Article #5 in the YCC Kids Club Ghana Student Life Stories Project A Trip to Kumasi Zoo By Dedi Elikem (aka: “Endless” Elikem), Age 12
I was scared when I saw the tiger opening its mouth. It looked like an old yelling monkey and it was one and a half meters long. All my friends were afraid.
Some people outside of Africa think that here in Ghana, we walk with wild [...Read More!]
Article #4 in the YCC Kids Club Ghana Student Life Stories Project My First Day Visiting Accra Airport By Shine Doe, Age 13
That day was the first day I had ever seen a traffic light. I watched, amazed, as it showed direction to the many cars by its changing colors.
I was about ten years old, on an educational excursion to Accra Airport with my classmates and teachers. There are [...Read More!]
Article #1 in the YCC Kids Club Ghana Student Life Stories Project A Visit To Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam By Reuben Ganoo, Age 15
Suddenly the bus was tilting on a curve and it nearly collided into a [...Read More!]
At last, after a month of exciting classes and passionate writing, it is time to start sharing our Ghana student life story projects with you!
For teachers who are interested in this unit plan themselves, or for those who are just curious about how these upcoming student articles were created, here is the…
Unit Plan for Student Life Story Writing Project:
Note: Each of these steps takes a different amount of time depending [...Read More!]
I looked at the list of words on the green chalkboard. For the past ten minutes, the sweet Ghanaian pupils of this Volta Region school had been raising their hands to share the words in their donated independent reading books that they did not understand.
Here were a few of those words:- Weirdest - Garbage- Massachusetts- Mallow-blaster cookie - Scarecrow - Arnold
I was mystified. These children in the Total Child [...Read More!]
YCC’s Director, John, has given me some serious homework.
The task: to read African Cultural Values, by Kwame Gyekye, and then to devour the very hefty A History of Indigenous Slavery in Ghana, by Akosua Adoma Perbi, ultimately digesting all this new information into lessons to add to the curriculum of the twice-weekly Cross Culture class.
I accept this mission, sir! And thus I am halfway through the easier of the two [...Read More!]
This Sunday, YCC’s Director, John, held another meeting with the parents of the young Ghanaians planning to voyage to Britain for three weeks in August for the return half of the wonderful educational exchange begun last year.
Several of you have asked for updates on this inspirational project, and a few of you (thank you again!) have even donated money through the Paypal button on this very site. I promise to [...Read More!]
Once again today, I was deeply, deeply inspired, as an American educator, by the work of Youth Creating Change, Ghana.
Every Saturday, YCC’s Director John Glidden gathers under the dappled shade of two trees with the seventeen Ghanaian students who are gearing up to voyage to London in August of 2010 for the return half of an amazing educational exchange.
For the two hours of this “Cross-Culture Class,” John holds his pupils rapt, [...Read More!]
(Note: All photos for this article were obtained by walking to the closest school today and saying, “I’m an American teacher and have never seen a punishment cane. Can you show me how it works?” It may seem bizarre to be smiling in photos about corporal punishment, but here, the whole affair is discussed with levity.)
“How many of you were beaten with canes by your teachers TODAY?” I asked [...Read More!]
It is a scientific fact: when students take a leadership role in their own education rather than blindly swallowing a teacher’s “answers”, these students develop ownership, pride, and confidence in their learning, and the results are rich.
Similarly, in development work for impoverished communities, if the community seeking aid actually helps to diagnose and solve its own needs rather than being spoon-fed an outsider’s “solution”, the resulting projects become more wisely planned [...Read More!]