The Advanced YAN class met on Tuesday after school to work on their websites. Due to no internet, the last few weeks were spent typing out the information that would later go on the websites. For now, its more or less just a matter of copying and pasting. A couple of students have websites that they are updating from last year’s class, and others have created totally new ones. I am hoping that by meeting twice a week, their websites can be finished before the end of the month! That way, we can move on to bigger and better things. Photography, podcasts, video editing and finally…community sensitization!!

 

I had planned to give Wednesday’s lessons on photography, but regrettably we did not have the cameras to work with…YET! A friend of mine is in Douala (the economic capital of Central Africa and Cameroon) to look for cameras that will suit YAN’s needs. Hopefully by next week they will be available.

 

The awesome news is that everyone is caught up on their websites!! More than 90% of students have posted their first blog, and completed the about page (with photo) and the research page.

 

All students (Lycee and Buea Town) worked on updating their website and making sure that all of their pages were complete. There is the homepage/blog, about page and research page. 90% of students have finished all of this. Those who finished got an extra worksheet about Wordpress. This worksheet showed them how to change the theme of their website, add pictures, change colors and fonts, etc. It was something extra for the students who had already finished their regular work to keep busy with.

 

Wednesday was really exciting because I tried a new game with the students! I handed out one piece of candy to every student at the beginning of class and told them they couldn’t eat it now because we were going to be playing a game with it. I explained that there were several things students could do to earn more candy (follow directions, sit quietly, help others, work hard, etc) and that there were also things they could do to lose candy (misbehaving in general, going to websites that we are not working in (ie: Facebook), distracting other students, etc). They were really excited about this game and saw the seriousness of the game when I took away one group’s lolly pops. That group ended up earning them back so everyone was happy – but I really think this works. I will be doing it weekly to keep the kids on track.

 

More awesome news: we are going to be marching as a club for Youth Day!!

Details to come….