Striving for Excellence

Mr. Achempong and Mr. Zinna are two LCMS high school teachers whose students must take the WAEC exams to graduate.   They will be participating in WAEC training on modern testing methods.  Every year Mr. A and Mr. Z are among the shining stars of LOEP's professional development workshops so we know they will do very well in the WAEC training!

The West African Exam Council (WAEC) sets an educational standard for accreditation and conducts annual standardized tests for high schools in the five-nation region.  Every high school student in Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liberia must pass the WAEC exam in their final year of school in order to graduate.
Teachers and administrators at Lott Carey Mission School have worked hard to meet and maintain WAEC standards for their school and for their students since the war took such a terrible toll on Liberian education.  Their efforts are paying off and WAEC test results for Lott Carey students have been improving since difficult times in Liberia have eased.
Just this week, LOEP received word that Lott Carey's commitment to constant improvement is not going unnoticed.  One of only ten selected schools, LCMS teachers have been invited to attend a week-long workshop on Modern Trends in Education Assessment that is being held for WAEC staff.   According to Ms. Rosa Allen, LCMS principal, the invitation was based on "credibility of schools when administering WAEC, and our collaboration with WAEC over the years".  She mentions that LOEP training with it's exposure to modern methods and techniques for classroom instruction and assessment has given them an edge in the WAEC workshop.
Mrs. Allen modestly states, "we are proud to have been selected."  Those of us who have worked with LCMS teachers know that the recognition is well-deserved for a corps of professional teachers whose conscientous commitment to educating their students is making a difference in their nation's future!

Education and Agriculture

This lush scene is the seedling nursery at Alfred and Agnes Memorial Orphan Mission (AAMOM).  The seedling nursery is a direct result of AAMOM's partnership with farmers in Virginia who have been sending seeds, tools and providing agricultural support and advice to partners in Liberia since before the war ended.  Please click on the link below to read more about this effort to assist agricluture work and farming in Liberia.

http://causeforcreation.wordpress.com/the-farmers-connection-from-virginia-to-west-africa/

  

Sustainable agriculture is as critical as education to maintaining peace and stability in Liberia.  As LOEP focuses on education, our friends and other family members focus on agricultural success for our partners in Liberia.  Our mutually supportive relationship grew from the commitment our own church made years ago to assist our Liberian partners in achieving peace and stability for their nation.  

AAMOM has had great success in creating a sustainable agricultural project that not only feeds the orphans but is also successful enough to produce products for the local markets. LOEP Team member Rachel Price is an environmental scientist.  She was mightily impressed on her first visit to AAMOM with the operation's success in developing something of a thriving permaculture type community.  

Educator Honored and Dresses delivered

Little Fatu and Naomi were so pleased to receive their stylish, new pillow case dresses and posed happily with their friend, Fahmetta Morris to show their new finery.  The third dress, draped over Mrs. Morris' walker is intended for another sister who was too shy to pose for the camera.  The little girls so seldom have anything new to wear and the pillow case dresses were a real thrill as you can see from Naomi's shy but radiant smile!  Leah Lunsford and her crafting ladies made these little Liberian girls (and quite a few others) very happy!
Mrs. Morris is a retired teacher and principal who, at age 95 years, is always ready to relate stories and memories of her days in the classroom and as a Kindergarten principal.  Her memory is clear, her speech sharp and she is a youthful and vibrant lady who loves her community and her country.  Naomi, Fatu and their mother live with Mrs. Morris in the Liberian tradition.  Many people live together in households as families bound by mutual caring and need for each other regardless of whether blood ties exist.  Mrs. Morris lives with her household family in rural Clay-Ashland, a small community on the banks of the St. Paul river that was ravaged by wars of the last two decades.  She has outlived her only child and her husband and many other extended family members have settled in the U.S. where they fled to escape war in Liberia.  Mrs. Morris is a cherished member of her community and was happy to tell  us about the wonderful birthday celebration held in her honor in September when the entire communty turned out to honor her.  Family came from the U.S., Ghana and all over Liberia to join the community event with dancing and feasting to honor their community's treasured educator.

     

An Educated Community

Each LOEP Traininig session opened and closed with all of us, trainers and teachers, reciting the following statement of belief in our work as teachers building a community of learners together:

We believe our students are the future of Liberia.
We believe teachers shape that future.
We believe an educated community is a strong, peaceful community.

This year the 2011 LOEP team was fortunate to witness first-hand some incredible evidence of learner communities in Liberia.  We visited:

• two orphan schools - one building a new classroom building and dormitory and the other improving their facility with new security and playground areas, 
• Hope School for the Deaf, a community of learners who are no longer isolated now that they can sign and learn together,
• Virginia Christian Academy, a school currently undergoing construction of a new, two-story building which will include housing for their new library collection,
• A church-sponsored school facility with six classrooms constructed of bamboo poles and grass mat walls where more than 400 children attend school every day in three sessions and adults attend night-time literacy classes.

These learning communities and hundreds of others like them are all led by dedicated teachers who know the future of Liberia depends on educating their students - adults and children.

  

Bean Bag Fun at Hope School

Yesterday the LOEP team finished up hearing screenings at Hope for the Deaf School  in Monrovia where our friends David Worlebah and Eric are doing remarkable work with hearing impaired children.  The school located on the Methodist Church of Liberia campus, has three extremely small classrooms and one larger classroom/assembly room/lunch room.  There are sixty seven students ranging in age from 4 years old to 26 years old and all are either deaf or severely hearing impaired.  The older students are there because as disabled persons in Liberia, they have been unable to access any education or training opportunities until recently when awareness of rights for the disabled began to be recognized.  David is actively working as an advocate for the disabled in Liberia in addition to his commitment to Hope where he is both school administrator and a teacher.
The LOEP team completed hearing screenings on 52 students yesterday.  While the screenings were going on in one building, LOEP team member Luvenia Harvey demonstrated how to use bean bags as instructional classroom tools.  The children LOVED it and had a wonderful time challenging each other to spelling with bean bags and teaching Miss Harvey and Beth how to sign each spelling word!  They were delighted to share their communication skills with hearing persons who wanted to learn.  One teacher joined enthusiastically in the fun spelling/signing activities.
Rachel had a great time with the children on Thursday afternoon and has learned quite an impressive array of signs and phrases from the children, including sign names of some of the indigenous tribes in Liberia.
LOEP videographer in Liberia, Derrick Snyder, has produced a great video on Hope for the Deaf School.  The video will be posted on the LOEP website as soon as we return.  Watch for it!

Miss Harvey surrounded by kids and bean bags - it's spelling time!
 

Building a Community of Learners!



LOEP Trainers of Teachers (ToTs)
(l to r) Mr. Zinnah, Mrs. Allen, Miss Harvey, Mr. Achempong



Today was a milestone day for the LOEP Training Team and our colleagues at LCMS!  The theme of LOEP's three-phase, three-year training program is Building a Community of Learners. The goal is to train teachers who can train their colleagues, shareing information, ideas and resources, building a professional network of teachers with a commitment to professional development and ongoing training. The group pictured above are the three LOEP Trainers of Teachers, meeting with LCMS Principal of Instruction Rosa Allen. The three LOEP ToTs are meeting to plan the LCMS Professional Development Plan for the remainder of 2011 and next academic year. The ToTs will be working throughout the year training their colleagues and working with teachers in sister schools to provide training and instructional support as they Build a Community of Learners!  They are on their way!!
On a personal note, Emmalee and Beth were in attendance for the first portion of the ToT meeting and experienced some personal emotional moments. We watched these incredibly gifted, committed professionals newly self-confident in their abilities, moving to a newly independent level of their professional development.  We felt that same mixture of pride, anticipation and love that one feels watching those "Pomp and Circumstance" moments with our own children! What a joyful day!

School Days

This past week, the LOEP team was able to spend quite a bit of time in the classrooms at Lott Carey school with both students and teachers. The students will not be in school next week when we are working with the teachers exclusively, so this was a good opportunity for us to do some team teaching with Lott Carey teachers and even substitute teach by ourselves in some instances. I was very pleased to cover some 7th and 8th grade English classes, and Rachel had the chance to show off her science skills in a 5th grade science class as well as 12th grade biology! We had a great time with the students and with the teachers. The school currently has a faculty opening for middle school English and Language Arts. I enjoyed filling in for a few days and got some good laughs from the 8th grade class. Kids are kids are kids are kids - in Liberia, USA, and all over the world! Here are some pics from our teaching days this week.


Two seventh grade students work hard on the vocabulary lesson I gave them in the library on Tuesday.


Fridays begin with a flag raising ceremony that the older students and ROTC lead for the entire student body.



Mr. Appleton's 11th grade biology class models a human cell using students.


Rachel poses with the senior class. They were very excited to have a class picture!


We have been doing some team-building exercises with the students and will continue this work with the teachers next week.


Ms. Harvey and her nursery class