Two Educators Work in Ghana

Thank you to everyone who helped us get beyond the half-way point for Lisah and Aisha's educational trip to Ghana. We are so thankful for your generosity and support!

We still have a little over $5,000 to raise for their excursion. The money donated will cover their airfare, hotel, and meals as well as the 3-D equipment and other costs to develop the education information on Ghana. They plan to make it available to schools for free.

They are excited about going to Ghana to gather the educational information needed to develop current and accurate teaching tools for elementary students. Lower elementary students learn about Ghana as it is now; in upper grades they learn about slavery. Currently there are many resources on slavery yet little about the country as it exists today, and it has changed into a cultured and sophisticated country over the past 400 years.

If you have not yet given, please consider a donation - every little bit helps! And please share with friends, family and on your social media sites.

Background:

Your help will make an 11-day June 2024 educational trip to Ghana possible for two Lexington Public Schools educators, Aisha Banda and Lisah Rhodes.

From the Superintendent of LPS: "[A] cultural experience offered by Northeastern University is a once-in-a-lifetime professional learning and curricular enhancement opportunity, and we would be thrilled to have Aisha and Lisah participate on behalf of Lexington Public Schools." Although the Superintendent is supportive, the normal school budget cannot support this effort, so I am seeking private donations with the Superintendent's approval. Lisah and Aisha applied for a local Lexington Education Foundation Fellowship grant, but it did not fit the LEF criteria.

The struggle with this 2nd-grade unit has always been the dearth of high-quality instructional materials. There is not much historical or contemporary source material readily available for an elementary Social Studies unit. Lisah has been working for the last several years with our K–5 Social Studies Coordinators to create curriculum materials (mostly e-books) for students to learn from. Now, with Aisha’s new perspective on the unit, and Lisah’s technological skills and history with the program of studies in LPS, we have an opportunity to dramatically increase and improve the quality of the materials we are using.

Let me introduce the two people in this effort. Lisah is a district-wide elementary digital learning coach who supports teachers and students in effectively integrating technology into K–5 teaching and learning. Aisha is the elementary social studies curriculum coordinator who develops lessons and plans for all the schools and teaches the social studies lessons.

Aisha and Lisah will be taking photos and video clips of historical and cultural sites and events; these will build their own background knowledge and will be used to write lesson plans, develop learning experiences for students, and lead professional development for elementary teachers in Lexington. These source materials will be directly implemented into the unit. As an example, oftentimes lessons or concepts are introduced by showing students a photograph, or pair or series of pictures, and asking students what they see and what they notice, what they wonder about, and what additional questions they would ask. The video clips can be used with the schools' Virtual Reality equipment to let students put on VR glasses and view Ghanaian geography and cultural sites in three dimensions with sound. Textiles or other artifacts may also be procured for use in the curriculum.

The impact of sending Aisha and Lisah on this experience will be felt across the district. LPS is fortunate to have teams that include a subject-matter expert like Aisha and an educational technology expert like Lisah. Developing a social studies lesson requires a trained, experienced social studies teacher. Making use of modern educational technology is something many active teachers lack the time and expertise to do, and that's where people like Lisah come in.

As Aisha and Lisah both work districtwide, their learning and resulting materials will be immediately incorporated into the curriculum used by all elementary students. They are also primed to identify curricular tie-ins at other levels: Lisah collaborates regularly with the districtwide technology team and will share her work and learning with Digital Learning Coaches at all schools, and Aisha works closely with her 6–12 counterparts but also has the perspective to identify connections to other parts of the elementary curriculum. They also hope their developed materials and sources will be usable as "public domain" material, by teachers in other districts.

Here is the website for the Northeastern program:

https://image.advancementmail.northeastern.edu/lib/fe2e117171640575741178/m/1/d867467b-b535-499f-bb07-a876496df2e7.pdf

We are seeking $20,000 to cover the Northeastern cost for the trip ($11,000 for the two), airfare for two, and purchase of artifacts and materials in the country. Gofundme takes 3%.

Please help me raise funds for these two deserving educators and for the benefit of Lexington public schools.