Saturday, August 1, 2009

A Breath of Fresh Air!

We welcomed a new volunteer and a new school to the project this past week. Teachers at our third school are excited about the project, and I am enjoying having a co-instructor. It is infinitely easier to teach these instructor training classes now that I have seen them actually used in the classroom.
Our two pilot schools are having different levels of success. In the classrooms where teachers have been brave enough to attempt to teach without a Peace Corps volunteer present, there have been no complaints/repair issues, which was a huge concern of mine. Those who are willing to try it, seem to be enjoying it! We'll keep trying to convince the others to join in the fun (the students are powerful advocates).
The town library laptops continue to attract a crowd, even without the wireless router connecting them to the internet, demonstrating that we don't need online access to attract students to come afterschool. I stopped in this week and was amazed to watch 11-year-olds make robots dance around on their screens. I imagine it would take them hours to teach me how to do what they were able to teach themselves. Little moments like that are worth dealing with all those trivial challenges.