Mapalo Data

Sorry that the chart is so small (click on it to make it bigger), but this is a chart measuring the impact of the Jubilee Centre Teacher Training Program on each of the teachers in the pilot program. We rate our teachers on 12 skills that we believe make exemplary teachers in Zambia. We gauge their skill ratings based upon a rubric that was developed. In each of the skills, the teachers can be rated as novice, beginning proficient, proficient, or exemplary. A point value is assigned to each rating with an exemplary rating being worth 10 points. On a 120 point scale our teachers, on average, made a 17.8 point increase on the rubric which is representative of a 46% change.

Some people connect better with stories of teachers appreciating the training and changing their practice while others want substantive data. I am here to provide both for you. (There is also a graph of each teacher's progression for the visual learners.) For full disclosure, we have taken parts of this rating system from other sources. It is not our original design, but we have modified a lot of things to fit our situation in Zambia.

Who Is the Jubilee Centre?

If you ever wondered what the Jubilee Centre staff looked like, here is your chance. The other people in the picture around the table are my family, and the other white guy in the middle is a guy named Dan Weber who has worked for the Jubilee Centre for the past four months. There is also a picture of the Jubilee Centre with their families at a picnic and a picture of the Temfwes and I. Enjoy!

New People and New Training Sessions

With the months of June and July come a new group of people to Zambia: the summer missions teams. You see them all over town, and they are so easy to pick out. This summer we have two such teams at the Jubilee Centre. One group is from Wheaton College in Chicago, of which I am an alumni, and the other group is from a church in England called Holy Trinity Evangelical Church. The Holy Trinity group arrives today and stays for two weeks, but the Wheaton College team is working with the Jubilee Centre for two months.

I love observing these groups because I have been in their situation many times before. The first weeks of your trip you are constantly questioning, “What I am doing in this strange land? What do these people at the Jubilee Centre think that they are doing?” Though the students may not say it, the questions are written on their faces. I do love the student’s questions about poverty and the way the church should deal with these situations here. I also love when the students experience something that rocks their world. It is hard to see an orphan for the first time. Even if you have a cold heart, I am confident that talking to an HIV/AIDS patient or an orphan will affect you. Those are the difficult issues that you have to wrestle with when you come to work with the Jubilee Centre, but our goal is to help people process those experiences and what it means for them.

Part of my job for June and July has turned to helping coordinate the activities of these groups so that they can experience the ministries of the Jubilee Centre. For example, last week the Wheaton College group taught in one of the community schools in Mapalo. I trained briefly them before they started teaching, but the overwhelming response from the group members was that teaching is a lot harder than they expected. Spending time with the Wheaton team also allows me the opportunity to tell all of my Wheaton stories. After my story times, they probably think I was some sort of heathen who only goofed off at Wheaton. That conclusion is probably an accurate one...

In regards to teacher training, we just finished a training session for another community school in Mapalo. For this session, I just supervised as Emmanuel and Samson, my two instructors, ran the entire training. It has been very fulfilling to watch them take over the training sessions. I think the program is in very good hands as I prepare to leave Zambia. Over the next couple of weeks, there are still things that I need to do to ensure that the program is on firm footing when I leave, but I am very confident in the future of the program. I have attached two pictures of Samson, the one with his eyes closed, and Emmanuel, the one standing behind me in the yellow shirt, so that you will have an idea of who will be running the program once I leave.

World Cup = Loss of Power

Sorry about the absence from the blog. So on Friday, the whole country of Zambia was without power. This was definitely a first and got my mind thinking about what would happen if the USA lost all of its power. Everyone in Ndola was postulating about the cause of the power outage. Some days I think that Ndola is a small-town because rumors spread around this place like wildfire.

The most frequent rumor I heard on Friday was that Zambia sold all of their power to South Africa so that South Africa could effectively run the World Cup. Whether this is true or not, I do not know. If it is, I kinda have to laugh. If the money Zambia can get for their power is greater than the money the entire country of Zambia can make in one business day, why don’t we just sell our power every day and close this country up because there are many African countries that are desperate for power. O.k. maybe we did South Africa a favor or maybe there was a premium on the price for electricity. I don’t think that the rumor was true, but it would be ridiculous in my opinion if it was.

Yes, with the power outage, I did miss the USA vs. Slovenia World Cup match on Friday. It was a bit upsetting, but on another note, the World Cup has definitely provided a change of pace for Zambia. EVERYBODY talks about the World Cup games. It is the topic of every conversation and the “thing” to watch every night. It is definitely very fun to be in Africa while the World Cup is going on.

Future Plans

Many of you know that I committed to work for the Jubilee Centre for one year. My plans were to come to Jubilee Centre, to help set up the teacher training program, to help strengthen their policy initiatives, and to learn as much as I could within a year. Well, at the end of July my year will end; therefore, many of you may be wondering what is the next step for myself and for the training program I helped developed.

Let us start with the training program. As I wrote in my last update blog, I am training two of the Mapalo teachers, Samson and Emmanuel, to continue the Jubilee Centre program once I leave Zambia. During the final training sessions in June and July, Samson and Emmanuel will teach every session under my supervision. Also, we have already scheduling more schools to be trained in August and beyond. This program continues to expand and in my opinion that expansion will continue after I leave.

What about me then? Through my work with Teach for America in Washington D.C. and the Jubilee Centre in Zambia, I have realized that systems need to change to adequately care for the poor. I can train one thousand teachers, but if an education system (and the administrators of that system) continually overlook the needs of the poor and disadvantaged there is only so much that can be done. That is why I believe policy and advocacy work is so important.

To be effective in my efforts to help transform systems and society though, I need further training on the policy front; therefore, starting in August I will be attending Duke University to pursue a two year program for a Masters in Public Policy. Because the focus of my studies will be poverty policy, I will have the opportunity to study many issues I have experienced first hand the last couple of years. I am very excited for this opportunity and for the chance to further my education in this area.

More Pictures from Family's Visit

Pictures from the Family's Visit