Teachers Without Borders - South Africa 2008

by Paul Heimerdinger (Science)

If once is good, then twice must be better. That axiom certainly holds true of my trip this summer with Teachers Without Borders to the Republic of South Africa. After a similar trip in 2006, I had a much better understanding of the types of questions and needs the teachers in SA have. These rural teachers may have as many as 60 students in a class and always have very limited supplies. This year I focused on coordinating lab activities with specific South Africa National Curriculum Standards that could be accomplished with a minimum of materials and equipment. Recycled bottles, cans, Styrofoam containers, holiday mini-lights, refrigerator magnets, red cabbage, string, washers, paper clips and cereal and cardboard boxes became our lab materials. I introduced many of the educators to the stopwatch function on their cell phones, which gave them a convenient and accurate instrument for measuring time. Exclamations of “I did it!” “Look! Mr. H., it works!” and “It lights!” are the chicken-skin moments that make surviving the subzero weather and rustic conditions worth the effort, preparation and sacrifices to travel half way around the world to work with them.

Our 2008 team, under the direction and founder of TWB-SA, Yunus Peer, Punahou, consisted of two math teachers, James Metz, Kapiolani Community College, and Carl Wheeler, retired, Mid-Pacific Institute, leadership facilitator, Lyla Berg, Hawaii State Legislature, technology coordinator, Ari Patz, Styrophobia.com, and two science teachers, Buffy Cushman-Patz, La Pietra School for Girls, and me, Paul Heimerdinger, Iolani School. Our little troupe traveled in two very tightly packed vehicles over 3000 km through the provinces of the Northern Free State, Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal in four weeks. We had a total of 340 teachers and administrators attend our four-day workshops of which about 120 teachers attended the science workshops.

At the closing ceremonies of the workshops, the teachers expressed their genuine and sincere appreciation to Teachers Without Borders for coming to work with them through song and dance. Their written evaluations conveyed their appreciation for learning how to recycle and use simple everyday items to teach Science as well as their hope that TWB will return and give an even longer workshop next year. For me, the upside of all of this is that I got to meet many wonderful new people from the other side of the world, see African wildlife up close and to explore the countryside of South Africa from Johannesburg to Cape Town. This experience of teaching other teachers has in turn made me a better teacher and a more aware global citizen, and for that I must thank my new friends and colleagues of South Africa.