"Reporting on the head teacher's workshop that just finished earlier today. We thought the workshop went really well. The head teachers and teachers worked really well together, as did the schools. We asked schools to work
together for the first group work session to discuss ideas for school improvement. The second session was done in two big groups – one of head teachers and one of teachers. Both groups brainstormed the qualities of a good headteacher – the results were quite interesting! It seemed like the teachers really enjoyed making their list, they
even used a mind map! The reactions of the head teachers were very positive and appreciative. The feedback from both groups about this activity was positive and goodhearted.
The school improvement plans were quite impressive. Each group filled up an entire A3 sheet, or two! They mentioned many ideas that we had already thought of, but also brought up some very innovative suggestions.
In the afternoon, the school groups got back together and brainstormed about "Problems and Priorities" regarding their move to English Medium. We all realize this is going to be a slow and steady process. This filled up another A3 sheet, and the headteachers took all of their sheets back with them, with assigned homework: they have to make a mindmap which shows school improvement in combination with a plan for moving into English Medium (a long term plan). We felt that everybody worked hard and were focused during all group work activities.
After our experience today, we feel that Janak and Anil would make excellent tutors. We learned that there was actually a lot going on already in terms of school improvement – some of our ideas are already up and happening at Lalit Kalyan and Himalaya.
To finish off the afternoon, we showed a few activities that could be used in English workshops of their own . These were well received and at times produced very funny and entertaining results. Our favourite was Janak's dramatic reenactment of a scene from the famous Nepali poem, Muna Madan! We were so pleased that we managed to get all the participants to act! It was great to see everyone break away from the grammatical analytical learning that they are accustomed to. We see that there is definitely a possibility for change in both learning and teaching practices in Nepal.
We were presented with a token of love from Chiri Babu and Parsuram from Bal Bigyan. We were touched! Earlier in the week, we received a token of love from Ramesh at Lalit Kalyan. We will treasure these gifts as a reminder of the great time we had in Kathmandu!
Tomorrow we are going to visit one last school, Sree Sramik and then we're off! We feel we have put an enormous amount of energy into these two weeks – more than we thought we would! However, we really enjoyed
working with these teachers and headteachers. We feel we have made a positive impact here in Patan. Thank you for those who commented on the blog so far – it's nice to know there is interest in what we've been doing."
Namaste.
M&M (two tired smarties :) )
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