I've been following the thread on the peacecorps2 yahoo group about the World Wise Schools program. This is a partnership program the Peace Corps cooperates in that connects elementary school classrooms with Peace Corps volunteers currently serving in the field. The literature has a lot of great things to say about it, but on the listserve the general consensus is that the program isn't working. Primarily this is because teachers and volunteers seem to not be able to establish contact with one another. The people on the listserve suggest contacting a teacher you already know before you go to avoid the red tape lag that comes from the program trying to place you with a random teacher.
All volunteers are supposed to take on a secondary project, and this seems like a pretty good one. As readers of this blog can probably attest (heh) I can be a little wordy, but that's because I enjoy exploring topics at depth. This wordiness can make my blog entries a little long, but it would be a great boon to a classroom. I'm seriously considering doing this. If anyone out there is a teacher or knows of one, they might want to point them my direction. My mother also probably knows some teachers -- she is a tenured member of the faculty of San Angelo State, where she teaches pedagogy (my mother has been a K-12 teacher most of her life) and now instructs bright-eyed young people how to teach elementary.
Otherwise, I might try to put together some kind of reading group or teach creative writing as a secondary project, if there is any demand for such a thing. Or maybe help stock a library?
-Bri
3 comments:
Brian,
One thing to consider, though you have been through most of the training, your experience will be nothing like you imagine it. And you will be able to over come fears and do things you never thought you would. You will be fine wherever you are placed.
While corresponding with a school back home is worthwhile, it won't pass as a secondary project. The secondary project should be something that benefits the host community. Maybe try to expand the idea of correspondence to benefit home and host communities while you're there!
Thanks for the words of encouragement and wisdom. The secondary project is a source of a little anciety for me, because I don't know how strapped the primary project (whatever in the world that turns out to be) will leave me -- especially if it is K-12 teaching, which seems impossibly tough to me (I teach college, which is only 3 days a week, 2 hours a day).
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