Dear Family and Friends,
Sharon keeps reminding Mike that "a picture is worth a thousand words" -- obviously, Mike is slow to take a hint, including both the pix and the words. But this time will be different ...
b/c will mostly tell you what you are seeing and let the pix speak for themselves. Fairly obvious that Mwangaza now has a projector, and has extended internet access to the seminar hall. John is actually teaching about Life Skills and Decision Making in the first photo, using thought-provoking questions in a power point format he and Salome developed. They then tapped into the internet, using Google to search for subject area information, also learning some of the selection skills once 2,582,456 choices are listed.
Mike came into the picture (pun intended -- we do miss those supplied by Bil J and others from Red Eye) to show how to find, save and show subject area power points. More than 50 power points in 7 different subject areas have been gathered, categorized, and saved on each of fifteen 512 mb flash drives. The last 3 pictures show teachers accessing the files, then checking out "addition of intergers" (Mike's favorite). These flash drives were donated by NIU's tech department last year, and will be traveling to the 17 schools represented at the 2 seminars, to be installed on the desktops of their computer(s). We hope these will be good resources for teachers to review content for their own academic growth and lesson planning. Another goal for the months to come will be finding more information/power points, attempting to attach and send to the teachers at their schools, and assisting them in planning and organizing how to get students in front of the computers.
Using Google and searching the internet for more power points, some teachers were also competent enough with their new skills to find additional power points related to content they will be teaching when return schools resume in July. This gentleman, a teacher of 35 years, found a well-done presentation for Biology.
Since Mike has saved so many words this time, he will close with a story -- an example of why we return home each year knowing that we learned more than we taught, that we received more than we gave. Mr. Joshua, a biology teacher from Enaboishu, has been teaching for 42 years. He and Mike have spirited discussions about U.S. politics, particularly foreign policy and education, as he is very well read -- and he also leans a bit farther to the right on most issues. On Thursday evening, at almost 8 PM, he was still working hard on his lesson plan and asked for help in accessing a power point to include as a reference. Kinda tired, and thinking it would not actually influence his lesson plan at this stage, Mike was less than excited. But as one old man to another, agreed, especially since Mr. Joshua has few computer skills.
Narrowing Biology to match his LP focus, we Googled "Ecology power points" and quickly found one which looked likely to work. In fact, the opening slide title "ECOLOGY" was soon joined in smaller print/different fonts by "Populations"; "City"; "Biosphere"; "Family"; "Nation"; "Organism"; "Community"; "Continent"; and maybe another now forgotten, scattered across the screen. Never one to miss a chance for putting things in order, Mike suggested that a good opening discussion with students watching this powerpoint might be based on organizing the categories from largest to smallest. Mr. Joshua thought only a second and said "Community". Thinking he must have misunderstood and started with the smallest, but had missed "Organism" & "Family", Mike asked again about starting with the largest group.
Mr. Joshua said "Well of course I did, Mr. Mike, for all God's creations, all His people and animals and plants, are in the same Community. Each of these is a Community." And to think Mike was once an "A" student in Biology, but may have not done so well on the Tanzania test in Faith and Relationships.
Peace and love,
Mike and Sharon
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