Happenings

In a  speech  I delivered to teachers at our convocation last year, I challenged them to do something outside of their comfort zone. Little did I know that on the last day of the school year, I would be boarding a plane to Nairobi, Kenya, to do something way out of my comfort zone. I would be “walking the walk” so to speak. I would be on a mission to help promote literacy and higher level thinking strategies to teachers in rural Kenya. Finding My Mission For many, mission trips are religious in nature or in direct response to natural disaster. For me, my mission stemmed from a global pen pal  course  I wrote and piloted. Through this course, I developed a relationship with  Kenya Connect , a non-profit group whose mission is to keep kids in school with various programs for health and education. The population they serve are generally subsistence farming families that live in extreme poverty (no electricity, no running water, no access to healthcare). In fact, most of the schoo

What a treat for myself and my students! Middle Grades author David Neilsen visited our class to talk about how he gets inspired to write and what images specifically inspired him to write his two books:  Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom and Beyond the Doors ! Being a master storyteller, David captivated students with his varied voices and surprising expressions!  The students laughed, oooed, ahhhed, and really stretched their imaginations creating stories based on some of the surprising images David presented to them.  He even wore a purple hat just like his main character, Dr. Fell. When I asked if I should have David come back next year to visit my new 6th graders, I got an emphatic "Yes!  Definitely!  He was AWESOME!" and I couldn't agree more! Check out more about David, his books, and his storytelling on his website . 

We'd love your help so that we can help other teachers!  We will be working in rural Kenyan schools for two weeks this summer to train Kenyan teachers how to encourage reading, creative writing, and science projects, and to promote critical thinking.  The students we will be working with live in extreme poverty, and the teachers receive little to no staff development, so it is our mission to use our teaching talents and experiences to improve their educational lives.   We hope to raise money to help defray the cost of the trip which will be about $3,800 for each of us.  The cost of rooming, meals, and transportation while in Kenya is approximately $1,000 for each of us. Airfare round trip from New York to Nairobi will be approximately $1,370 for each of us depending on pricing at the time of booking.    Then there are visas, airport transfers, medical kits, teaching supplies...The costs add up! We've had a relationship with Kenya Connect for a few years now.