Healthy Competition in Mnazi Mmoja

All hail Mnazi Moja kids!

Teaching In Mombasa

The last time I was in Mombasa, I only taught for a short time.

I was here last on the second month of the year and then disappeared for close to 5 months only to show up towards the end of July. The last time I was in Mombasa, I only taught for a short time. I was just doing introduction to computer classes. We were just starting the Mombasa hub and I got the opportunity to be one of the pioneers. 

I then "disappeared" without a goodbye.

I did make friends with the kids . They were so adorable and the way they addressed me as "madam" with their coastal accent was everything to me. I then 'disappeared' without goodbye only to show up five months later with new skills to teach. 

Returning To Mombasa

It's amazing the kind of impact teachers leave...

When I came back to Mombasa, I was surprised that they still remembered me and one boy was trying to speak English and said "I am miss you today madam" and I was like "I missed you too!" 

It's amazing the kind of impact teachers leave even after interacting with kids for just a short time.  That aside, this time I was here to teach social and vectors.

Creativity And Internet Skills

Students can create and share their Vector projects work on Social.

Social is a specialty in TechLit where we teach kids basic internet skills and social media at large. We also teach them how to secure their accounts. After this, we create accounts for them where they can reach out to their fellow students and also upload their projects and progress. They can also view their fellow students' uploads. Vectors is a specialty where we teach kids how to draw different things and become creative in many ways.

Sharing with Internet Skills

Before I could turn around, Eugene was done and ready to share.

My story today comes from my vectors class in grade 6. I had just finished the introduction class and I asked them to go sit down and try to draw the different things in their minds. Before I could turn around, Eugene had already drawn a boat and he was calling me to go and help him upload it to social so that his classmates could see it.

Healthy Competition

"Today you have won, but tomorrow I will beat you!"

I was really impressed so I asked his classmates to clap for him. Brighton, a student in the same class, really felt challenged. He drew his picture, uploaded it to social and then proceeded to the chats section and left a message for Eugene: "Today you have won, but tomorrow I am going to beat you."

I was impressed that the success of one of them makes the rest of the class want to do better. I am a proud teacher.