Volovuhu Center School

My work here in Vanuatu is mostly school based.  As an education volunteer we are available to support the school in any capacity they need.  Peace Corps overall goal is to help with literacy development but we all know they need support with so much more too.  My village has a center school called Volovuhu and has year K-8 students from 3 villages.  We have just completed term 1 out of 3 terms.  Our school has 2 classroom buildings and one for administration.  There are all together 6 classrooms, 1 library, and 2 offices.   

Here is the headmaster's desk and office area.

This is where the teachers do some of their lesson planning.  The shelves are used to hold our student and teacher workbooks.

This is my office that I share with my counterpart Chris the ZCA (Zone Curriculum Advisor). 

Here is my 5th and 6th grade classroom.  I taught them all subjects for the first term.  I also trained a new teacher, Mr. Joshua, to then take over so that I could work more with the ZCA.  Here he is during a math lesson.

Our school had a beautiful library already thanks to the Mormon church.   I fine tuned the library by making sure it was organized and I labelled some of the books by reading level to help make the library more accessible for students of all abilities.

The students use the library during break time and lunch time to exchange books.  Here are some students working on a researching activity.

This is one of the beautiful maps my Mom sent along.  They love to look at the pictures!

Here are some quick glances into a few busy classrooms!

Year 1 and 2

Year 3 and 4

Year 7 and 8

As we head into Term 2 my work should be changing.  I should be spending sometime in the classroom teaching English for my 5th and 6th graders but I will start to focus on observing teachers, offering feedback, and supporting them individually.  I hope to assess the reading levels of all students and do some small group instruction as needed.  The library will continue and I may be able to fit in some library classes or a library club after school.  As always I will continue to do some school based workshops.  We focused on classroom management this last term and we are going to be learning more how to make math lessons more interactive next.  I enjoy being busy and having many different areas of the school to be a part of.  These students and teachers have a great energy and eagerness to learn!