As I arrived to Lycee for the Advanced YAN class and neared the gate to go upstairs to the computer lab, I noticed it was locked. I went around to the other side to check the other gate – it too was locked!! I could see some children upstairs so I called for them to come to the gate and open it. When I arrived, the door to the computer lab was locked. I spoke with a teacher in the next lab about the situations. He only had a key for a computer lab that does not have access to the internet. When we arrived in that room, the power went out and there is no back up generator. Thankfully, I was able to modify the lesson so that the students had something to do instead of just sending them home. 

By the time everything with the locked gates and locked doors was sorted, it was after 3:30pm. Once the three of us finally sat down, they asked if they could speak in Pidgin since it was after school. I had no objections especially because I am trying the language myself. “Wona wan talk pidgin? No problem, adey fit fo yeram” - - “You people want to talk Pidgin? No problem, I can understand.” 

The number of Advanced students attending classes last  Tuesday and again this Tuesday was less than promising.  Last week we have two students and this week by 3:30 there was only three students. After inquiring more about the lack of students but high interest, it turns out that the low attendance is due to the fact that most of them have class until after 4pm on Tuesdays. Shortly after 4pm five more students showed up to class bringing the total to eight students. They confirmed what the others had told me – they were in class and had just got let out, but Thursdays they do not have class at that time. Because of this, I have arranged to change the class to Thursday from 3-5pm.




I gave the late comers the same “Advanced YAN Review” worksheet that I passed out the previous week to the two students who attended. They filled it out while the other three finished their professional emails. Everyone finished around the same time so I took the last 35-40min of class to brainstorm ideas for next year. This was something I did last week, but it was only with two students. There was no chalkboard or dry-erase board so I just wrote on paper and held it up for the students to see. We made a brainstorming web of what students wanted to do this year. The consensus was to start with a review of last years curriculum. Since everyone doesn’t need review on the same topics (for example: one student may remember how to upload photos on their website and facebook while some other may have forgotten), I am going to try to have the students teach one another.  Of those eight students, four would like to continue working on their websites and research from last year while the other four want to start a new research topic and new website. Those who want to ‘start from scratch’ will probably have to do some extra sessions so that they can ‘catch up’ to the other students who already have their website created. Another thing students expressed interest in was not only tracking how many people are visiting their website, but learning how to get more traffic.

The major components of YAN that the students really enjoyed and would like to see more of are:
•    Video recording and film editing
•    Adding onto the website
•    Taking and uploading more photos
•    More interviews (they would like to put a ‘story’ section onto their website where they tell stories of people who have been affected by whatever their research topic is)