I've spent quite a lot of time with our Technical School students this week, teaching Business Studies, ICT and doing some problem solving activities in the evenings. It's been a lot of fun, though challenging at the same time. I really admire the students' ability to study using the English language. At the moment we are at the stage where I am trying to tune into some of the students' idiosyncrasies to make sure they understand me. I think the lessons are going down quite well, especially learning about using computers. It's been a long time since I have taught a class where most of the students have never used a computer before. They are very fast learners, corroborating research carried out by an Indian academic who made a computer available to street children in India and observed how they very quickly taught themselves to use it from scratch.
This evening we were working on a problem involving code breaking, algebra, teamwork and mental arithmetic skills. Teaching in this way isn't really very common here so the youngsters took a few minutes to really cotton on to the purpose of the activity. They had to work together as a team to solve a series of related algebraic expressions to identify the letters in a code, and then apply the key they had worked out to decoding a message. The Technical Students who live with us are going to be the 'expert practitioners' in their respective classes and I'm hoping that they will be able to quickly bring their classmates up to speed on these kind of activities.
Our friends Ian and Hilda will be arriving in Kosele tomorrow for another long visit. It will be good to have them with us again and I know the children, staff and church members are all looking forward to seeing them. We are all hoping that we will be able to make progress on a number of new developments which will help the children to really fulfill their potential this year. Being a 'parent' to twenty five children is a full time occupation so it's really helpful to have committed and good-hearted people to share the load.
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