One Summer Ago in the City of Angels

Since traveling this summer is an unsafe option, let me take you back to a simpler and more carefree time when I joined two of my high school friends on a trip to Los Angeles, California for a week. It was the farthest west I had ever travelled in the United States up until then, and I was excited to experience the West Coast! My friends had already booked their Airbnb, and I decided to opt for a hostel since I was joining in fairly last minute. I found one aptly named "Walk of Fame" right on Hollywood Boulevard in the middle of all the action. Hostels are great if you want something affordable and you don't plan to spend too much time in the room. It definitely caters more towards a young professionals and college student crowd. Most of the rooms contain bunk beds and each person is generally expected to put their own sheets on the bed as well as remove them at the end of the trip rather than getting regular room service the way you would in a hotel. This particular one also had a few separate rooms with regular beds available for families for a slightly higher price. 

After getting acquainted with the space and rules pertaining to it, I entered my room of 6 bunk beds to find that some of the women there already knew each other. I wasn't expecting to get to know any of them over the course of a single week in this city. However, one of the young ladies who had been staying there for some time already said hello and made an effort to get to know me. Rianne had been travelling from her home country of England around the US for a couple weeks already learning the lay of the land and meeting new people regularly. She eagerly shared stories of her travels with me both in and outside of LA. Knowing that this city was the hotspot for meeting celebrities and seeing where they lived, Rianne had done her research on where she should go to meet her favorite stars. After visiting one of the many film studios in the LA area for a tour, she shared that she had the chance to briefly meet Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia who are cast members of one of her favorite shows, This Is Us. She was just gushing about them! I was also impressed with how detailed and thorough her plans were. She did not want to waste a minute of her time, and I admired that about her. 

The Walk of Fame Hostel offered free or low cost tourist trips around the city for those who were staying in the hostel, and the guide let my friends staying at another place join as well. The Griffith Observatory is a beautiful lookout point in Griffith Park in LA that also has a science museum inside the main building and a couple of old telescopes you can peek at. On the way there, we took a train and a bus, which gave us plenty of time to connect with others in the group. We started chatting with Carolina, who works in Hyatt Hotels in Argentina. My friend, Yaniza, is a native Spanish speaker, so they quickly bonded over their common language background. My friend, Kevin, had studied abroad for a month in Bueno Aires, so he was able to share his stories with her, too. My knowledge of Argentinian culture was limited to the language and dance of Argentinian Tango, which for those who are familiar with ballroom lingo, is distinctly different from International or American Tango. Over the course of that excursion, we established ourselves as acquaintances with Carolina and hoped to see her again. 

Santa Monica Pier
(Left to Right: Carolina, Rianne, Kevin, Yaniza, me)

Rianne and Carolina both joined me for breakfast (independently of each other) in the hostel the day following the Griffith Observatory trip. Yaniza, Kevin, and I had planned a beach day seeing as this is California and the summertime. I invited them both to accompany us, and they were happy to do so! We started out our walk down Hollywood Blvd. taking pictures of us next to some of our favorite stars, and after some time realized that the restaurant where we agreed to meet my friends was a short distance by car, but not on foot. We quickly hopped in a Lyft and made our way to an early lunch/brunch at a place called "Egg Sl*t." Yes, that really was the name of the place. Then we ordered another car that got us to the Santa Monica beach where the driver shared that he is from the middle east leading us to all reveal the various countries we each come from - we were an international car! At the beach, I learned from Carolina the tradition of drinking maté, a strongly caffeinated drink that is the national beverage of Argentina. We talked about our lives, our beliefs, politics, and so much more. There is something so freeing about sharing deep and meaningful conversations with acquaintances that you meet in a new place. 

Celebrating after Yaniza's show

Later that day, I let the ladies know about the main reason we came to LA in the first place. Yaniza is a singer-songwriter who was on tour, and she had a performance scheduled for that same day in a restaurant. After getting back to the hostel and changing, Rianne and Carolina accompanied me to the restaurant before the show for dinner. We then watched Yaniza's spectacular performance and Rianne was so moved that she bought Yaniza's CD that she had for sale. 

After that day, one by one we said goodbye to one another as each departed for different destinations: Yaniza and Kevin went to the next tour destination in Nashville, Tennessee; Rianne and Carolina were off to other parts of the country. Meanwhile, I flew back home to Boston. We vowed to stay in touch after the trip through WhatsApp. Here we are one year later continuing to share insights about our lives especially in the era of COVID-19, politics, language, and more. I look forward to the day where we can travel and be in each others' company again.  

Note: Real names were used with permission.

Ghana: Interview with Kankam on Pen Pal Exchanges

Kankam Mensah Felix

Now that you've heard my perspective on my exchange with the classroom in Ghana, I'd like to share that of the Ghanaian teacher, Kankam Mensah Felix. I had the opportunity to speak with him about his experience as a facilitator of global pen pal exchanges and the impact it has had on him and his students. He works at the Lillian and Abraham Memorial Academy situated in a suburb of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. The suburb is known as Mallam. His role in the school is three-fold: he is the international relations officer, librarian, and he also teaches the Ghanaian language of Asante Twi. Read on to learn more about what Kankam is doing to improve education for his students and connect with other teachers. 

Note: If you'd like to listen/watch the interview, click here: https://youtu.be/acXH9fUzoJI

Q: Can you share how English and other languages are taught at your school?

A: Thank you so much for the great question. In Ghana, English happens to be, let's say, our first language. So students in Ghana start learning English and French. But French is not mostly taught in more schools. English is taught from nursery to grade 9 and to the university level. It's treated the same way as mathematics, social studies, and science in our classrooms. So depending upon the timetables or the schedule for the day, a class can have five periods in a week. For instance, on Monday, students will always have an English teacher going into the class.

So we have the three languages: English, French, and Ghanaian languages. The Ghanaian languages are Asante Twi and Ga. Everyone is expected to learn English and French. When it comes to Asante Twi, that is for the people who are natives of the Asante Empire or Asante Kingdom. These are the people from Kumasi. The Ga’s from greater Accra speak the Ga Language. Accra happens to be a mixed culture. We happen to have people migrating to Accra, so we have different people from all parts of Ghana. So we give them these languages to select from their own choice.

Q: Have you ever done a pen pal exchange before with your students? If so, what was that experience like? If not, what made you decide to start this year?

A: Thank you so much. When I came to the school, I introduced the pen pal exchange to my students because I used to work with the British Council way back in Kumasi, and one of my motivations to establish this programming in the school was to give students the exposure to learn what was happening outside of the classroom and outside our country. I tried to search for schools around the world and we would do a collaborative project together. We joined an organization called Yo-Ghana (exchanges for transformation). With this organization, the students were able to connect with schools in Oregon, United States.Then we also tried to talk to schools in France, in the UK, in Argentina, in Uganda, in the United States. This experience tried to broaden the scope of both the teachers that were part of the project and the students to have a sense of togetherness - a sense of feeling that "OK, we are learning here in Ghana, we have something similar with what others are learning, around the world." It gave my students, myself, and the teachers on the platform the confidence level that we are not doing something wrong. We are also doing something that the whole world is doing. It boosted our students' level of writing skills, speaking skills because there were times when we would do video recordings of some presentations that had so much impact on our students.

Q: What were your students’ initial reactions to starting the pen pal exchange with my class in the US?

A: They were so happy because one of the biggest challenges for us two years ago was access to computers and the internet. But with the help of the Helping Africa Foundation and the Friends of Yamoransa, we were able to get a 35-seater computer lab. But still we have challenges with internet connectivity. So what I mostly do is a paper exchange. My students would write, then I would scan them, and send them to the recipient teacher. They do the same thing, back and forth. So our experience with your students was so exciting! And then we were not lucky when COVID-19 struck, and we had to go back home. Then communicating with students became a challenge for me and them. But we are eager that when COVID-19 goes down, we will be able to continue our connection with you and your students.

M: I can imagine that this would make things much more difficult.

Q: So since this was a little different that they were recording Flipgrid videos rather than writing letters, how did you prepare them for the Flipgrid videos?

A: One of the things I always told them, especially when it comes to the video, is that the whole world is going to watch you. Whatever you are going to say should be very important. You have to stick to the instructions that the teacher or instructor gives. Don't go outside the box. Try to be perfect. Give the best answer you can give. Have the confidence, and speak and share your ideas because your voice means a lot to us in the world.

Before introducing Flipgrid to them, I shared a story of Malala with them. This is a young girl who tried to advocate for girls' education. We saw how powerful she was, how strong she was standing in front of delegates of awards and all sorts of platforms. With that video of Malala, it gave them the spirit to also pick up the phone to also share their messages on Flipgrid. [Note: Students in Kankam's class recorded their videos using his phone and later uploaded them to Flipgrid for my students to see.]

Q: How was ePals introduced to them? Especially since typing on a computer is very different from writing by hand.

A: We are moving away from the old, traditional way of learning to the new digital way. So one of the introductions was I told my class that we can't always use paper to write letters. The time has come where we have phones, computers, and tablets. So let's engage ourselves. We can't type as fast we can, but when we keep practicing, one day we will be typing so fast that we will be able to give our friends good information. 

My students also love the ePals platform because the teacher can moderate the incoming and outgoing messages unlike the normal email services that we can use. ePals happens to be one of the places my students love so much. I think that the biggest challenge for us is when they go to the house, most of them don't have access to computers. Then those who also have computers, don't have access to the internet. That is the challenge in communication for us on ePals and other things that we do. 

Q: Did you hear any feedback from students about this exchange before they left the school? If so, what did they say?

A: Yes. Most of my students loved writing and making friends and sharing ideas. Those students gave me the motivation to do the things that I do. One student even told me, "We are going to miss our friends." I said, "OK. We are going to lose them with a distance, but we are not going to lose our connection with them. So I'm going to try to build my connection with a teacher." And I know that when all things work perfect for us, we will be able to connect back to them again. 

M: Yeah, I really would like to keep the exchange going. 

Q: Were students’ families involved in helping students write the letters at all?

A: Yes. Not all of them, but a few of them whose experiences are mostly interested in what I do and they are educated, and they want their kids to get exposure. Some parents don't give so much interest. Like in the United States maybe you have to ask permission from the parents to do stuff. Over here we just do things like the normal type like bring the program to the school. The headmaster or the board agrees to it. We hardly seek the consent of parents to do anything we do here in Ghana. 

M: Yes, that's very different here in the US. If we take students on a field trip or plan to make any changes, parents always need to know. It's interesting that you don't do that there.

K: It's something that is good that I do. I try to design a template that whenever I'm doing a program, I tell the students, "Give it to your parents for them to be aware of the things we are doing in the school." It's something that I learned from my colleagues, especially my colleagues in the United States of America. 

M: That's why I think these exchanges are so useful because you take the best from different cultures in order to improve yourself and your school.

Q: Given that the pandemic cut our time in the school building short, what are you doing to keep students engaged in this exchange from home?

A: It's so sad that my school has not engaged our students during this pandemic yet. But one thing that I proposed to the administrators of our school is the use of Zoom, or Google Classroom, or Edmodo, and then Flipgrid that we can use these platforms to engage our students. But the challenge comes with the lack of the tools, that is the computers, tablet, phone, and access to the internet, so we are still trying to figure out [what to do]. There are some schools that are of higher grade like, I don't know, the graduate schools that are doing that. But in my school we are not engaging the students now.

One of the things that a few teachers, like myself, do is we call some of the parents just to check on how their kids are doing, if they are reading on their own. But to engage them on a learning platform, we are not doing that yet.

M: I wonder if it's possible that when the number of coronavirus cases goes down, if it would be possible for teachers to meet with small groups of students outside somewhere, and see each other, and you can teach them that way in smaller classes around different parts of Mallam or different parts of Accra.

K: Yes, one key thing is the government doesn't instruct us that we should go back to school. And if you start doing any sort of engagement with students, and a student gets COVID-19, we will be held responsible. So we are still waiting for the COVID-19 cases to drop down. One thing that I've designed that when we go back to the classroom, the first months I am going to introduce all of these platforms to my school. That is very important that we know how to use all of these platforms so that we can engage with them. That is one thing I believe that when we go back to the classroom, as teachers, we need to do - to introduce our students to the virtual platforms so that in case we experience any COVID again, or any pandemic again, we are familiar with the tools and we can use them. Even though we will have some little challenge with internet connectivity, even if they have the resources, the tablets or internet, how to use the platforms will be a challenge for most of them. We need to continue to give education on how to use these virtual platforms as well.

 

Q: What have you learned personally as a teacher about this process? Would you do this again? If so, how might you organize it differently? 

A: Thank you so much. I am always happy to connect with other educators around the world, and I'm always learning. I'm going to share this message with you: I met these two great educators. One in Australia called Joyce Bronwyn, who is the founder of Education Elevators. She has been so helpful to me, and she introduced me to a lot of educational platforms that I used to learn with her and her students. And then there's another educator from Tenafly, New Jersey from the United States called Mark Hyman. This teacher introduced me to what we call "global citizenship." So these are some great educators. I've met a lot of great educators for the past years. Gonzalo in Argentina, I've met Fabula in Argentina, I've met Michael in the US, and yourself! I've met you. So connecting with teachers, as I always say, I learn different tools of teaching, different methods of teaching, different skills of teaching, different approaches of teaching, and sometimes even personal issues. We sometimes share personal issues about things going on in our families as educators. So I'm always going to do this unless maybe I stop teaching, but I love teaching, so I'm not going to stop teaching. I'm going to continue this program because it helps me expand my level of connectivity with other people around the world.

Q: Let's say we continue this exchange next year, what might we do differently to make sure that the connection stays strong?

A: One thing that I'm going to do from my end is to make it a habit. Then I'm going to tell my school because it's like a "me and the students" program, but not a school program, so the children don't add more seriousness to it. But if it's a school program and it is part of the school, they are going to add more importance to it. That's what I'm going to do when we come back so that even though we have challenges of technology, they will give us access to the computer lab every week or every time that we need to write our messages so that the communication will keep back and forth so that there wouldn't be so much of a delay in replying back to you and other friends around the world. 

M: That's a good idea. I'm also doing this with my students. It's not a school program for us either, so it might be good for me to think about doing that to make it more a part of the culture of the school to do this sort of learning. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. You really helped me think more about the importance of making these connections.

Note: The names you see are the real names of the teacher and school, and are used with permission.