Live blog from Edgar-Baxter wedding.
The stiff arm is alive and well!
Luckily, the Vols are popular in Hawassa
This fan is working on my project.
I showed him a picture of Jon in a hat with a power T and he very excitedly declared that they must be "brothers!"
And I met this man downtown.
(The pictures are not great, but both hats say "Volunteers" on one side of the brim, in addition to the T and the "Tennessee" on the back.)
I showed him a picture of Jon in a hat with a power T and he very excitedly declared that they must be "brothers!"
And I met this man downtown.
(The pictures are not great, but both hats say "Volunteers" on one side of the brim, in addition to the T and the "Tennessee" on the back.)
First Week of Work
Hello from Hawassa!
I got here on Tuesday evening, after a long day of driving from Addis. Hawassa about 270 km south of Addis and is built next to a large lake. I'll be based here for the next 2 weeks, helping to train the regional teams on how to develop student books and teacher guides for reading and writing. As you can see, we are focusing on the mother tongue curriculum for grades 5-8.
There are 7 different teams working on 7 different languages: Sidaamu Afoo, Amharic, Afan Oromo, Hadiyyisa, Af-Soomaali, Wolayttatto and Tigrinya. At the beginning of August, each team will go back to their region to continue their work.
This week I was assigned to support the team from the Somali region of Ethiopia, since they seem to be struggling the most. Since all of the lessons are being written in Somali, there is a lot of translating back and forth. Some of the topics we covered: the difference between text-based and inferential questions and why it is important to use both when teaching; why one should consider having images or graphics in texts for grades 5-8; what it means to preview text features before reading and how to select appropriate vocabulary for direct instruction.
Here's the building where we're working:
(donkey carts and motos are popular modes of transport in Hawassa)
This is a view of the inside:
To get the full effect, you have to imagine the fact that, when it rains, water pours through the seams in the glass ceiling and into the atrium, runs down the stair cases, and floods the landings at each level. Luckily our room seems to be water tight, so none of our masses of hand-written lessons have been ruined.
You can get a bit of a sense of the piles of paper that we use everyday in this picture:
(these are the papers just for the Af-Soomaali Grade 5 team for one day)
I'll write more as internet access permits. I'll leave you with a picture of the local State Education Bureau's approach to promoting girls' access to education (the top line is written in Amharic script).
I got here on Tuesday evening, after a long day of driving from Addis. Hawassa about 270 km south of Addis and is built next to a large lake. I'll be based here for the next 2 weeks, helping to train the regional teams on how to develop student books and teacher guides for reading and writing. As you can see, we are focusing on the mother tongue curriculum for grades 5-8.
There are 7 different teams working on 7 different languages: Sidaamu Afoo, Amharic, Afan Oromo, Hadiyyisa, Af-Soomaali, Wolayttatto and Tigrinya. At the beginning of August, each team will go back to their region to continue their work.
This week I was assigned to support the team from the Somali region of Ethiopia, since they seem to be struggling the most. Since all of the lessons are being written in Somali, there is a lot of translating back and forth. Some of the topics we covered: the difference between text-based and inferential questions and why it is important to use both when teaching; why one should consider having images or graphics in texts for grades 5-8; what it means to preview text features before reading and how to select appropriate vocabulary for direct instruction.
Here's the building where we're working:
This is a view of the inside:
You can get a bit of a sense of the piles of paper that we use everyday in this picture:
I'll write more as internet access permits. I'll leave you with a picture of the local State Education Bureau's approach to promoting girls' access to education (the top line is written in Amharic script).
Highlights from the baggage carousel
I've made it safely to Addis and am getting settled in at the Harmony Hotel.
My room is very luxurious!
It took quite a while to get my visa and bags at the airport, so I enjoyed watching the baggage carousel. You always see much more interesting checked luggage in Africa than in the US. My favorite item of the evening: a mop.
Breakfast in Frankfurt
One flight down, one to go.
Isn't this breakfast spot in the Frankfurt Airport nice?
I had scrambled eggs and appreciated both how tasty and how yellow they were. When we lived in East Africa before, I learned not to take bright yellow yolks for granted. Malnourished chickens often produce eggs that are very pale yellow and have less nutritional value. I may not get eggs from such well-fed chickens for a while.
ps. This blog post was created with an app on my iPhone instead of on my computer. This is the first time I've used it and I love it! Thanks, Jon, for setting it up for me. You are the best.
Off to Ethiopia!
Hello!
This is me in May 2011 at Lucy Fast Food in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
I'm all packed and getting ready to head to the airport for another Ethiopian adventure. I've got a mosquito net, sunscreen, crisp $100 bills, books about literacy instruction and lots of granola bars.
This is me in May 2011 at Lucy Fast Food in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
I'll be there for 6 weeks, working on a project with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education and USAID to improve their reading curriculum for Grades 1-8.
I'll blog here about my work and adventures as internet access permits. I hope you'll follow along.
