Zambia: Impact Travel Experience 2024
Months ago, when Sue Bernstein first began meeting with the 9 US educators traveling to Zambia, they had grand plans.
– Three full class days of STEM, ELA and Computer Studies lessons for 550 kids from preschool to grade 11
– Lessons created by educators from Chicago and Kansas City (during their already busy school year), to meet the requirements of the Zambian curriculum for kids with varying abilities to speak and read English
– 18 travelers presenting these lessons in every classroom with minimal “training” for those who are not professional educators
– All supplies for every lesson carried to Zambia in traveler suitcases
One intriguing idea was the battery-operated buzzers that Kansas City ELA educator Tenaya Rhinehardt brought to Zambia to liven up the discussions with learners in grades 8 through 11 about “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.” Tenaya’s lessons focused on the “big question” – “What’s your dream that if it came true, could help other people?” For each lesson, after a chapter read-aloud and a discussion of the text, the classroom turned into a “game show” with the learners divided into groups, enthusiastically hitting their buzzer to answer Quizlit questions about the book. Their enthusiasm continued as they considered their own big dreams and created colorful book covers for their own world-changing stories. Hope teachers are anxious to use this engaging buzzer activity and the quiz questions easily found online to enhance their teaching in a novel way.
For the youngest Hope learners, we were fortunate to have lessons created by Megan Barrymore, Abby Conatser, Danielle Diol, and Sydney Johnson from Lincoln Park Preschool & Kindergarten
in Chicago. While Megan, Abby, Danielle and Sydney spent their classroom time at Hope in the Preschool and Kindergarten classes, they also created all the activities for grades 1, 2 and 3. Each of the five grades had a large suitcase filled with the week’s worth of activities. Those activities which centered around “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” included creating pinwheels and experiments focused on the power of wind, like using their own wind-power to see if their breath would move different objects.
The pinwheel parades were a favorite among the students and travelers.
The focus on kids as “change makers” continued with help from Chicago ELA educator Sara Crawford, who introduced classroom book clubs to Hope’s middle grade learners with 125 new picture books, all focused on ordinary people making extraordinary differences. The excitement in the classrooms was palpable as the kids had the opportunity to “taste” a variety of books before deciding which one to read. The lessons included reading and discussing the books, answering questions on graphic organizers and drawing their change-maker while listing character traits, the problem, solution and impact.
University Academy in Kansas City Science teacher Danielle Farr made good use of the new Hope Lab classroom (and the ample resources in her suitcases) to provide exciting hands-on adventures. With activities that involved measuring the availability of clean water and working with magnets and circuits, the older Hope learners explored some of the Science concepts within “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”
We also presented some real-world math lessons crafted by Burr Math and Science Teacher Emily DeVoto. At Hope’s request, our math time focused on “Social and Commercial Math” with lessons on budgeting, banking, profit and loss, currency conversions, wages and salaries as well as simple and compound interest. Emily worked hard on Google Slides and accompanying worksheets for each topic, which can be used again and again by the Hope faculty.
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Returning traveler Mac Wolf (on his 5th trip), continued his Computer Studies lessons with learners in grades 8 through 11. Mac has been teaching computer studies weekly during our early morning Zooming with Zambia sessions. He also taught in-person during the Impact Trip last summer. This time, Mac had grand plans to get everyone on some touch-typing apps, but he was stymied by Hope’s spotty wifi.Instead, he pivoted to teaching touch-typing by explaining the home row keys and calling out the letters as the learners typed. They really started to understand why this mattered when he suggested they close their eyes while he called out the letters – and they had typed the correct letters!
