Dear friends,
As the Spring academic term winds down, I wanted to share with you the very positive news from my classes this Spring. In further developing the concept of a democratic teaching model, I have been very pleased with the quality of student papers and discussions. The students have written solid papers that analyze instead of merely summarize scholarly articles. We have explored together various geographic regions including Latin America, Africa, Asia, and students have made very impressive presentations. The usual 10-minute presentations generally last most of the hour as presenters shift to leading discussions.
I am still exploring (probably always will be)effective teaching methods. I find myself coming half circle back to offering more (mini) lectures on theories, while at the same time allowing students to help choose (and assign to other students) readings, negotiate grading structure, and agree on class format. I still have requirements for a research paper and community service.
I would be most interested in anyone sharing their thoughts on effective teaching - and learning. We can start a facebook group for anyone interested.
But I feel as if those of you who have enjoyed Betty's and my Sierra Leone blog and want to continue with this one are folks who share a common interest in learning, travel, and sharing ideas. Not sure what the best format is, but would love to hear from everyone who either follows this blog, or happens to come across it. We could set up a facebook group; I use facebook now (for the first time) with my classes. I still need to set up a blog alert for those who said "YES" to wanting to continue with this one. Am actually not sure how one does that other than to send an email notice. Any suggestions?
Hope to hear from you. Google offers translation, so if I can use it, that means anyone can join in using their own language. Please, no commercial material and only posts one can share with families.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Thursday, December 24, 2009
update on Sierra Leone youth and invitation to you
Dear friends,
At this holiday season, we wish you special greetings. To our friends and those we have yet to meet, all of whom signed on to Bob and Betty’s Sierra Leone blog, we hope 2010 is a wonderful, productive, and peaceful new year.
This is to update you on a couple of positive things that have happened regarding Sierra Leone and to invite you to continue staying in touch if you want to (If you do, just hit reply and write YES in subject line or message area). We are also posting this on our Sierra Leone blog at www.pressnotes.blogspot.com
And since it is really ‘your’ blog, please add comments (or if that proves cumbersome on the blog, send them to bob.press@usm.edu,), news, travels, remarks on international events. It would be nice to have an open forum.
1. Survivors for Human Rights. Since we returned from our academic year in Sierra Leone, Betty has worked with the Center for Human Rights and Civil Liberties at the University of Southern Mississippi to create a web page for student survivors of conflict.
The idea is to link Sierra Leone and other students globally to share their stories of survival as well as their hopes, plans, and progress toward greater world respect for human rights. You can see the page at www.usm.edu/humanrights; then click on Project 1991, the year the civil war there began. Please send Betty comments at bettypress@gmail.com. The students were among members of my two human rights classes in Freetown.
2. Sierra Leone calendars. The photos so many of you enjoyed of school children in Sierra Leone are now available for sale as a fundraiser for more schools in Sierra Leone. Betty donated her photos to Schools for Sierra Leone who made a 2010 calendar. You can purchase it for $15, and after the $3 production costs, all the rest goes to building more schools. Go to www.schoolsforsalone.org.
One of Bob’s former students, Raven Wilke, raised more than $800 for the school project in one evening. Betty and I have visited some of the schools. Cindy Nofziger is the U.S.-based director; her colleague works and lives in Sierra Leone.
3. Please stay in touch. Finally, if you would like to continue receiving occasional emails about new blog postings on (a) updates regarding Sierra Leone projects above; (b) – and this is a shift: bob’s teaching, please send an email response back saying YES.
Bob taught a “democratic’ class this fall in which students chose topics to discuss, format for the discussions, and grades. The issues included national security, national health care, affirmative action, gay rights – all chosen by the students. Discussions were civil, informative, and factually-based with sourced information. Now he is seeking ways to instill that kind of student ‘ownership’ of classes into his upper-level seminars. Stay tuned. Bye for now.
At this holiday season, we wish you special greetings. To our friends and those we have yet to meet, all of whom signed on to Bob and Betty’s Sierra Leone blog, we hope 2010 is a wonderful, productive, and peaceful new year.
This is to update you on a couple of positive things that have happened regarding Sierra Leone and to invite you to continue staying in touch if you want to (If you do, just hit reply and write YES in subject line or message area). We are also posting this on our Sierra Leone blog at www.pressnotes.blogspot.com
And since it is really ‘your’ blog, please add comments (or if that proves cumbersome on the blog, send them to bob.press@usm.edu,), news, travels, remarks on international events. It would be nice to have an open forum.
1. Survivors for Human Rights. Since we returned from our academic year in Sierra Leone, Betty has worked with the Center for Human Rights and Civil Liberties at the University of Southern Mississippi to create a web page for student survivors of conflict.
The idea is to link Sierra Leone and other students globally to share their stories of survival as well as their hopes, plans, and progress toward greater world respect for human rights. You can see the page at www.usm.edu/humanrights; then click on Project 1991, the year the civil war there began. Please send Betty comments at bettypress@gmail.com. The students were among members of my two human rights classes in Freetown.
2. Sierra Leone calendars. The photos so many of you enjoyed of school children in Sierra Leone are now available for sale as a fundraiser for more schools in Sierra Leone. Betty donated her photos to Schools for Sierra Leone who made a 2010 calendar. You can purchase it for $15, and after the $3 production costs, all the rest goes to building more schools. Go to www.schoolsforsalone.org.
One of Bob’s former students, Raven Wilke, raised more than $800 for the school project in one evening. Betty and I have visited some of the schools. Cindy Nofziger is the U.S.-based director; her colleague works and lives in Sierra Leone.
3. Please stay in touch. Finally, if you would like to continue receiving occasional emails about new blog postings on (a) updates regarding Sierra Leone projects above; (b) – and this is a shift: bob’s teaching, please send an email response back saying YES.
Bob taught a “democratic’ class this fall in which students chose topics to discuss, format for the discussions, and grades. The issues included national security, national health care, affirmative action, gay rights – all chosen by the students. Discussions were civil, informative, and factually-based with sourced information. Now he is seeking ways to instill that kind of student ‘ownership’ of classes into his upper-level seminars. Stay tuned. Bye for now.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Back in Mississippi
Hi folks,
For all of you who have taken the time to look at our Sierra Leone blog, we thank you for your interest, not just in us, but in the people of that amazing country. Betty and I are back in Hattiesburg, MS. If you ever come this way, or want to contact us, our home phone is 601-582-8756. The email is bob.press@usm.edu or bettypress.gmail.com
if you have some comments you want to post on the blog, please do so.
For all of you who have taken the time to look at our Sierra Leone blog, we thank you for your interest, not just in us, but in the people of that amazing country. Betty and I are back in Hattiesburg, MS. If you ever come this way, or want to contact us, our home phone is 601-582-8756. The email is bob.press@usm.edu or bettypress.gmail.com
if you have some comments you want to post on the blog, please do so.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
More photos -below
Be sure to scroll down to Betty's amazing photos of downtown Freetown midnight parade and a daytime stroll by the 'devils, plus family travel in this beautiful country.
to our blog friends - as we leave Sierra Leone
To readers of this blog:
Betty and I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog, looking at her pictures. The fact that you signed up for our occasional alerts on new postings shows your have an outward sense of the world and the fabric that links humanity everywhere. We wish you well in your own important endeavors to make our world a better place for everyone.
It would be nice to stay in touch, in case anyone has any suggestions on how….
Bye for now.
Betty and I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog, looking at her pictures. The fact that you signed up for our occasional alerts on new postings shows your have an outward sense of the world and the fabric that links humanity everywhere. We wish you well in your own important endeavors to make our world a better place for everyone.
It would be nice to stay in touch, in case anyone has any suggestions on how….
Bye for now.
some thoughts on departing
Some final thoughts….
So we are leaving after nine months. But though we leave Sierra Leone, it will not leave us. Sure, there were frustrations with electricity only about a third of the time (at best), narrow streets overflowing with pedestrians, traffic jams, etc. But it’s a beautiful country: the beaches are undiscovered gems; the country is safe; the people are amazingly open and friendly: and that’s not just words – they really are. They work hard when they get work. (We said good-bye recently to Sennuse who breaks rocks for a living and raises by himself his two daughters who are in Cardiff school (see earlier blog postings on the school.)
I’ll miss my students. Almost all of them are sincerely trying to find their way into the professional world (many as human rights activists), trying to scrape together school fees. Given the opportunity, their talents shine, as when they taught human rights in local schools..
Classes are way too big for effective teaching; too much time is lost keeping the class quiet enough to hear not just me but fellow students. Still – there’s been a lot of learning, as noticed in their research papers and reports on the their community teaching.
A history professor described Sierra Leone as stable on the surface and fragile underneath. The same causes that apparently fueled the war, including mass poverty and lack of education and opportunity, are still present. But one hopes the horrors of the civil war (1991-2002) leave people reluctant to allow another one.
Betty and I hope to find ways to link our students back in Mississippi to students here. She has collected the war and peace stories of some of my students, photographed them, and plans to put it all on the web. The student participants want to link up with students around the country and the world. We’re open to suggestions on where this might lead. Locally, the students want to start a Students for Human Rights. (Perhaps they could call it Students United for Rights Everywhere: SURE).
And Betty has commissioned two local artists to paint small signboards, the kind all over town on small restaurants and barber shops, a kind of no-depth, and almost cartoon-like depictions of people eating or getting a haircut. She found a local café that will display them for sale. We’re taking a batch home.
Sierra Leone - I hope we come back some day.
So we are leaving after nine months. But though we leave Sierra Leone, it will not leave us. Sure, there were frustrations with electricity only about a third of the time (at best), narrow streets overflowing with pedestrians, traffic jams, etc. But it’s a beautiful country: the beaches are undiscovered gems; the country is safe; the people are amazingly open and friendly: and that’s not just words – they really are. They work hard when they get work. (We said good-bye recently to Sennuse who breaks rocks for a living and raises by himself his two daughters who are in Cardiff school (see earlier blog postings on the school.)
I’ll miss my students. Almost all of them are sincerely trying to find their way into the professional world (many as human rights activists), trying to scrape together school fees. Given the opportunity, their talents shine, as when they taught human rights in local schools..
Classes are way too big for effective teaching; too much time is lost keeping the class quiet enough to hear not just me but fellow students. Still – there’s been a lot of learning, as noticed in their research papers and reports on the their community teaching.
A history professor described Sierra Leone as stable on the surface and fragile underneath. The same causes that apparently fueled the war, including mass poverty and lack of education and opportunity, are still present. But one hopes the horrors of the civil war (1991-2002) leave people reluctant to allow another one.
Betty and I hope to find ways to link our students back in Mississippi to students here. She has collected the war and peace stories of some of my students, photographed them, and plans to put it all on the web. The student participants want to link up with students around the country and the world. We’re open to suggestions on where this might lead. Locally, the students want to start a Students for Human Rights. (Perhaps they could call it Students United for Rights Everywhere: SURE).
And Betty has commissioned two local artists to paint small signboards, the kind all over town on small restaurants and barber shops, a kind of no-depth, and almost cartoon-like depictions of people eating or getting a haircut. She found a local café that will display them for sale. We’re taking a batch home.
Sierra Leone - I hope we come back some day.
You Can Go Home Again
You Can Go Home Again:
A number of Sierra Leoneans have returned to this country to live and work, some after 30 years in the United States. One returnee told me recently he had decided to stay in Sierra Leone, despite the low pay, lack of facilities (sporadic electricity, for example). “I’ve found my soul” here, he said. First, like other returned professionals, his services are very much in demand here. But beyond that, he likes the less complicated lifestyle and social aspects of life here. Another returnee is teaching at Fourah Bay College and pouring energy and new ideas into his work here. We are told that many of the big homes being built on the outskirts of the city are paid for by remittances by Sierra Leoneans living abroad. Some of them may be planning to return, too.
A number of Sierra Leoneans have returned to this country to live and work, some after 30 years in the United States. One returnee told me recently he had decided to stay in Sierra Leone, despite the low pay, lack of facilities (sporadic electricity, for example). “I’ve found my soul” here, he said. First, like other returned professionals, his services are very much in demand here. But beyond that, he likes the less complicated lifestyle and social aspects of life here. Another returnee is teaching at Fourah Bay College and pouring energy and new ideas into his work here. We are told that many of the big homes being built on the outskirts of the city are paid for by remittances by Sierra Leoneans living abroad. Some of them may be planning to return, too.
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