Week 3 began Monday with a debriefing meeting at the Edunova office. Our partners in-country partners on the projects in Cape Town, Edunova works with a select group of schools to build technology literacy skills in teachers. Mainly, their responsibilities entail SMART Board training as well as your standard office suite of tools.
Last week, they did so much more. As I wrote, Khanyiso and Mlungisi designed and mostly led the sessions on building multimedia projects and their role in the curriculum. They did a superb job mixing theory and practice so that the skills could move from the week of workshops to teacher practice.
In some ways, Edunova’s hands are tied. As a non-profit, funding is connected to the deliverables their benefactors are looking for. Moving from literacy to deeper integration strategies is a jump.
Beyond all that, this team wants to make the jump.
Between last year and this, I’ve seen a remarkable change in the willingness or confidence or comfort with talking to teachers about integration vs. just working to transfer skills.
The temptation, for me, then becomes handing over resources and lessons and tips and tricks.
That has value.
Two weeks from now, when I’m on the other side of the ocean, the value drops.
The same ideals I hold in my classroom – asking rather than telling, letting people fall and then urging them to get back up, realizing progress looks different for everyone, play is most important – are the ideals I’ve gotta hold to here.
Handing over is easy and painless in this case.
Learning, as usual, is painful, uncomfortable and beautiful.
Helping means asking questions and facilitating the search for answers.
I’ve gotta write that on the back of my hand this week.
“Learning is painful, uncomfortable, and beautiful.” So true.