Education at Project Canaan during a pandemic

Education in Eswatini has drastically changed over the past year as it has all over the world. All schools closed in March of 2020. We have a special situation on Project Canaan so we were able to begin tutoring. I’m thankful God allowed us to tutor in math and reading throughout this time with the students at the Emseni campus. We were able to use wonderful aunties and uncles to help keep our students on track. Imagine, it was like homeschooling 194 students.  God gave us blessings throughout this process.  

One blessing is with our kinder students. We do something called Kinder Reading with our students in kindergarten.  Kinder Reading is a small group, leveled program to help students with comprehension, sight words, reading, punctuation and more. Due to circumstances of not having school we got to do this program last year with the kids at Emseni. We had amazing aunties, gogos, and uncles to help guide the kids in Kinder Reading. The lowest reading level in Kinder Reading is NR which is not reading. Then it goes AAA then all the way to D. At level C, students start comprehension activities. Due to the cancelling of school, we had a lot of time each day to work on Kinder Reading.  The students excelled with Kinder Reading in 2020. We had every student on level B or above. We also had 70 percent of students on level D. In normal school years, our goal is to get to level B to move to grade one.  I am thankful for this time for our Kinders to learn how to read. 

Another blessing is how God moved in the children’s lives. One day when tutoring was out, I presented the beautiful story of the Gospel. On Project Canaan, we do something called Jumpstart. It is an easy way of  remembering John 3:16. We taught that God Loved, God Gave, We Believe, and We Receive. After we discuss it, we then sit in separate areas of the room allowing kids to come to us one-on-one if they have questions or want to be in God’s Family. We had several kids become members of God’s Family in this time.  

I am thankful of the time in 2020 where we had to be creative and very methodical of how to continue teaching.  It was sure a time of sunshine in the rain.  

Now it’s March 2021, schools are open. We are excited about schools opening. Project Canaan Academy is back.  There was a lot of excitement leading up to the first day. The kids LOVE wearing their  uniforms.  The kids were excited for PE, Music, Art and more. They love school. Due to Covid, PCA looks a little different.  

 

 

We have many new changes to keep our staff and students safe.  Our school has social distancing dots everywhere.  We  have 20  bottles of hand sanitizer that are used everyday on supplies, door handles, kids’ hands, pencils, and  scissors.  We wear masks everyday all day.  We have daily cleaning checklists.  Our schools have painted rocks outside for social distancing markers, I thought this was so creative.  We are thankful for our school being able to have these supplies for keeping everyone safe.

 

 

It is difficult to teach in a mask but the positives of wearing a mask over a face shield out weigh the negatives.  The students do not get to see our teachers smiles. They don’t get to see our teachers pronounce words.  It sometimes breaks my heart to think about the long-term effects of mask wearing.

 

I tell the staff everyday thank you for keeping us all safe.  It sometimes breaks my heart to think about the long-term effects of Covid on education but I have to remember God has a beautiful plan and one day we will look back on this time and see the blessings.  There is always joy in the morning.  It reminds me of the Josh Wilson song, Before the Morning.  Here is a wonderful chorus of it: 

Would you dare, would you dare to believe
That you still have a reason to sing.
Cause the pain that you've been feeling
It can't compare to the joy that's coming.
So hold on you gotta wait for the light.
Press on and just fight the good fight.
Cause the pain that you've been feeling 
It's just the dark before the morning.

We need to keep sharing hope with people. Our Savior has the morning coming.

Amber VanWinkle, Head Teacher