Students compete in music and sports competitions, Form 2s host Health Day, University of San Diego works with teachers.

Students Compete in Music and Sports Competitions

42 Daraja students competed in sports and music competitions over the past weekend with great success. 30 students traveled to Narok in Southwestern Kenya to compete at the District Music Festival. Girls competed in English Solo Verse, Public Speech, Swahili Solo, Swahili Rap, Choral Verse, and Swahili Public Speech. Form 2 Naomi, who performed a Swahili Rap and finished 8th overall, said the performance “helps people build courage because it’s not easy to go in front of a crowd and perform.” Toward the West of Kenya in Nyaharuru, 22 athletes competed in football and table tennis. The football team finished 3rd and the table tennis team 2nd. Form 2 table tennis player Anita described her experience as an athlete of one of the smallest schools in the tournament, “we came in as the underdogs and many didn’t expect us to do well. But, we didn’t lose hope. We showed them we are not the only ones who came to play and we amazed them.” Great work girls!

The choral competition students visit the Great Rift Valley Lookout Point on their way home.

 

Form 2s Host Community Health Day

Form 2s educate the audience on Cholera

On Thursday, as part of their yearlong project -based learning, the Form 2s concluded the project with a community health day where the girls educated the local communities of Naibor, Mara Moja, Ol Girgiri, and Loruko about specific health issues. In order to determine which diseases and health issues to focus on, the girls talked with community members to see which diseases affect them the most. From their data, the girls focused on a few topics such as Cholera, hygiene, Ringworm, and nutrition. Around 250 children, students, parents, and elders showed up to participate in the event. The girls used skits to educate the audience about diseases as well as talk about nutrition and hygiene. The Form 2s showed the audience how to wash hands correctly and passed out soap to all in attendance. The audience was very receptive to the girls during question and answer periods. One of the major highlights of the day was the appearance of the large characters Atieno and Juma to help entertain the crowd. A few of the audience members commended the girls for their work because few members of the community are able to visit doctors and the information learned today will help them stay healthier in the future. Irene W, said the purpose of the event was to inform the community about health and diseases that were affecting them, but that they didn’t know the causes and cures for. She was really excited that the event was successful and the community responded positively.

University of San Diego Visits

USD Professor Rob works with Daraja students and teachers.

University of San Diego concluded their weeklong visit on Friday. Much of their visit was working on professional development and long-term planning with the teachers and administration. The focus of this planning was project-based learning (PBL), which is the idea that what is learned in the classroom can be applied to real-life experiences in the form of projects, such as the health project the Form 2s completed. Daraja teachers worked with USD to brainstorm different PBLs that could be used at Daraja. In addition, USD students and professors, all of whom are teachers themselves, sat in on classes and then worked with teachers on ways to improve their teaching techniques. In addition, the teachers were given iPads to enhance classroom learning. On the iPads are various applications that help the teachers plan lessons, record videos, and link with the iPods Form 1 students were given. Teacher Charles said the week was a great learning experience for both Daraja teachers and USD students in a cross-cultural education experience.