TYPICAL DAY: WALKING | TEACHING | PREPARING LESSONS
Teaching day: School starts at 8:20 and students head home around 4:30. There are roughly five hours of classes and an hour and a half in the afternoon of games for the students. Throughout the course of the day, you will have two short breaks and a lunch period.
As a volunteer at the school, you will three to four lessons in the morning and up to two lessons in the afternoon. Each of the lessons will be approximately 35 minutes long. You will focus on groups of 10 students from class 4, 5 and 6. Before arriving at Kyandili, you will receive a curriculum to guide your instruction. Additionally, before instruction begins, you will administer a reading level assessment to measure growth as well as inform your daily instruction and groupings. Small group lessons will focus on true comprehension skills, something overlooked by the Kenyan textbooks, and metacognitive skills.
In addition to providing English support, three times a week you will also teach an elective course of your interest. If you are passionate about art, knitting, sports, etc. you will have the opportunity to expose the students in the upper grades (four through eight) to this exciting additional course.
The small group instruction will allow you to really get to know the strengths and weaknesses of the students. In doing so, you will make a significant difference in their lives; walking away knowing you left a lasting legacy. Your English instruction is a gift that will last a lifetime.
This is the heart of your experience. For eight weeks you live in a rural village outside of Machakos with one other volunteer and teach in a local primary school. During this time you live with Jackson’s family, joining them in meals, chores, and simple time of leisure.
The roughly 400 students at Kyandili Primary are very charming. All of the students walk to school, distances ranging from one to 4 miles one way. Few students have shoes and the won and sometimes oversized school uniforms are the only clothes they own. There is one class per grade, or form, and anywhere from 30 to 60 students in a class. The students arrive at school, after doing morning chores at home and fetching water, sometimes miles from their home. With little or no breakfast, students study the majority of the day, eat a small lunch, and then head home for more chores and a small dinner.
This is the heart of your experience. For eight weeks you live in a rural village outside of Machakos with one other volunteer and teach in a local primary school. During this time you live with Jackson’s family, joining them in meals, chores, and simple time of leisure.
The roughly 400 students at Kyandili Primary are very charming. All of the students walk to school, distances ranging from one to 4 miles one way. Few students have shoes and the won and sometimes oversized school uniforms are the only clothes they own. There is one class per grade, or form, and anywhere from 30 to 60 students in a class. The students arrive at school, after doing morning chores at home and fetching water, sometimes miles from their home. With little or no breakfast, students study the majority of the day, eat a small lunch, and then head home for more chores and a small dinner.