Transforming My Classroom

I have began a new session with a fresh set of kids. it was a difficult beginning but we have weathered the early storms, I have set a target of all my pupils being able to read fluently my mid term of term two. Currently only about 6 of the 20 can read appreciably. I have designed a synthetic phonics scheme which I am experimenting with, It involves a combination of multimedia tools and regular paper texts.
I discovered that the kids loved listening to the sounds of phonemes played from my laptop and phones. I have also downloaded some fun songs from the jolly phonic site.
One of the challenges we face is that the pupils are not given extra support at home to reinforce what we practice in class, but I am glad that the pupils are becoming more self directed in their quest to learn how to read. I feel great joy when I see some of them looking for anything to read in their free time.
We are just six weeks in, but i see a ray of light at the end of the tunnel.

Creating a new generation of Learners

It was a long session, that began in September 2015 and came to an exhilarating halt in July 2016. I took the University of Oregon webskills for effective teaching in the preceding summer and that influenced all my classroom behavior this session.
We began the session with 18 members of the class. Many of the pupils were poor readers and had very limited vocabulary except for a handful of them. I introduced a systematic phonics scheme that deviated from the regular school curriculum. I also used as much as possible everyday stories that the pupils could relate with, in difference to some of our official texts that were based on American culture and lifestyles. We did quite a few projects especiallt in science. At end of the session I had six prize winners ( though I felt everybody was a winner), Aishatu Adamu topped the class amidst strong competition from Aisha Usman.
Lessons Learnt

1. Children can be very emotional
2. Children have more capacity to learn than we give them credit for.
3. I need to give more attention to differentiated learning.
4. Children like being given responsibility.
5. Tasks should be spelt out early. 

Leadership workshop Manual

Students from Rare Gem Academy at the leadership training conducted by Tanar Educational consultancy

Essential Leadership skills for 21^st century leadership

Workshop Handout

Prepared by

Namse Udosen and Micheal Ideva

For

Tannar Educational consultancy

21^st May 2016

Workshop Objectives

The students of Rare Gem Academy would be able to apply 21^st century leadership skills to their life situations especially when faced with responsibility after taking part in the group discussions and going through the training module. The specific objectives are to:

1.      Promote a better understanding of leadership

2.      Encourage critical thinking

3.      Demonstrate team building skills

4.      Practice how to handle group diversity

Essential Leadership skills for 21^st century leadership

Module 1

Introduction to leadership

 

The word "leadership" can bring to mind a variety of images. For example:

A political leader, pursuing a passionate, personal cause.

An explorer, cutting a path through the jungle for the rest of his group to follow.

An executive, developing her company's strategy to beat the competition.

Leaders help themselves and others to do the right things. They set direction, build an inspiring vision, and create something new. Leadership is about mapping out where you need to go to "win" as a team or an organization; and it is dynamic, exciting, and inspiring. Yet, while leaders set the direction, they must also use management skills to guide their people to the right destination, in a smooth and efficient way.

What is leadership?

Leadership is the ability to inspire or influence others towards the leader's goal. If someone has followers, he or she is a leader. Management literature mostly focuses on the characteristics of the leader - it asks "what make this person a leader", rather than "why do these people choose to follow". Social scientists have over the years come up with four types of leaders:

·         Authoritarian

When a leader dictates policies and procedures, decides what goals are to be achieved and directs and control activities without any meaningful participation by the subordinates.

E.g Military

·         Inspirational

Inspirational leaders promote change by the power of their passionate commitment to ideas and ideals. They lift our eyes from present practicalities to future possibilities. Their words stir up our spirits, strengthen our convictions, and move us to action. We are eager to follow them because they call forth the best that is in us.

Inspirational leaders have positive attitudes that create strong emotional connections with people. Their speech is enlivened with words such as justice, freedom, honor, respect, pride, and love. Their affirming and encouraging demeanor builds the confidence of their followers and elicits their wholehearted devotion.

E,g marthin luther King Jr.

·         Servant leaders

Servant leaders care deeply about people. They seek to remove the barriers and obstacles that hold others back from achieving their full potential. They strive to create an environment where their followers can do their best work. Servant leaders frequently ask, “How can I help?

E,g Mother Teresa

·         Laissez-faire leaders

This kind of leaders hands off and allows followers to take decisions by themselves.

Role play

Display Thinking

  Using a marker, write on two separate pieces of flip chart paper the following words:

Flip Chart Paper #1: What I Know;

Flip Chart Paper #2: What I Want to Know;

Flip Chart Paper #3: What You Need to Know

• Tape these sheets up in the room where they can be seen and easily accessed.

• Have each person take two sticky notes. Instruct each person to write down on one Post-It three things they already know. These can be skills, knowledge, or understanding they already possess. (E.g. speaking, writing,)

• Next, they need to write on the other sticky note, three things they want to learn, experience, or better understand during the course of the session(s).

(E.g. teamwork, gettng along with people, improving communication).

• After they have written these things down, have the participants share at least one item from each list with their group. As they share they should use the words: “I know ____________. What I want to know is__________.”

• The third flip chart “What You Need to know” is for the facilitator to express what they want each participant to absolutely know. It’s safe to say that participants in the beginning “don’t know what they don’t know.” So, while Participants may know how to set a goal and may want to learn how to

Communicate better, the facilitator may also want them to know how to complete a program of work or learn better time management skills.

• Once everyone in the team is done sharing, have them take their Post-It notes up to the flip chart paper and place it on the respective sheet.

Discussion

1.      Can each person identify 2 leaders in your community?

2.      What type of leaders do you think they are?

3.      What would suggest is the best type of leadership?

Leadership: A Definition

The modern concept or 21st century concept of leadership describes an effective leader as a person who does the following:

·         Creates an inspiring vision of the future.

·         Motivates and inspires people to engage with that vision.

·         Manages delivery of the vision.

·         Coaches and builds a team, so that it is more effective at achieving the vision.

·         To be able to carry out these activities a leaders needs a new set of skills set. They include:

-Planning and team building

-Building trust

-Creative and critical thinking

-Dealing with diversity

-Effective communication

The next session would examine these skills.

.

Module 2

Essential leadership skills

Planning and team building

Planning means creating a roadmap for your vision. It involves setting goals and mobilizing human and material resources to meet them. Developing sound personal and organizational goals is critical to managing your performances in every sphere of your life and is a hallmark of modern leadership. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge and helps you organize time and resources.

The best goals are the ones that are SMART! That is they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound.

Activity

Think of something great you want to achieve in the next one year and draw up a smart goal using the template.

Building Trust

In the knowledge driven world that we live in trust is an essential characteristic for a leader. “Without trust, a leader won’t have any followers”- Amy Harris. Trust building goes beyond telling the truth or keeping, it means having the capacity to consistently solve the problems for those around you. To build trust a leader must constantly expand his/her skills set.

Activity

·         Each person thinks of someone in your class, school, family or community who you would go to if you had an academic, social or spiritual problem.

·         Pair up and discuss reasons why you would go to that person.

Critical and Creative thinking

Critical thinking involves suspending your beliefs to explore and question issues from a blank point of view. It also involves the ability to separate fact from opinion. Cultural prejudices often cloud our ability to think critically and be innovative. Fear and prejudice makes it difficult for us to make critical judgements, but a leader must rise above sentiments and separate fact from fiction. If you don’t learn the difference between fact and opinion, you will get stuck reading and watching thinks that only reinforce beliefs and assumptions you already own. And that is the opposite of learning.

Activity

Pair up and try to determine whether each statement is fact or opinion:

1.      My mom is the best cook in the world.

2.      Rain contains water

3.      All men drink beer.

4.      Traders always cheat.

5.      Dogs are better pets than cats.

6.      Nigeria is in west Africa

If you can debate the truthfulness of a statement with your partner then is probably an opinion!

Group Discussion

• Choose a problem in your family or school that you have thought about before, but have not been able to solve.

 Think about that situation creatively in ways that you never thought might be possible.

• Evaluate the solutions to see whether you can improve this situation a little.

Each group makes their presentation.

Dealing with diversity

The world has become a global community. Leaders of the past did not always have the problem of dealing with diverse groups, as most communities were homogenous. 21 first century leadership development includes learning how to relate to all types of people. We must learn how to build alliances across borders within our group and without. Diversity could be in form of gender, religion, social status, education. Our country needs strong and courageous men and women who can lead with integrity.

Group Discussion

Each group should come up with how they would deal with a group of 5 workers, each from a different ethnic or religious background.

Communication

Communication is at the heart of leadership. A leader must be able to communicate values, messages, directions and desires to his followers.

Activity

• Participants stand in a circle.

•  The facilitator asks a volunteer to begin the exercise by thinking of a sentence that describes something she about herself.

•  The game begins with the volunteer whispering the sentence to the girl on her left.

•  Each participant continues passing the sentence around the circle, whispering in the ear of the girl on her left, until the final participant hears the sentence.

•  Once the circle has been completed, the final participant says the sentence out loud.

•  The game finishes with the volunteer speaking the original sentence out loud, comparing it to the version

The facilitator then highlights the importance of communication.

Conclusion

Each participant speaks for 5 minutes on what she has learnt from the workshop.

Africa for her

As the YALI Network kicks off #Africa4Her, we’re looking at some of the biggest issues facing women in sub-Saharan Africa today. The YALI Network is part of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), an effort by President Obama to encourage young African adults to become active in business, community organizing and public management.
A report by global investment and banking firm Goldman Sachs found that bringing more women into the labor force has the potential to boost a country’s per capita income by an average of 12 percent by 2030.
The same research showed that women use their earnings to buy goods and services that improve family and community welfare, which in turn creates further economic growth.
One of the biggest challenges facing girls in where I live is literacy and functional education. Many young girls are not given the opportunity to develop literacy at the same pace as their male counterparts. Many girls are made to believe that their ultimate purpose in life is to get married and have children. I constantly meet women who brag about and celebrate marriage as if it is the greatest achievement a woman can make. The Nigerian society especially in the northern parts, does not encourage women to advance their to the highest intellectual potential.
The YALI network has set out the month of March to kick start the #Africa4Her program aimed at stimulating public interest and action in empowering women. As stated on the YALI site:
Some people call it “empowering” women and girls. We call it “investing.” That’s because each action you take to increase a woman’s access to equal opportunities in the workplace, a girl’s access to equal opportunities in the classroom, and steps you take to eliminate the scourge of gender-based violence benefits the community, country, and continent.
#Africa4Her is a Network-wide initiative to spur awareness and positive action around women’s issues.

I have resolved to champion girl child education, beginning from my classroom. I would produce leaflets and and print outs to motivate girls and women look beyond just settling for marriage or making their plans around men. I will mentor young girls to grow into independent women.
You too can do something:
There are many ways you can participate in #Africa4Her:

Promote girl child education.

• Make a pledge to invest in women and girls in your community and help raise awareness by filling out the form below or by visiting yali.state.gov/pledge. Once you make your pledge you will receive a personalized graphic with your name and pledge to share with your friends on your social media platforms.
• Get creative with YALICreatives and submit, photos, art, videos or music that help tell a story of inspiring women and girls or individuals working with them in your community. Find more information at yalicreatives.com/africa4her/.
• [COMING SOON!] Take our new YALI Network Online Course, Understanding the Human Rights of Women and Girls and earn a certificate. Once you have taken the course go out and educate your community by hosting a #YALILearns event and then tell us about it here.

Change starts with you, pledge to invest in women and girls today!