Blog
A Library at Twin Palm Community School
When Mathews, a passionate teacher and founder of Twin Palm Community School, walked into the Impact One library with his students, he didn’t know that a simple visit would shift his entire perspective on reading. He walked in as a skeptical man and walked out transformed with a vision to one day open a library at Twin Palm.
Finding Purpose
Five years ago, Emeliya had an encounter with a two-year-old who showed her she was made for something more. Today, she teaches 65 students, helping them excel and express themselves through a strategy she learned in an Impact One training.
Keith Continues to Amaze
Keith’s progress has been exciting to witness. A few years ago, he couldn’t read a single word. Now, at nine years old, he can pick up just about any book and read it with ease. This change has come through the literacy program at Blue Star Community School, where Impact One has been training and mentoring teachers for the past four years. With the right skills, they’re now able to teach reading more effectively, and children like Keith are benefiting from it.
What Makes You Different?
With over 90 community schools packed into Ng’ombe’s tight-knit neighborhoods, each one is fighting to be seen, heard, and supported. So what sets a school apart in a place where everyone is striving to survive?
When Passion Meets Mentorship, Change Happens
With nothing but K150 ($28) to his name and no prior experience in teaching or running a school, Nickton refused to stand by and watch as children in his community succumbed to petty crime and early pregnancies due to poverty. He believed education was the key to breaking the cycle, and against all odds, he took a leap of faith.
Bringing Tech to Our Schools
For many of our partner schools, the idea of integrating technology into their operations felt like a distant dream—until now. Grace, one of the school directors, captured the sentiment perfectly when she said with a radiant smile and a tone filled with gratitude, “This is a blessing that has come at the right time. You’ve brought something that was so far out of reach close to us.”
Bridging the Technology Gap
Technology shapes nearly every part of our daily lives, from how we communicate to how we learn and share information. It’s not just a luxury, it’s a necessity! In some of our schools, students have never touched a computer, let alone learned how to use one. Their understanding of technology comes only from chalkboard drawings and explanations, lacking the hands-on experience that would make it real to them.
Reading With Purpose
Imagine a world where words are just words, paragraphs don’t tell a story, and reading feels like a meaningless task. For many students in our partner schools, this was their reality. But we’re changing that, one student at a time!
But how do we know we’re truly making a difference? We measure our progress through annual reading assessments, which are crucial in tracking our impact.
Celebrating Progress
Grace said, "It's not just teaching, it's fun. We are involved, and the students are involved."
Learning through Collaboration!
The quiz event between Ng’ombe Jubilee and Winning Ways is an example of what can be achieved when schools come together for a common goal. We look forward to seeing more schools embrace the spirit of collaboration and partnership.
A dream pursued
Tryness has been working at Joy Grace School for many years now. She always wanted to be a teacher, but growing up she was labeled a slow learner and was called names which dented her confidence. When her uncle opened a school, she believed it was finally time to pursue her dreams of teaching.
"I didn't know my child can read!"
Parents are very excited as their kids are now able to read and write. One parent said, “My kid is now always busy reading on the weekend instead of just playing and watching TV. He’s enjoying reading.”
Hidden Blessings!
Edward was excited to come for his first term visit with his friends and teacher. He participated fully and was very keen to show what he was reading to Tapela, yet he remained isolated.
Ready for the year ahead
School directors were stunned into silence by the workshop approach. “This is just different, it’s so practical!”
Follow Up Makes All the Difference
This week, I stood in the back of a 2nd grade classroom and observed the Literacy lesson. Using handmade flashcards, the students reviewed all of the letter sounds they've learned complete with fun actions. Then one by one, the students came up to a handmade letter board and created their own 3 letter words with the sounds. Together, the class sounded out each 3 letter word. Tears filled my eyes as I watched these children reading! Just last year, if I had stood in the back of this same classroom, not a single child would have been able to identify letters or their sounds, much less make any words from them. Our Teacher Training and Mentoring is making an incredible impact in the classrooms.
We Are Ready!
As 2016 comes to an end, there is a sense of excitement within our schools that I've never witnessed before. They are pumped... they are confident... and they are ready for the new year!
At our last management training of the year, our schools gathered together for three intense days of planning. It was the first time our schools have ever put an entire year's plan on paper.
Investing in Leaders
One of our core goals at Impact One is to equip our schools. Through every training, meeting, and school visit, we seek to impart both skills and confidence in to our school leaders and teachers, because we believe they can! We believe they can do so many things, and we want them to believe that too. We also know that empowered teachers will raise up empowered students.
At last week's Network Meeting, I saw the beautiful results of equipping our school leaders with such confidence.
Getting Creative
What do you do with very few resources? Get creative! Thank you Singakwenza for teaching us how to make educational materials from trash!
Fueling Passion With Skills
One major skill we developed with our School Directors last year was how to plan effectively. We learned how to take the dreams, ideas, and visions from our hearts and minds and translate them in to well-organized plans on paper. With well-written goals and actions plans, they are ready for the year ahead.
Choosing Excellence
We have officially launched our Teacher Training series for our partner schools. In this first event, the leaders learned how to become "Schools of Excellence" and the teachers learned how to give their students praise.