A Breakthrough?

I haven't blogged in a few weeks but something happened today that inspired me to do so. I walked into Robanyane's "staff room" and there was a lady standing in the middle of the room. It became instantly apparent that she had some mental disabilities. I greeted the educators and went to take a seat in the corner. This caused the lady to notice me...at which point she started screaming at me in Setswana to "go away, whitey, go away! Go! Go!" I was a little taken aback? But, the amazing part was: two of my educators told her to shut up! One of them said to her "This is Lerato and she is a part of our school, if you have a problem with that YOU leave." It was incredible! It is, probably, the first time I have ever been harassed when I didn't have to defend myself. Somebody did it for me. Progress? I think so.

Also, I conducted a workshop after school at Robanyane to assist the educator's with the implementation of the Department's new integrated reading policy. I'm so proud of them because they were trying to implement it, but they weren't exactly grasping the guidelines the department had established - so I held a informational workshop to 'Demystify Remedial Reading.' I think it went well. I was able to sneak in a few suggestions of my own (like it doesn't matter how organized and pretty your reading corner is, it only matters that you actually encourage the learners to use the books, not just look at them, etc).

During the workshop I also gave the educators several different teaching techniques that might make them better prepared to teach the learners to read. I mentioned the different learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc) and how the educators should use several of these different techniques each day so all the students may benefit. After the workshop I asked if anybody had any questions. There were a few, but nothing terribly substantial (which always makes me wonder...did they understand me?). I dismissed the educators but one lingered behind. She came up to me and said,

"I'm too embarrassed to ask this in front of the others because they will think I am stupid, but will you explain the different types of learning to me. I've heard of them but I don't know what they are."

I was so happy that she was BRAVE enough to admit that she didn't understand something I had brought up! We then spent about an hour and a half talking about the different learning styles and how she could incorporate them all into her daily Maths lessons. (Thank you to Prasanna, my SI trainer, who taught these to me!) It was exciting for me. I don't know what will come of our discussion, but I feel it was progress.

On a different note: only 25 days until VACATION! For those who don't know: we're flying from Jo-burg to Lusaka, Zambia and then taking a train from Kaphiri Mposhi, Zambia to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We are then taking a ferry to ZANZIBAR where we will spend a week before doing the above backwards! I can't wait.