The Episcopal Diocese of Lexington, the Anglican Diocese of Grahamstown and the brothers at the Mariya uMama weThemba Monastery (OHC) partnered together for the first overseas Reading Camp this past July in Grahamstown, South Africa. This is a series of post-camp blog posts from Kary McConnachie, one of the volunteer directors of that camp. Four Kentuckian experienced Reading Camp volunteers (Mary Jane Amick, Connor Egan, Drew Eclov, and Vibh Forsythe) joined Bishop Stacy Sauls and his wife, Ginger Sauls, joined with the Grahamstownians to make a Reading Rock in Grahamstown. Other posts about the South African Reading Camp are available here.
Wow! We did it again. On Saturday, 13 September 2008, we organized a day for teachers to get to experience what Reading Camp is all about. We had approached all 10 schools whose children had participated in the July Reading Camp. 7 schools responded and on the actual day 23 out of 24 teachers arrived at the Kuyasa School Hall ready to have fun and be inspired. We had every station set up just as we had at the Reading Camp and the teachers were divided into groups of 3’s and 4’s (mostly according to the grades that they teach). Then the stations began: every teacher had games ready, tips for implementing the lessons, worksheets to do and take home and new ideas for teaching in the classroom.
It was an amazing sight to see: shoes were kicked off, people were lying or sitting comfortably at the stations in next to no time. Even though the weather was incredibly hot and the room was almost unbearable, no one wanted to stop or leave early.
At the end of the 6 stations time, we all had a delicious lunch prepared once again by Marian and assisted by Tembisa. Sistembiso had helped to set up a restaurant in one of the classrooms and everyone was so relaxed and cheerful. We had some time for extra questions to the station leaders before the next round of activities.
To challenge our teacher delegates we set up an art class and an occupational therapy class. Most arrived at the art class stating that they could not do the activity – half an hour later they were all delighted with their lions they had painted. At the OT class they said they were too stiff – again half an hour later most had tried the exercises and were very pleased with their newfound knowledge. At the wrap-up session many expressed the wish for many more of these workshops for teachers as they had felt inspired and energized by the day. They loved the way we stayed away from theory and had given them practical experiences. There is an enormous amount of work waiting to happen here. We are getting the sense that Grahamstown teachers are beginning to take the opportunities that are coming their way and wanting to improve the lot of their learners. Somehow I have a deep faith that we will be able to provide them with the inspiration that will help them to take back the enthusiasm they lost during the past few years while “new systems” have been tried out unsuccessfully.
Most of all we realize that there is a huge need to get books into these schools as soon as possible – to help everyone to foster a love of reading.
Interestingly we found that many of these teachers who attended the day with us, did not seem to enjoy reading English very much. The question arises: do they read at all at home? I sincerely want to change this state of affairs – anyone out there feel the same? Lets all start collecting books and then we will run more workshops to encourage reading from the top to the bottom – or perhaps our Reading Campers will even inspire their teachers to get back to reading!!! Now there is a powerful thought if ever there was one.
READING ROCKS!
With best wishes to everyone involved with Reading Camps
Kary McConnachie
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