I presented a report

This past Tuesday while in Addis I presented a report about my town. While my research paper (known as an Education Needs Assessment ENA) was 34 pages with multiple charts, pictures and analysis, my presentation could only be 5 minutes. Here is what I presented without the fun slides. If you have questions or want additional information, please ask…I do have 34 pages of paper to refer to.

 

Selekleka is in the Medebay Zana Woreda in the Northwest region of Tigray, Ethiopia. Overall Selekleka is 97.8% Orthodox Christian, 2% Muslim, and less than 1% Protestant Christians. While this woreda [a woreda is the equivalent of a county in the states] has 58 primary schools, 2 secondary schools, and 1 Preparatory School, Selekleka has 3 primary, 1 secondary and the only Preparatory School.

 

My school is Hakfen Secondary School. Due to there being so few schools, many of my students travel great distances from various villages and surrounding areas to school. The school was originally founded in 1992 EC (Ethiopian Calendar or 1999 Gregorian calendar) with 9 teachers and 593 Grade 9 students. This year (2007 E.C.) there are 54 teachers, 1 director, 2 vice directors, 7 additional staff and 2,095 students. Of these 947 are male and 1,148 females. The average class size is 70. There is no t.v. programmed classes as electricity and connection is unavailable. There are many clubs at my school registered (Anti- HIV Club, Mini Media Club, Sons and Technology Club, Literature and Drama, Sport Club, Civics and Ethics Club, Anti-Traffic Club, Population Media Club, Tax for Government Club, Girls’ Club, English Club, Environmental Protection Club, ICT Club, Tomorrow’s Teachers Club). I have attended meetings with the Civics and Ethics Club, Tomorrow’s Teachers Club and English Club.

 

I teach three classes that total 209 students. Of these 104 are male and 105 are male. This creates an even split between genders, which is uncommon as, usually there are more males than females. I have one class of 71 registered students, another of 65, and a final of 73.

 

I conducted a skills assessment report with my students that provided the results that listening, reading, writing and speaking are all low for my students. This is to be expected as the format of the test was unfamiliar, I am unfamiliar to them, and the language is foreign. Reading and listening scored the lowest overall averages.

 

In order to improve students understanding and use of knowledge I intend to adapt my personal teaching plan to incorporate the things that have helped throughout the semester and what I want to try. Visuals and routines are two of the biggest things that I have used this semester that I have made a positive impact on the student output. Picture sentence cards that I made for my students helped. The nouns or subjects are green while the verbs are blue. I originally started teaching them present perfect where they just had to pair two cards that matched the formula we had practiced together on the board. The first time I tried this there was confusion. But by making it a routine for learning, practicing and reviewing verb tenses through the first three unit of the book, students can now make different sentences very quickly. I want to improve documenting informal assessment so that I can refer to it more reliable for data analysis on student participation and learning.

 

Also, there are many potential proposed extracurricular activities that I could do. Currently the English Club is just focused on maintaining English Day where the entire school tries to be an English only zone. I want to expand this into larger and smaller groups at different skill levels. I have been a guest for the Civics and Ethics Club and want to continue to do that. A teacher has expressed interest in planting a garden and teaching our students the importance of a healthy diet and how to properly maintain a garden. I want to follow up with him on the possibility of a Garden and Nutrition Club. Finally, one of my site-mates and I have discussed starting a Creative Writing Club to foster authentic work.

 

I also want to help teachers improve their personal and profession goals for education. In order to understand their needs and desires, I intend to do personal surveys and questionnaires. What I have gathered from informal interviews is that my co-teachers really want to practice English. I have had it explained to me, multiple times, that they are confident on the grammatical structures, but not speaking. Possibly having English clubs where we just hang out and talk in English would be beneficial. Other teachers have mentioned observing me, so I need to be open in order to allow them to do this.

Any questions?

So, that was my presentation. Like the majority of my volunteer buddies, I didn’t quite stay in the 5 minute requirement, but I was definitely not the longest person speaking. So, if you have any questions about what I intend to do or what I researched comment below or email me! J