Parent Workshop, Zonnebloem Boys school, Oct 2009

Today we held a parent workshop: we invited 80 parents and 40 arrived, so we were very happy with the turn- out. We were able to give away little a-z sheets, to help the parents create games for their children, plus a simple reader, a bookmark with the key 100 word on ( the high frequency words) and an explanation on the importance of reading with children, and a worksheet with the sounds of the phonetic alphabet. We had a lot of fun acting out the sounds, and practicing 'paired reading.' Carrie was a very willing assistant, and helped me demonstrate the value for our paired reading method.

In addition, as a thank you, we gave away a book to each parent to take home to practice their ' shared reading' skills with their children. Thank you to Herzlia school and to the Rotary for their contribution of wonderful books, enabling this gesture of appreciation. It was a fun session, and our audience was very lively and interactive.

I had several parents come up to me and thank me, but one parent will remain with me: he pulled out the bookmark with the key one hundred words on, shook my hand vigorously, and with the largest and warmest of smiles, thanked me profusely, telling me that he was now going to take the words home and practice and learn them himself.

Just when I think I have got to grips with and contrasts and disparities of this country, something poignant, in-fact, almost heartbreaking like this occurs, and I am reminded of the importance of what we are doing. We are reaching so many more people than just the children that come to the Shine Centre. This is life changing work on so many levels.

Latest Board meeting, sadly minus Maurita and Mandy. 28th Oct, 2009

Sally James, our new Remedial Specialist

Sally will be joining our team 3 days a week from next year. The following few months will be a 'baptism of fire' for her.... yesterday she met with some of the Prestwich volunteers, who immediately warmed to her. ( Impossible not to!)

She was introduced to Mrs Alexander, the Principal, and here she is with Mr Oral Accom, the deputy, discussing eye and ear tests, and the possibility of putting in some systems to ensure that all our learners get eyes and ears seen to before the end of Grade one.
We are all going to benefit hugely having Sally on board. She has been in the Education field for many years, and we have had the privilege of having her do some pro-bono work for us in the past. We always knew that she would fit very snuggly into the Shine team. Exciting new developments afoot!

Filming 'Paired Reading' and 'Have a Go Writing,' 23rd Oct, 2009

Elizabeth and Hilda, one of her colleagues, plus Tam, our film producer/director. Not to forget our wonderful team of six Prestwich Street children.

Yet another fruitful morning spent with Elizabeth Nadlir Nir, our invaluable remedial expert. She is a genius of note, and could have been an actress in another life! She has such a rapport with the camera (and needless to say, with the children!) that it is a joy to watch her work: I learn something new each time I am with her: she is an inspiration to us all at The Shine Centre. Our aim during the filming session: to film short, sharp ' slices' of training: neatly packaged into small, bite- size pieces: 15 minutes tops.

This will serve two purposes: it will enable us to deliver 'on site' training in each of our centres: the DVDs will serve as a 'top up' for our already skilled volunteer base. The large, 3 hour trainings that Elizabeth provides are vital, but it is soundly proven that quick, easily accessed information is very effective when dealing with a voluntary wok force: we acknowledge that our volunteers want to be supported along the way, regardless of how skilled and confident they are. Consequently, the films that we have created will serve as a valuable resource, post editing!

In addition, we recognise that we have schools queueing up to have their own Shine Centre ( 20 at the last count) and we want to be able to deliver something to them by the end of the year. With the generous help of the Ackerman Foundation, we have Elizabeth's input for another year. We strive to ensure that the training becomes self -supporting: once we have filmed each area of our Shine training programme, we can professionally share with other schools, however remote they are.

The sessions that we have filmed recreate various learning scenarios, and help de -mystify something that appears complex, but is in fact, very simple. The process of helping a child overcome the anxiety of reading: to help nurture our Grade 2's and 3's to become confident willing readers: this is the bottom line.

Thank you to Carrie and Amy for assisting us with the children, and for keeping them fresh and attentive during the filming process. Huge thanks to Candice and Tam of 'Actcape, 4 Loop St' for our studio time. They supported this fully, with no charge. Our web of care grows wider. Humbling.

News on Maurita

Thank you all for your continued concern about Maurita. She has strained her ankle slightly by doing too much, so has very sensibly been sent back to bed! I am seeing her this afternoon for a bedside meeting, so I will pass on all your best wishes! She hopes to be fully back in the running (!) by the middle of December, when she will be able to drive, but in the meantime, she is our power-house think- tank, blue- sky, dream -the- impossible- visionary.driving quietly and firmly from behind. A time to think. Not only blissful,but imperative. Something we should all try and do more of, without the drastic measures Maurita went to! Just be. Time out. A time to revive and refresh, and come back with a renewed sense of enthusiasm, direction and energy.

A trip to Babati School, Justicia, province of Mpumalanga

I visited Babati school in Justicia last week, and enjoyed a full day and a half of professional sharing with the staff. Welding, the social liaison between the Singita and the local village hosted me, and we worked together to help create a true reading environment within the school. We sorted out shelving and donated books that had been provided by Biblinef, a wonderful organisation who prints books in all 11 official African languages.
Here I am with the lovely Welding, plus Omar the grade 4 teacher, and Mr Jackson Mdhluli. the principal of the school.
I was able to spend some time in the classroom, showing Omar the principals of shared reading.

The trip was a real eye opener for me: we sometimes think we have insurmountable problems in the Western Cape, but in a rural area such as Justicia, they have the added problem of lack of appropriate resources, and not enough teacher training.
I am very pleased to be able to send on some of our resources to Welding: a wonderful organisation called Wordsworks have forwarded me parent packs in word document form, and I am hoping that Welding will be able to utilize these packs and get the parents involved in their children's learning.

In addition, Singita hopes to encourage visitors to visit the school, and be trained in the method of paired reading. it is such a simple, powerful tool that can help make all the difference to hesitant, early, emerging readers. The highlight of my week.

Books from St. Agnes

Kathryn, Carrie and Amy rummaged through boxes of old books at St. Agnes school today in search of reading material suitable for Shine Centre children. It was a fun, dusty process and Shine now has quite a few more books for learners to enjoy!

Interning at Shine

Hello all!

I am an American intern that has been with Shine for the last month with plans to stay until the end of February. Having graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina in May, I came to South Africa in search of an meaningful international excperience that will hopefully help me direct myself into a career that I can be passionate about.
I am the new link at Observatory and have already fallen in love with Cape Town, Shine and Obs. As a new intern at Shine, I quickly established that I had the most rewarding internship in my program, Connect 123. While my fellow interns complain about boredom or uselessness in their positions, I come home each day beaming with purpose and excitement. Yesterday, Carrie and I introduced eight new volunteers to Shine and I found myself bubbling over with enthusiasm. How can one get across the value of contributing time and effort to the futures of so many children?
Having tutored children for four years at university and volunteering for many organizations, I have seen how disorganized some nonprofits can be. Shine makes it easy to give children what they need to succeed because of how organized and purposeful its daily proceedings and systems are.

This was supposed to be a blog solely about me, but I wanted everyone to know how much I appreciate my time here and how lucky I feel to be a part of the Shine family. I am convinced that when February comes, I will have no desire to go home! I am so looking forward to getting to know volunteers and children over the next five months and am so grateful for this opportunity.

Many thanks,

Amy Holter

Testing at Zonnebloem

We tested 78 children on Tuesday: a very slick operation: Leigh Anne, Carrie and Amy Holter, our intern from the States, helped prepare all the test papers on Monday, and we all set to work on Tuesday. Carrie did a very thorough job of training all our new testers, and we finished in what seemed like record time. I am thrilled to say that we are ahead of schedule, and we are able to spend this morning ( Weds) analysing the results. Leigh Anne wrote a lovely letter to all the volunteers who helped us. If you would like to join us later this term, please let either let me know, or e mail your link. We would love to have more people to help us! A letter to all the vlunteers who helped us is below, x

'Dear Biddy, Gillian, Helen, Juliet, Sharon, Janine, Naeema, Dusty, Mathy, and Suraj,

On behalf of Kathryn and Maurita, I want to thank you so much for your willingness to help with the testing at Zonnebloem yesterday. It went so smoothly and swiftly that we did two days work in one!!

Carrie and Amy helped me prepare and set up the day before so it was thanks to them for the making it so efficient. Kathryn now has the job of assessing the results and seeing the level of progress our Shine children have made over the last two terms, compared to their other classmates.

Personally I found it so good to be able to meet the other children and see the varying levels of the whole grade – it was most encouraging, as well as motivating to work flat out with the more needy children for the rest of the year!!

The other good news is that Maurita is back home with her family and getting stronger every day!

It is thanks to you amazing Volunteers and obviously Maurita’s initial idea of starting The Shine Centre that these children can be supported and reach their full potential – Thanks Maurita!!!

See you all soon,

Regards,

Leigh Anne Nathan'

Thank you Leigh Anne