learn. They were generous with their time and their ideas, and they made our visit fun and worthwhile. Part of their generosity was some gifts for us. Along with cute Jamaica theme refrigerator magnets, the guys received colorful hats and Katie and I got beautiful beach towels. We thank the teachers and students for their enthusiasm, and Principal Erma Somerville and Assistant Principal Jean Manning for their administrative support.

In the evening we went to the restaurant, Kuyaba, which means “heaven” in Arawak, for a celebration meal. All 8 of us joined in, including our driver and supporter, Steve. It was there that we opened our presents from the school and talked about the successes of the week, how nice it was to supplement the student exchange times with some teacher training time, and what great serendipity happened throughout the week. We were in a jolly mood. The only sadness was realizing that this was the final dinner for Katie and David

Nancy