My teachings and reflections as a diaspora volunteer in Uda Pussellawa
Updates throughout my placement in Uda Pussellawa (July — August 2018)
Week 1: What a fantastic group of kids I had the chance to work with today!
We’ve been working on our vocabulary related to games and today we rotated through the various stations playing card games such as Go Fish and Spoons, Uno, and Math Around the World. We finished off with a round of charades with simple words that they described in English with prompting if needed.
The primary students worked on ‘What time is it Teacher/Student Name?” and “Head and Shoulders”. They also got to show some competitive spirit by playing ball races in lines.
Although I didn’t quite expect this large of a group, it was an excellent opportunity to practice some classroom management techniques and set expectations for all future sessions.
Some of the teachers had an opportunity to get some hands on practice with the games and activities. It was a great way for me to collaborate with them for tomorrow’s teacher training on classroom management and engaging students in an active learning setting!
Here’s a quick snapshot of the amazing children and youth I get to work with. When you’ve got 40+ kids showing up to an after school program…..
✅ Primary kids (Grade 1–3) engaged in active learning of numbers while playing “What time is it?”
✅ Junior kids (Grade 4–10) rotating through activity stations
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My philosophy that education is the key to change has been strengthened and solidified by this experience in Uda Pussellawa, Sri Lanka.
A game of Octopus
▪️The intensity.
▪️The determination.
▪️The focus.
▪️The passion.
🙌🏾👏🏾👌🏾Hands down, the best #OctopusGame ever! And that “Ottapus” 🙈
“Students are eager to learn every minute and absorb as much as they can as it is helping to shape their lives. The passion in the children and teachers’ eyes has truly been contagious.”
🎭 🎬 👏🏾 Playing charades with these kids can get pretty hilarious! He guessed “Doing laundry”, which does look a lot like “Packing a suitcase”.
The best thing about these kids is that no matter what the activity is, they are always fully invested! And always want more — “Teacher, what are we doing today? Can you teach us something new?”
How do you use a deck of cards to engage pre-school students in educational activities?
▪️Find your matching colour and number
▪️Receptively and expressively identify numbers
▪️Matching game
▪️Ordering and sequencing numbers
It’s also a great tool to create randomized partners when working together….and look how much fun these little ones are having while learning, from the proud smiles in the first photo to the pondering little girl at the end!😁➡️🤔
Growth Mindset
💬➡️🧠➡️🌳
Change your words. Change your mind.
My absolute favourite activity I have done with both students and teachers is teaching them about this thing called “Growth Mindset”. By developing and fostering a growth mindset, we can help students become better learners, more persistent, more resilient and more intelligent!
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Our students will have a fixed mindset about a lot of things, and it will take time to help them develop a growth mindset. Teaching them how the brain works, celebrating mistakes, praising effort, and modelling growth mindset behaviours will help them develop a positive mindset.
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How are we developing our growth mindset here at Uda Pussellawa?
🔹Creating growth vs fixed mindset posters to put up in our classrooms
🔹Role-playing growth vs fixed mindset scenarios
🔹Identifying and labeling growth and fixed mindsets in our everyday lives
Passionate and Committed Teachers
Teacher training and workshops are held twice a week here at the church. Through these sessions we are able to improve the quality of the education our students receive and provide enriching extra-curricular and after school activities. The training and workshops have been so productive with staff taking a hands on approach when engaging with the lessons. Some of the topics we addressed include classroom management, effective lesson planning, strategies to actively engage students, self-regulation tips, growth mindset, prompting, reinforcement, social skills and building positive relationships.
The part where I do most of my learning is when we sit and chat after the session. It’s a community circle where we enjoy some tea with ‘vaddas’ and exchange stories about our experiences. I hear stories of pain, poverty, alcoholism, poor working conditions of tea plantation workers, unfair treatment of women workers, but also stories of perseverance, resilience and most of all, hope.
I am excited to share with you the stories of the five amazing women, their work with the Church of the American Ceylon Mission, the challenges of this community and the impact of diaspora volunteers to further assist the Ministry’s goal to improve access to basic education for impoverished and deprived children and youth in and around Uda Pussellawa Plantation Division in the district of Nuwara Eliya.
CACM initiated the “Empowering Children and Youth Ministry” in 2009 to address the ongoing issues such as unemployment, child labour and forced sexual labour, human trafficking, alcoholism, suicide, elder neglect and trauma.
“The plantation sector is comprised of communities which were originally brought as migrant labourers from South India during the British period. In Sri Lanka, they are some of the most marginalized socio-economically and politically with their basic land, housing, education and health conditions still lagging far behind that of those in other parts of the country. The majority of this community continues to live in line-houses that were built nearly two centuries ago when the British introduced tea and rubber plantations to the Island.”
— Rev. Rajan Rohaan (May 2018)
One common message expressed by all teachers and community members was the need for more diaspora volunteers to help with the long term development and sustainment of education. As grateful as they were for my time here, they are ever so eager to know when I’ll be back. I did not make any promises but if I have the chance to come back next summer, I will. In the meantime I hope to spread the word of the great work that is happening along with the long road ahead to support this community.
One of my biggest goals from this journey is to inspire others in the Tamil community to take this initiative with comdu.it next year and be a part of an incredible project that supports sustaining development in Sri Lanka.
Bright and Beautiful Children
The greatest time with these bright and beautiful children. It was a tough day filled with goodbyes but so much love! 💛
These munchkins got dressed in their school uniforms to come say goodbye even though they are off on summer holidays right now. As hard as it was to say goodbye, I’m so excited to see what the future holds for these children. And even more, if we continue to grow our global network of diaspora change makers!
With effective diaspora engagement, comdu.it is able to provide exactly that shift for the development in Sri Lanka — “from charity to sustainability, from aid to economic development, and from remittance to knowledge-based economy”.
This is only the beginning.
With a week left in what has become my home and world for the summer, I am preparing myself to say goodbye to a community that has become my family, my friends, my colleagues, and my students.
As I’ll be returning to Canada shortly, I look back at my reflection prior to departing on this adventure.
“My journey may start with comdu.it this summer but it will surely not end there as this is only the beginning!”
These words could not resonate any stronger with how I feel right now. I am so grateful to Comduit Diaspora Hub and Church of the American Ceylon Mission for providing me with this opportunity of a lifetime.
🙏🏾 And this is only the beginning.
I truly hope that some of you have been inspired by my stories and the children I’ve worked with to consider giving your time and knowledge to a community in Sri Lanka. For those of you who are interested, please check out comdu.it for more information.