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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday August 8, 2007 - 19 SABRINA BYRNES / OAKVILLE BEAVER EACH ONE IS DIFFERENT: Kindergarten students react in amazement as Michelle Anderson, executive director of Project St. Lucia, unfolds a paper snowflake. Experiencing the joy of learning s I've returned safely to the comforts of home, the images of the children and the community of St. Lucia have never left my mind. Their eagerness to learn and participate, the looks of pride and achievement that swelled their faces when they accomplished a task, the love they have to give and the companionship they seek is what overcomes me when I reflect on my experiences. For two weeks I had the opportunity to travel and work with volunteers from the St. Lucia Learning Project, an organization based out of Oakville's Chartwell Baptist Church. The program runs Camp Sylvester, a four-week summer day camp for the children in the impoverished village of Anse La Verdue. It also runs a Women's Mentoring program in the evenings for the women in the village that have a child or grandchild attending the camp, and one week of workshops for children and teachers at Canaries Infant School just before camp commences. From the first time I entered that school, I was exposed to just how important the St. Lucia Learning Project is for the teachers and students involved. I visited a kindergarten class that we would be working with the next day, and they couldn't contain their excitement. They were climbing all over each other to have their photo taken. A That morning, volunthe teachers showing them teer Mary Ann Hutchings different learning techcaptivated the young stuniques and games to incordents by simply showing porate in their classrooms. them how to draw a happy The volunteers have face with a piece of clay. worked very hard building A simple task that most a relationship with the of us would take for granted teachers and gaining a was the result of pride as trust to show them the they raised their artwork to partnership they are formshow what they had creating. ed. The teachers in St. I was able to see the Lucia do enjoy access to donated resources being workshops like Canadian utilized in the classrooms, teachers, so the volunteers which were practically bare show them techniques besides a few scattered they have found to work in books prior to the St. Lucia their classrooms back Project. home. Executive Director Many of the teachers Michelle Anderson startare not qualified and are ed the St. Lucia Learning "Volunteer Mary Ann not aware of the different Project four years ago and Hutchings captivated the styles of teaching. Many the children and teachers young students by simply of the teachers learn diflook forward to it every showing them how to draw ferent ways of dealing year. with behavioral children. a happy face with a piece "Tomorrow is our The teachers do not turn," a Grade 2 student of clay." have a budget for school shouted as we drove away supplies, so all the from the school after resources for their classworking with the Grade 1 students that day. rooms have to be purchased from their own Mornings are spent doing crafts, games, pockets. A small box of markers in one store reading and learning exercises with the was the equivalent of $8 Cdn. children and the afternoons are spent with Various companies donate resources to the school each year and the volunteers show the teachers how to use them with their students. The Learning Carpet is always a big hit with the children. I saw the students so engaged as they figured out number patterns, flipping over even numbers and where to place the number cards on the carpet. They couldn't wait to be given a number card from the volunteers so they could run to the carpet and place it down. The teacher's workshops had more participants this year as new schools were introduced to the project. Many of those teachers seemed skeptical and uninterested at the beginning of the workshops, but they were eventually won over by what they saw. They all began to participate and enjoy themselves. They realized the different things they could do in their classrooms to keep their students engaged. The lessons before the St. Lucia Learning Project started were all "talk and chalk" as school principal Simona put it. The students would copy from the board and were told what the answers to the questions were, instead of trying to figure it out for themselves. Canaries Infant School was once tied for the lowest school in terms of academic test scores on the island. That has changed. The Grade 2 students did exceptionally well in the recent minimum standardized testing. See Children page 20