Careers

In interviewing for scholarships I recognized a lack of career education and decided to put on a workshop for students to help them get to know themselves and discover what kinds of careers they might be suited for.  Also they need to research these careers to see what is required in terms of education and what the resulting work might be like.

So I invited all the Form IV, V and VI students of Moshi to a session this coming Saturday.  I have a venue for 30 students and one school I just stopped in at gave me a list of 69 students wanting to attend.  YIPES!  Ok so I’m looking for a bigger room and am now considering holding two sessions.

We moved the Biology field trip to Thursday so that leaves Friday open for the students.  I am investigating the YMCA tonight to see if they have a suitable room.

Stay tuned. I’m sure it’s going to be great.

Workshop July 13

Newly Renovated Education Centre

It was wonderful to see the group today.  Many old timers who started off DST and a lot of new members.  There were 35 in all.

Activities today included a POE (Predict Observe Explain) excercise which was received with an enthusiastic cheer as the predicted outcome of the candles extinguishing one by one were observed.  We are emphasizing that this excitement needs to be felt by the students which means ‘doing science’ and experiencing the surprise of either being wrong or right in their predictions based on theory.

The Panel Activities were :

Biology – Flower dissection:  I saw a huge group of biology teachers conducting a really great discussion

Tetwigs and Bertha Msaki Conducting the Flower Dissection

of what to emphasize in this lesson.  There were three teachers leading the discussion; Mme Bertha Msaki of Moshi Technical Secondary School who chaired the session,  Tetwigs Primus who had been involved in the national exam marking and brought a great deal of insightful experience to the table and  Mr Bosco Sisti of Reginald Mengi had organized the activity providing the flowers and instructing the exercise.

Bosco Siste

Robert Bright, Mary Minja and Janet Alfred

Physics- Dispersion of white light, Static equilibrium and moments and index of refraction.  These three activities were conducted under the instruction of Mr. Robert Bright of St. Dorcas Secondary School.

Rene Costa

Chemistry:  This panel conducted a volumetric analysis of anknown acid by titration guided by Mr Rene Costa of Rau Secondary School.

I was really impressed by the quality of the leadership within the groups as well as the full participation and enthusiastic discussions that took place.

I was proud of DST today.

I expect several of these teachers to move into leadership positions within DST for the coming year 2013.  Everyone is doing really well.

We discussed ongoing challenges and items of concern about field trips, first aid and issues of getting head teacher support for release of science teachers to DST.  We enjoyed a lunch of pilau (spiced rice with sparce beef bites) with oranges, watermelon and soda.  We left with a plan to possibly do a pilot field trip with Biology teachers to the Arusha Snake Park and the …oh gosh I forgot the name of the lake district which we might combine with it.  We will try to organize this for early August.

Bye for now….

Back in Moshi

I am back in Moshi since Wednesday.  We are reconnecting and making plans for our workshop this coming Friday.  We are focussing on next steps for implementing acquired knowledge and activities in the classroom.

I am reviewing the many applications for student scholarships. This will be a difficult decision.  We have 14 scholarships to award and many many more applicants.

Updates to follow…

Lots of snow on the Mountain these days.