Transatlantic Pen Pals

Did you ever have a pen pal? I had a couple growing up, and I really enjoyed it. So when I found out about the Worldwise Schoolprogram during my Peace Corps application process, I was really excited to participate. The program matches PCVs with a teacher in America, and their students can exchange letters. This lines up perfectly with Goals 2 and 3 of Peace Corps, the sharing of American culture with our host country, and vice versa. Unfortunately, Worldwise Schools had some technical difficulties the last couple years, and the three attempts I made at signing up came to naught. Colii also tried to sign up a couple times, and never heard back from them. (Side note - they have restructured the program and made improvements, so hopefully it will work much better for PCVs and American teachers in the future. It's such a cool idea.)

Luckily, Colii and I are PCVs, so we are practiced at having to be creative and resourceful to get things done. We decided to have the students in my Library Club exchange letters with the students in her Health Club. We had all the kids write letters, and then we matched them up together.

The Moldovan Pen Pals

               

The Malawian Pen Pals

I even gave my students a little one-page info sheet on Moldova, with a map and a photocopy of a postcard I got in Soroca when I visited there. Colii passed on some Romanian phrases to me, and I included those on the sheet as well. The Romanian phrases have really caught on, and now I regularly hear “Buna dimineata” and “pa pa” at school from my Malawian students! Even from kids that were not even involved in the pen pal program.

Letter writing was a great way for the students to practice their English and writing skills. It also taught them about another country. Sharing the culture of your host country with the people of your PCV friend’s host country isn’t one of the three PC goals, but it sure was a lot of fun!

Farewell to the Library Monitors

We had our final Library Monitors meeting at school this week. The Library Monitors are a program I created at my school where two students in each grade level are trained in how to use the library, and then assist me each week during their class’s library time. The kids have done a great job all year, and have really taken on a proactive role in the library. They go around and help the students find books, they put away the returned books, they make sure there aren’t too many students in the library at one time, and they come to me to reschedule library periods that fall during a school holiday. Plus they translate for me a lot, which really helps me out. Library has been my favorite part of my service, and they have been a huge part of that. So our last meeting was more about celebrating them and thanking them for being so amazing!

Since it was our last meeting, I started them off with a little library quiz. I divided them into two teams, and gave them a list of questions to answer using the books in the library. Both teams finished in about 20 minutes, then we went through the answers for both—perfect scores! I was so proud of them.

Next came the the certificates. I made certificates for each of them, with the hours they worked in the library as well as their training hours listed. I gave them a little speech about the importance of their role in the library, and how much I appreciated them, and how I hoped they would continue to work hard next year after I am gone. Then I gave the certificates to my Co-Librarian Mr. Kapira, and he shook their hands and gave them out. He also thanked me for all my work in the library, which meant a lot to me.

The Library Monitors showing off their certificates

Then it was time for biscuits and Fanta! Because in Malawi, you can’t have a meeting without biscuits and Fanta. (Side note—this is different than a party in Malawi, which means chicken and rice and Fanta, plus lots of music and dancing.) While they were enjoying their refreshments, I passed around a bunch of free magazines that I had gotten from Peace Corps during my service, including the Peace Corps Times and Worldview magazine. I let each student pick one to keep. They really liked them, and asked me questions about some of the articles and pictures. One student saw an ad for Geico with the gecko logo on it, and asked me what that was. So I told them it was a gecko, similar to the house geckos we have here in Malawi. Then they taught me the word for gecko in Chichewa, which is “nalimata”.

We took some group photos of them, and I promised that I would print one to put up on the library bulletin board. This is the one I think I am going to go with:

And that was our meeting. Thanks for all your hard work, kids!

School Librarian

I love books. Some of my happiest memories from childhood were going to the book fair at school, or getting the new Scholastic book catalog in my elementary school classes. I also loved going to the public library, and usually walked out with a huge stack of books. So working in the library at school has been a dream come true for me. My work is in the library at school is one of my primary projects, and one that I have put a lot of time and energy into over the past two years.

When I first arrived at my school they told me I would be the Librarian. It started out pretty simple-- just opening the library for students during the morning breaks, and keeping track of the books they were checking out. Then I noticed there were books that were not being used by the students, and I wanted to rearrange the library to encourage their use. I also noticed that the students liked to review past JCE and MSCE exams (similar to our SAT and ACT in the U.S.), but they were all out of order and the students couldn't find the right ones, so I decided to organize those. And it just kept going from there.

Some of the projects I have worked on at our school library are:

• Creating a list for each class of the student names and numbers so we can expedite the check-out process
• Organizing a library raffle at the end of the term to reward students who turn in their books on time
• Organizing all of the subject syllabi so teachers can use them for their schemes and lesson planning
• Organizing all books by subject and then by level e.g. Biology subdivided into Junior and Senior level and labeling the bookshelves with that information
• Working with a bookbinder to get books repaired, and purchasing masking tape to bind all the torn books
• Numbering and organizing the huge shipment of books we received from the Ministry of Education
• Encouraging teachers to utilize multiple books for their classes, and to bring books into the classrooms for their lessons
•  Encouraging student use of dictioniaries and encyclopaedias
• Creating library periods for each form, so the classes get 40 minutes instead of 15 minutes to use the library. This way instead of just scrambling to find a book before the bell, they actually have time to browse and ask questions.

The project I am most proud of though has got to be the Library Monitor system. Previously our school had two Library Prefects in Form 4, who were in charge of assisting in the library.  I created the position of two Library Monitors in each Form, so now our school has a total of six Library Monitors and two Library Prefects. These students have the duties of assisting me in the library during their Form’s assigned library periods. They met with me on Friday afternoons during the first term and I trained them in the library, abut the rules and the organization, how to use dictionairies, encyclopaeidias and atlases and the use of indexes, glossaries and table of contents to find the information they needed.

Now library periods go really smoothly. One Library Monitor mans the door and makes sure there are no more than five students in the library at a time. The other walks around, assisting students and putting away books that are returned. This allows me to assist students with checking in and checking out books and past papers. This works well on so many levels. The students that don’t speak English well are more comfortable asking questions of the Library Monitors in Chichewa than asking me, and I can have the Library Monitors translate things for me if needed. They are also my library spokespeople for their class, so if say we need ot reschedule a library period due to a holiday, I can just work with the library monitors to try to find the best time. The Library Monitor program has been a huge success, and has made my experience as Librarian really meaningful. Best of all, these students will retain what they have learned about the library, and hopefully they will continue to pass it on to students and teachers after I am gone.

Fun with Atlases

There is something really cool about being a PCV in Africa, and looking at a map of North America with my students. (It also makes me a little homesick.)

Last Friday my Library Club met and we learned about atlases. We have a great big atlas with a hardcover as well as five  small paperback atlases. Just like in America, these books are restricted to in-library use only. The students had never used them before, so I showed them the different kinds of maps and information located in the atlases, and how to use the index to find different countries. The atlases are localized so they featured a few African countries like Zanzibar and Malawi, then had maps and information about north, central and southern Africa, each of the other populated continents, and then a section on the whole world.

I showed them where the U.S. is and where California is. I also showed them Scotland, since we have a partnership with a Scottish school. And then I had them all find Moldova on the map, where Colii is!

These students were the first ones to find Moldova on the map. I had to help some of the others because, you know, Moldova is kind of small. To be fair, Malawi is really small too. The kids actually laughed when they saw how big the U.S. was in comparison.

After teaching them how to use an atlas, it was time for the competition! Each team received two atlases and had to answer the following questions:

1) Name the country that is directly north of Chad

2) Name the type of vegetation that covers the largest area in Malawi

3) Name a city in North America that has over 10,000,000 people

4) Name one of the countries in Africa that has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infections

The winners got stickers which they were really excited about. But everyone left with a little more knowledge about the world and the library. Librarian success!

Fun with Encyclopaedias

(That's the British spelling of encyclopedias. Those extra letter a's are really growing on me).

As an Education PCV I have a number of education objectives I can choose from for my primary projects. One of those objectives is increasing the use of the library. I didn't realize how much I would love this project! It is definitely my favorite part of my service.

I am the Co-Librarian at my school, although at this point it is pretty much just me by myself. The other Co-Librarian is also a teacher and an administrator which leaves him very little time for the library. So what is a PCV tasked with sustainability to do? Train the students!

We had two library prefects in Form 4, but nothing in the other three forms. So I put up a notice asking for students to help me in the library. Now I have six Library Monitors in addition to the two Library Prefects.

It has been such a blessing having their help in the library. They help students find books, put away book returns, monitor the students in the library, and translate for me when a student has a problem. They also let me know if we are low on certain books, and pass on announcements about the library to their classes. In return, the Library Monitors get to use the library during any free periods instead of just their assigned Library Period.

I am also training the Library Monitors in the use of the library as a resource. We meet about twice a month to discuss library issues and learn about the library. So far I have taught them how to use a table of contents, glossary and index and how to find the different books students need.

Yesterday's meeting was about the use of encyclopedias and dictionaries. My school library has two sets of World Book Encyclopedias and about four dictionaries, but students rarely use them. I am hoping to change that, and the Library Monitors are a big part of that.

Our meeting ended with a competition. I divided them into two teams and gave each team a set of questions to answer using the encyclopedias and dictionaries. The first team to answer all five questions correctly won stickers and Pez candy (thanks Mom and Paul)!

Here are the questions:

1) What is the population of Belgium?

2) What is a hoopoe?

3) Which country grows the most potatoes?

4) Who was Socrates?

5) What does "prose" mean?

Here they are researching the answers:

They really seemed to enjoy the game, and I think they will start using these books more. Now I hope they will tell other students about them too.

During our meeting we also decided to form a Library Club that is open to other students. Then we can train them in the library too. The term is almost over so I am hoping to start that next term.