Teacher's Journal

Saturday, 24 March 2018

Family Day!

Is not a coincident that one of my student is born on Independence day and named Indepensia!
To make this day special, I had her over for our family day at my bother's place where we also got to celebrate her birthday with the rest of my family!

Wednesday, 21 March 2018

Celebrating 28 years of Independence!

“Some things are too wonderful even for a child, and freedom's one of them”
Elizabeth Yates
Our school beamed with joy as we joined the rest of the country in celebrating 28 years of Independence with all students and staff dressed in their traditional attires; a way of appreciating and highlighting our unity in diversity

Saturday, 17 March 2018

Embrace the New

Some times I tell myself...I am just a teacher or to strengthen my heart...I am a youth worker... Throughout the course of our lives we experience many endings and many beginnings. However, with each transition we have the opportunity to learn a great deal about ourselves and new things. So things are not as bad as it felt like in the beginning. To depart is a significant milestone in anyone's life and ushers in a time of separation and transition, requiring adjustment on both parties; the one letting go as well as the one leaving. Yet is much easier said than done...when the time came to break my day to day teacher+students connections it definitely took me a little bit longer than I thought to adjust to the change. The new reality was not just the absence of my former students but also the presence of new ones which required additional adjustments. From the outside everything looked normal and in place but deep within I felt the pain of separation that went far beyond simply missing my students after they we're gone. Letting them go felt like letting them walk down a dark tunnel all by themselves.
I was scared for them—those 9th-12th graders were huge!
But after we both learned to dive deep into the new experiences presented to us and embraced the change only then did my perspective of things started to change. In fact it started to get really interesting when I started to learn more about life through their experience. We use to talk about high school life in theory and based on my teen experiences but now we are talking about high school from their own first hand experiences. The thrill, fear, changes, and challenges. Yes, things are turning and I find myself some times being blown in a new directions which I am hoping would help me to understand teens better and enable me to usher our pre-teens at Community Hope in High school a bit more prepared. Teen life had always me worried and frustrated but now that I have my students going through this stage and high school, it suddenly became intriguing though still a little bit sensitive. It's inevitable.

Things are a little bit different now and high school is teaching them to take on new ideas, challenges and values but I have committed to keep the relationships going with some of my former students. I am thankful to still be apart of their lives and have a voice of guidance, though they are now beginning to learn to establish their teen's autonomy and independence.

Thursday, 18 January 2018

A new beginning!

Welcome back to school!

It was wonderful to welcome the students back after the long summer break. They were really happy to return to school, and it was very pleasing to see how quickly they settled in especially our new grade ones with the new teachers, fresh new books, pencils and uniforms, new friends and new things to learn.
The summer break was really long and filled with great opportunity to relax, play and enjoy themselves but after a while many become bored and within the second weeks or so, many children feel more than ready to get back to what they now know as home; Community hope which acts as a refuge because here they feel loved and cared for.
So we try our ultimate best to ensure that the children feel safe and as for me, I always look forward to this big day with great enthusiasm!
On this special day, we opened up with chapel and I asked one of our grade 7 students, Daphny to lead us into worship which was a tremendous blessing!

Daphny leading chapel

Welcoming grade 1

Reunion

The joy of Art

Looking back to the last 3 years and more and all God has done, I think of our previous students like Kayla, Beatrice, Shaun, Ladiwa, Nodesha, Denzel and many others whose lives got dramatically changed through the years spend at Community Hope, shaping and training them so that they maybe fully equipped to deal with every day life situations. Community Hope school has been a fountain of hope that helped to shape and nature many of these children's lives both physically, spiritually and emotionally and we trust that the truth and the years invest will form a strong foundation in order to bring about lasting change in our societies and our nation's future.

Sending them out...

Kayla & Beatrice

It was a privilege to send off our previous grade 7 to high school. Looking back to the last 3 years and more and all God has done, I think of our previous students like Kayla, Beatrice, Shaun, Ladiwa, Nodesha, Denzel and many others whose lives got dramatically changed through the years spend at Community Hope, shaping and training them so that they maybe fully equipped like they are today and to deal with every day life situations and be confident in Christ wherever they go. Community Hope school has been a fountain of hope that helped to shape and nurture many of these children both physically, spiritually and emotionally and we trust that the truth and the years invest will form a strong foundation in order to bring about lasting change in our societies and our nation's future. I dearly look forward to see what God has in store for each one of them!