Tag Archive for: school

Cowman International School is our newest partner

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TeachBeyond welcomes Cowman International School as a new partner. Located just outside Cap Haitien, Haiti, the school was founded in the 1960s by One Mission Society to serve the children of missionaries. Today, 90 percent of the students are nationals. One Mission Society is in the process of passing ownership into the hands of the newly formed school board.

The school is attractive to Haitians because it is a Christian school and is the only one in northern Haiti where English is the language of instruction, according to Marilyn Wadge, school board member. French is one of two official languages of Haiti, the other being Haitian Creole. Several families travel a great distance daily to bring their children to Cowman. It does not have boarding facilities.

Melissa Gross, the director, says that when she first visited the school in 2010 it had 23 students. Enrollment had more than doubled when she returned as a faculty member in 2013. Today there are nearly 200 students in grades K-3 to 12. Cowman added grade 12 this year, and will graduate its first class of seniors in May 2019.

“We came to help develop the high school, and that is the reason for the growth in the past few years. There is a demand from Haitians for high school, and we could grow more if we had the space and more teachers,” Melissa says.

TeachBeyond members who began teaching at Cowman this year include Kristen Robinson, Zenobia Curtis, and Bradley Pyle. Shawn and Jaimie Tiechmer are in the process of raising financial support. The school pays a $750 monthly stipend and TeachBeyond members raise additional monthly support.

Recruiting faculty was one of the reasons Cowman sought partnership with TeachBeyond. There are openings in the current school year for a science teacher in the junior and senior high school and a teacher for grade 6. They are also looking for a special education teacher. Click here to see openings and send an inquiry.

About three-fourths of the teachers are Haitian, and the rest are missionaries. “Our national teachers are not certified. We are developing a plan to provide professional education leading to certification,” Melissa says.

The school offers some extra-curricular activities such as football, basketball, and volleyball. A student-led praise and worship band leads worship in chapel every Friday morning. Arranging for coaches and other after-school supervision is a challenge and falls disproportionately on missionary staff because Haitian teachers are only expected to work the length of the school day.

Cowman’s mission is to provide a Christ-centered education based on North American curriculum and standards to develop Godly future leaders. The school also serves the whole family on many topics from developing strong marriages, Godly parenting strategies, to simple education in health and nutrition.

Halls of Learning

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Wherever I travel I make a point of visiting local campuses, or ‘learning sites.’ My interest in this began many years ago when I had the privilege of shaping the orienting philosophy for the new construction for Ambrose University. One aspect of the planning phase involved a trip to Chicago to study several renown university campuses. We left the city filled with new ideas, particularly Louis Sullivan’s thought (1896) that “Form ever follows function. This is the law.” By this he, and his assistant Frank Lloyd Wright, meant that our first task is to establish the function of our facility and then form will follow logically from it.

 

31df1fca-bba6-49c3-9806-fb74c5ad2b98We came to recognise that our campus facilities and the way we manage them say a lot about our educational vision and mission. The open campus, with its welcoming, invitational layout follows the function of a stimulating learning environment. Sages think great thoughts as they walk across beautiful lawns surrounded by architectural wonders that inspire profound thoughts. Cambridge, with its multiple stunning colleges, stands out as an architype of this cheerful vision of learning space.

 

However, there are many pictures in my personal collection of campuses that have failed to take Sullivan’s dictum to heart. From the materials used to the building’s position on the site, and even design details, “function” was ignored or never understood. The unintended consequences are usually a dreary, dysfunctional campus that suppresses learning.

There is another problem associated with form and function that is equally distressing. Those who understand the importance of function can conceive of it in purely utilitarian ways. For example, in the 1960s some decided children would learn “better” (function) if they were not distracted by the outside world. Windows were removed and classrooms reduced to florescent lights and cinder blocks. The function was achieved by a form that followed on logically: children were definitely not distracted by anything outside the room (which is quite different than saying they weren’t distracted). Minimalism, and financial prudence, while functional, had created an economically efficient industrial plant. In doing so, it missed the point. Life cries out for a full-orbed definition of function.In saying this, one must admit that everywhere today the number one concern we have is for the safety and security of our students, staff, and faculty. Not surprisingly, physical walls surround most of our learning environments. A congenial stroll across the green of a Cambridge common is a fantasy for most. However, if the best learning environment is one where curiosity is peeked with new ideas, where the infusion of strangers, visitors, locals, and family members is enriching the setting, and where the two-way flow from the school to the home and community is vibrant, we need to find a form that allows both security and openness (i.e., the function) to coexist in synergistic ways. Even a symbolically “open” Cambridge has its porters and gates.

70594803-649b-49ab-a3b6-e08afbf25869 Safety and security are not the only reason we shut our doors and eliminate our windows. A closed campus can easily become a castle with a moat and a raised drawbridge, where unwanted ideas are barred and learning stifled. An open campus recognises there is no better place for the learner to turn over the rocks of culture. Why? Because in a thoughtful, mature Christian community, the learner should never be afraid of a truth quest. As C S Lewis put it in his analogy, Christians by definition embrace truth wherever it is found. Its source, after all, is the One who is the Truth.

Moses didn’t learn the wisdom of Egypt (Acts 7:22) as a recluse in the desert and Daniel didn’t become the leading intellectual force of his day in a hut on the banks of the Jordan (Dan 1:4). They were in the centre of the intellectual fray of their day. It is natural to want to build walls of separation, not only for purposes of physical safety but also for the protection of our hearts and minds. But these metaphysical walls provide an illusory, head-in-the-sand protection. The Christian witness in every age fights to speak and be heard without being driven to the margins of society. The most reliable protection against the dangers of a threatening world is to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. We cannot do this with our doors closed and the windows removed.

Most of the campuses and learning sites TeachBeyond owns or services are undergoing major renovations or anticipating new facilities. I would urge each team involved to think deeply, flexibly, creatively, and broadly about function – just as our Creator has about the world in which we live. Similarly, classroom teachers should examine their own classroom environments in light of functionality[1]. If we do this, I believe one of the hallmarks of our campuses will be a discernible “outward-lookingness.” By this I mean our campuses will radiate hospitality and a receptivity to new people and new ideas. By this I also mean our campuses will be confident in the justice of our cause (Ps 37:6) so that philosophic insecurity and timidity will fade. So too will criticism rooted in the unknown and fear of that which is deemed foreign. Instead of receiving dark looks of distrust from our surrounding communities, our campuses will grow in strength as a respected community treasure.

George Durance
President and CEO
TeachBeyond

[1] Here is an earlier OnPractice article that deals with setting up your classroom with this consideration in mind.

Maximizing Cooperative Learning in your Classroom

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Multiple studies have shown cooperative learning positively impacts student learning[1]. Perhaps this is because part of being made in the image of God is living in community, which includes learning in community. Designing strong cooperative learning activities takes time. It is not enough to put students into groups and assign an activity. Too often, activities set up in such a fashion result in a group of individuals working on their own and either comparing or combining results without ever really having any meaningful interaction. Instead, cooperative learning relies on students working together and utilising their different strengths, knowledge bases, and abilities to achieve a common purpose. Interdependence, not independence, is key.10606403564_9c5c6819a5_q

Here are some key elements to keep in mind when developing cooperative learning activities for your classroom:

Communicate: Ensure that your students know what the learning outcome of a given activity is and that they understand your expectations on how this outcome is to be achieved. Put this in writing so that students can refer back to it throughout the course of the activity; this is especially true if the activity is open-ended or loosely structured in nature. While this is a general principle of good teaching, it is good to remember it when designing cooperative learning activities.

Construct activities that cannot be completed individually: As you begin to design cooperative learning activities, it is important to focus as much on the process as the outcome. What must students do to reach the learning outcome? Is this a process that fosters interdependence? If students can reach the outcome on their own, it is likely that they will. To avoid this, construct activities that require multiple roles to be successful. Roles may be distributed based on content knowledge (e.g., jigsaw teaching), type of activity (e.g., responsibilities during a discussion), or simply number of persons need (e.g., skit, science experiment requiring multiple persons, etc.). Ensuring that students see how each role is necessary to reach the learning objective will encourage cooperation rather than competition within the groups.

Assign roles: Younger students, or students new to cooperative learning experiences, can benefit from having an assigned role, task, or responsibility (e.g., discussion leader, group recorder, researcher, and vocabulary expert). Defining how each student is expected to contribute to the group’s learning experience will help alleviate the frustration of the free-loader (who does nothing to contribute to the group’s learning) and the over-achiever (who takes over and does everything for the group). It also ensures that the group is aware of and is addressing all aspects of the learning activity.

Provide checkpoints for self-assessment: One of the hallmarks of cooperative learning is that group members are responsible for the success of each member. In order to achieve this goal, students benefit from specific questions or directives along the way. For example, when I have a class of students create a series of tableaux[2] to illustrate a story, part of my instruction is that any given student in the group must be able to explain the significance of the scene and how it relates to the rest of the work. Students know that any one of them could be chosen to be the narrator, which ensures that all of them have a vested interest in being able to explain what is happening. As part of their preparation, therefore, they will periodically stop to self-check that everyone is on the same page.

For more information about cooperative learning, or for suggested activities, check out the following websites: * Cooperative Learning Activities for College Courses—provides a strong overview of and rationale for cooperative learning * DePaul Teaching Commons: Active Learning—provides examples of active/cooperative learning activities, along with a brief description of how to set these up * Walker Center for Teaching and Learning: Cooperative Learning—provides examples of cooperative learning activities along with a brief description of how to set them up.

Becky Hunsberger, M.Ed. Coordinator of Teacher Education Services TeachBeyond Global 

5739589979_f5269be7ac_q [1] Barkley, E. F., Cross, K.P., & Major, C.H. (2005). Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. [2] Tableaux, or frozen statues, are recreations of a scene from art, history, or literature. I often use this activity to check for student understanding of assigned reading.

Photo Credits:Teamwork, Luigi Mengato via Compfight cc. Project Planning, DoDEA Communications via Compfight cc. Physics Lab, B Hunsberger.