I have been co-operating with my fellow awarenet team in assisting and helping where I could with awarenet sessions at schools and at the hub for a year, until recently this year. I have been assigned with a group of my own to facilitate and work with.
The awarenet group I was assigned to is CM Vellem Primary. This is a very tough school to work with, the principal and teacher responsible for the group here are trying their out most to organize that the learners come to the awarenet sessions and attend the stipulated projects at all time. I struggled to have sessions with them due to their absence. Sometimes the students are not interested. Now awarenet has had projects organized to keep them active, projects such as the awarenet Peace Day concert, health and fitness project and a number of others.
This school is an appropriate school to work with awarenet. They have a computer lab which is in a good standard and internet. The awarenet programme could not have asked for more. Though sometimes I think its too appropriate, given that sometimes we can’t use the lab due to teachers using it.
I found the teaching experience to be very challenging and difficult. I mean I had no problem with them at first, for they were super responsive given that I’m new. When sessions continued they just got tougher, I couldn’t control them when I gave them instructions, they’d just make an excuse and leave etc.
I have worked with this group so far on awarenet functions like blog posting, requesting membership on projects, wall posting, etc.
Looking forward to our long term cooperative partnership with CM Vellem, in which I will be able to enhance my teaching methods and to develop strategies to keep the learners interested and motivated