Four ‘R’s: Reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic and Rotary

Details

Published on Friday, April 28, 2017

Ron Nordstrom with some of the Grade 5 and Grade 6 students at Joya Verde School.  Nordstrom spent 28 days at the Guatemalan school as part of a Rotary Vocational Training Team, helping improve the skills of the school’s teachers. (submitted photo)

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
The Neepawa Banner

He may have been over 5,000 km from home, but Ron Nordstrom found a little piece of Canada nestled in a Guatemalan valley. For 28 days, Nordstrom, a retired teacher from Neepawa, had a once in a lifetime experience working with students and teachers at Joya Verde School, located in a Guatemalan village. 

Nordstrom travelled to the Central American country as part of a Rotary Club Vocational Training Team (VTT), sponsored by Rotary District 5550, which spans from Kenora to Saskatoon. The team operated under the umbrella of the Ripple Effect Program in Guatemala, which is the first international world community service program ever developed in District 5550. The program aims to provide opportunity to children living in challenging environments through promoting literacy and education. Like ripples on a pond, the idea is that education improves the lives and outlook of the students, who then impact those around them, who in turn impact others, in ever-widening circles. 

Nordstrom, who wasn’t a Rotarian at the time, was approached about participating by a member of the Neepawa club. From there, he underwent an interview process before being selected as one of the five teachers who, along with a team leader, travelled to the Joya Verde School. Before leaving Neepawa, Nordstrom didn’t know any of the other team members. “I’ve never done anything like this before, what a great experience,” he said.

Need for change

The education system in Guatemala faces a number of challenges, the largest of which is retention.  Nordstrom explained that the government only funds education until Grade 6, after that, families must pay out of pocket for their children to continue schooling. The financial burden is compounded by an education system that does little to interest the students. 

Students looking to advance to Grade 7 and beyond face challenges that don't exist for most Canadian students. “There are a lot of obstacles and one of them is that there’s no school in Joya Verde [past Grade 6]…They need to get there and it’s not a walk, not even a long walk, it’s a drive,” explained Nordstrom.  This means that the students, whose parents don’t have vehicles, need to find transportation.

Guatemala is a poor country, more than half of the population lives below the national poverty line and almost a quarter of the population lives in extreme poverty.  Joya Verde School, which means green jewel, is located in a valley in a very poor village. While there are some brick buildings, most of the children live in homes made of corrugated metal with a dirt floor. The community began as a squatters’ village, but has grown to the point that today, there are two churches and the school, which has about 125 students. 

Nordstrom saw first hand the economic hardships faced by many Guatemelans. “They were a poor community, but they welcomed us, were so grateful we were there,” he said. “It was quite eye-opening, it gave me a lot of respect for those people in the [corrugated metal homes]. Because you take a look at what they have and there’s no doors and its windy sometimes, the wind is just whipping dirt around. They’re coming to school with clean clothes and you think, how do you do that? How do you keep anything clean?…They do some amazing things with what they have,” he added.

While attending Rotary functions, the VTT members also had a chance to see how more affluent Guatemalans live. He explained that while in Canada, Rotarians are mostly middle class, in Guatemala, they tend to be wealthier community members. The work done by these Rotarians ahead of time allowed the VTT to be effective and get right to work once they arrived. Nordstrom explained that local Rotarians organized essentials like their interpreters, cell phones, transportation and a parent meeting the first day. 

The government sees education as an important way forward and Nordstrom said that the curriculum has been updated. However, there isn’t enough money to train all the country’s teachers, which is where initiatives, such as Vocational Training Teams, come in. Teachers currently being trained are learning more active methods of teaching, but many teachers were educated under the old system and don’t have these tools. The teachers at Joya Verde wanted to make school more interesting and help the students want to advance beyond Grade 6, they just needed some help.

Nordstrom explained that their goal was to engage the students in learning, saying, “Their education system is very passive, ‘read this, do these questions’— it’s the same for pretty much every subject.  [The school] realized it wasn’t the best way to teach, they wanted some ideas on how to get the kids more active and participating.  Our job was to go down there and basically show them different ways to meet the same objectives, but make it more interesting.”

“A lot of people were watching us”

Teachers in Guatemala are trained in two ways, one is a one year program and the other is a four year program. Nordstrom explained that the less well trained teachers tend to end up in the poorer, rural schools. “But least qualified doesn't mean least ambitious,” noted Nordstrom, “Because they really want… to change what they were doing, they recognized they could do better, they wanted to know how. They were ambitious enough, they just didn’t have the training.”

The school itself was built about five years ago with funding from the Ripple Effect, which has built many schools in poor areas of the country. The old school was on the side of a mountain—  when it rained, there would be land slides and parents wouldn’t send their kids to school. Ripple Effect not only builds schools, but also provides scholarships to help kids continue their schooling and teacher training. The teachers at Joya Verde asked for help and Nordstrom explained that the school was chosen to receive help because they asked for it and were already tied to the Ripple Effect program. 

All eyes were on Nordstrom and his fellow team members, as this pillar of Ripple Effect isn’t as well established as the other two. “A lot of people were watching us; municipal government was watching, they wanted to know how effective is this? Universities were watching…, other Rotarian groups. Because if something like this is successful, they want to duplicate it all over the place,” explained Nordstrom. The feedback was promising, “They recognize the fact that their system of passive education is not as good, they saw the kind of things we’re doing, they want that,” he said.

When they held a learning fair in the final week, the interest in the project was obvious by the large crowd. In addition to a full house of parents, there was a large media presence as well. “A lot of people were keeping an eye on the project and want it to be successful,” he said.

“We got them much more active”

The trip began with the VTT members observing the teachers and classrooms for a couple of days.  School goes from 7:30 am to 12:30 pm and the team members spent the afternoons in teacher training sessions or shopping for the school. They also attended a number of Rotary functions in the afternoons, evenings and during the weekend. “We were really tired,” said Nordstrom of the schedule.

Each of the VTT members brought their own skills and for Norstrom, those were focused on technology and physical education.  In Guatemala, these courses are requirements, but aren’t funded by the federal government. At Joya Verde, municipal funding paid for a computer teacher, but phys ed classes were taught by regular classroom teachers. “I did a lot of work with the teachers there, to show what a phys ed class could look like. We got the kids doing things.  The kids were very passive, even in phys ed class and we got them much more active,” said Nordstrom.

For people like Nordstrom, who don’t speak Spanish, the language barrier was a challenge. While he tried to learn some Spanish before going, “Communication was definitely a challenge,” he said.  Noting that it was the biggest barrier to doing a more effective job. With funding from the Ripple Effect and Rotary International, they had two translators, but these two people were split among the six team members. Modern technology also provided some help. 

“The other thing we had was Google Translate, which you can use offline. In this valley, in the school, you couldn’t get reception, so you were not online,” said Nordstrom. While not perfect, it did allow Nordstrom to communicate with teachers and students when a translator wasn’t available. 

The students really wanted to learn English and Nordstrom explained that they could all say “good morning” and were constantly asking how to say certain words in English. Nordstrom, who is a musician, brought his guitar and at recess, would play.  “The kids all wanted to sing,” he said, “They wanted to learn something in English.” Nordstrom decided the easiest song would be Mustang Sally, with its repetitive chorus.  He wrote the lyrics on the board, phonetically in Spanish, and the kids were quick to join in.

Nordstrom spent most of his time working with the 33 students in the Grade 5 and 6 class. The largest class was the Grade 3 and 4 class, which had 37 students. Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 each had their own classes, while it was split grades for the older students.

Google Translate was a useful tool when an interpreter wasn’t available. Nordstrom recalled, “The very first day, trying to communicate with a grade 6 student, I’m trying to talk to him, he’s trying to talk to me, finally I just pulled out my phone, asked the question [to Google Translate] and he understood [the translated version] and started to answer.  At recess, we’re communicating back and forth like that, and I did quite a bit of the with the students— I tried to speak to them, they would look at me kind of funny and then I’d show them [in Google translate] and they’d get it.” (submitted photo)

“Nothing like that in the school”

When the VTT members left Canada, their suitcases were full of school supplies.  Nordstrom explained that these included a variety of everyday objects that can be used to be make learning more interactive, such as bingo chips, dice, playing cards, beads, flash cards, plates to act as white boards and markers. They also brought down skipping ropes, much to the children’s enjoyment. “They were so overjoyed. There was nothing like that in the school,” he said.

They also brought novels, the first ones many of the students had ever read.  Nordstrom explained that the students were used to reading a page or two in a work book and then answering questions.  The VTT brought two copies of different novels, for a total of 40 books for the Grade 5 and 6 students and 40 for the Grade 3 and 4 students.  

They also introduced buddy reading, in which the older students read to the younger students.  The VTT members explained the benefits of having older kids to work with younger kids. “Starting the reading program was a good thing,” said Nordstrom. 

The team’s teaching focused a lot on improving interaction and one of the ways they did this was to increase the students’ presentation skills.  The team brought down some technology, including phones, projectors and the necessary connectors, which the students used to give presentations. “Kids need to present, they need to talk and teach other kids,” said Nordstrom.

The VTT also helped leave the teachers with a lasting benefit, beyond what they learned that month.  The group worked with a local university to develop a curriculum, so that the school’s teachers would gain extra credentials for having taken part in the program.  Nordstrom explained that many of the teachers needed a second job to support themselves, but with more qualifications, they could be paid more. At the end of the 28 days, the teachers were presented with diplomas.

The impact of Canada

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the experience was the importance of Canada to the students and their school. Nordstrom explained that the school wanted a shield, so they asked the Grade 5 and 6 students to design something with flags and mountains.  The one that was chosen prominently features the Canadian flag, with the Guatemalan and local district’s flags in much less prominent positions. When he questioned this, Nordstrom said the teachers replied, “Canada should be the biggest thing because this is a Ripple Effect School and our school would not be here if it wasn't for Canada. It wouldn’t exist, you gave us the school, you gave us supplies, desks, computers, teachers training.  Canada has to be the biggest thing. We were quite touched.” It was then that they also noticed the large Canadian flag permanently  hanging in the office. “One of the reasons why this trip was so positive for me, is that they really appreciated that we were there,” said Nordstrom.

For Nordstrom, what stood out the most was the universality of the human experience, “I think people are the same everywhere in the world, they want the same thing, they need the same things. The kids, they need to be cared for, they need to know that somebody cares.  You expect them to be so different, when you get there, the kids, they’re just like Canadian kids. They just speak a different language.”

For anyone considering a similar experience, Nordstrom has one piece of advice, “I would encourage it for sure!”

When the school asked the Grade 5 and 6 students to come up with a shield, Nordstrom was surprised when he saw the final results. “Looking at [the centre one], I thought, ‘This one will be thrown out right away because it’s mostly Canada.’” He was wrong, the teachers decided on this shield, in recognition of Canadians’ investment in the school. (submitted photo)