connecting classrooms near east and north africa contact seminar
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Connecting Classrooms Near East and North Africa contact seminar. Selsdon, 6 th -8 th November 2010. Outline of today’s session. The partnerships Successes; Challenges and ways of overcoming them; Communicating; Involving students;. Where I am from. Chris Williams [email protected] - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Connecting Classrooms Near East and North Africa
contact seminar
Selsdon, 6th-8th November 2010
Outline of today’s session• The partnerships
• Successes; • Challenges and ways of overcoming them; • Communicating;
• Involving students;
Where I am from• Chris Williams [email protected]• Former History teacher• Former Deputy Head and then Acting
Headteacher at large 11-18 school • Special Projects Consultant at Lincoln Christ's
Hospital School• Partner Adviser in Lincolnshire – Local
Authority reprepresentative• British Council Ambassador for the East
Midlands
The projects in which I am working
Afghanistan (2008-2011): Year 3
The partners?UK – Lincoln cluster – three schoolsAfghanistan – Mazar-el-Sharif – five schools
My roles ?Local authority representativeLead person in one of the schools
The projects in which I am workingSub-Saharan Africa (2010-2013): Year 1
The partners?Nigeria – Lagos Island – three schools (Y1)Uganda – Mukono – three schools (Y1)UK – Louth cluster – three schools (Y1)(Each cluster will add three more schools in Y2 and again in Y3)
My role ?Local authority representative
The projects in which I am workingChina (2010-2013): Year 1
The partners?China – nine schools in ZhuhaiLincolnshire – nine schools south of Lincoln
My role ?Support for the local authority representative in
writing application and general advice
Five successes
1. Finding a good name for the project to unite the Nigerian, Ugandan and UK partners:
Mvoakraba“Tiny seeds to great trees” Mvule (UG), Oak (UK),Araba (NIG) – pron. Mow - krab – a)
Five Successes
2. An early visit to the UK by a team from one of the Mvoakraba partners in October 2010
Five Successes
3. Afghanistan - teaching units in two of the UK schools
- Secondary school – Year 7 Study Skills- Primary school – Six week theme for the Year
5 class embracing most subjects e.g numeracy. literacy, art etc.
Five Successes
4. Afghanistan – hands-on activities in partner schools in both countries:
- Greenhouses have been built from old plastic bottles;
- Vegetable plots have been created, and crops compared
Five Successes5. Afghanistan – I visited Kabul in
September 2010 to meet partners;
- Year 3 planning took place;
- Outcomes (products) were exchanged;
- School assemblies on my visit have been well received
Five challenges and ways of overcoming them1. Communications
Challenge Solution
No replies from partners
Involve British Council in both countries
No replies from partners
Have at least two contacts in each school
Five challenges and ways of overcoming them2. Technology
Challenge Solution
Limited ICT hardware and software
Use the most widespread packages
Use snail-mail – children like original hand-written itemsConsider mobile phone communications
Five challenges and ways of overcoming them3. Language (and cultural) differences
Challenge Solution
Not understanding
Involve local community e.g. pupil native speakers
Mis-understanding
Spend time on key wordsReview documents
Clarity Short sentences. Precise activities
Five challenges and ways of overcoming them4. Time scales
Challenge SolutionDifferent term-dates
Find out the different school years very early
Travel dates Plan very early to facilitate visa applications
Reporting and evaluation
Do this from the start e.g. use ISA forms
Five challenges and ways of overcoming them5. Leadership and teams
Challenge SolutionLack of dynamism in team
Involve a school senior leader
Too much reliance on LA representative
Do not have LA representative from any of the cluster schools
Narrowness of the team
Involve two/three per school
Communicating in the UK cluster- how? when? where?
• AfghanistanDespite close distances, communications have mainly been by email, with termly meetings at most
• Sub-Saharan AfricaKey communication is between heads of the three Year One schools at regular general meetings. Mvoakraba is a fixed agenda item
Involving students• All schools in the cluster- Disability Awareness event- Tree-planting event
• Primary schools - Monks Abbey weather project- letter exchanges
• Secondary schools
General advice with which to finish this presentation
• Build a team• Share the tasks across the cluster• Keep the activity content simple to start with
e.g. weather datae.g. ‘my journey to school’e.g. ‘my food this week’
• Plan the first visit as early as possible in Year 1
The end