Innovative Teachers can inspire anyone, anywhere.
We have talked a lot about Dan Roberts, one of our award winners from the Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum in Hong Kong. He is still very much an active 
member of the Innovative Teachers programme, and Kristen and I are in contact with him and his school on a regular basis. He has just returned from a unique experience, in which visited the rainforests of Peru, as a guest of the the charity Cool Earth. You can read the full story of Dan’s adventure on his blog.
I have read Dan’s experiences of the schools he visited and I was struck by the fact that these schools had some unique difficulties and it was the innovation and commitment of the teachers that found solutions to benefit their students.
…… extracts from Dan’s blog
The primary school was on the site of an old missionary post that still has a tiny very basic clinic; we were told of an amazing story about the founder of the mission who helped the Ashaninka, the are an indigenous people living in the rainforests of Peru, fight off the Shining Path, a Maoist guerrilla organization, years before.
As we walked there it was very hot and as we arrived we reached for the shade and were once again given an extremely warm welcome from the teachers and students. Have a look at the video below of the Headteacher and some of the children performing. (You may be able to see what he is wearing round his neck which was given to me as a gift)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVUF3TLq9zA
It was raining quite heavily and we were supposed to be visiting the local school in Tinkerani however no one seemed to be in any hurry due to the rain so we sat round and had a leisurely breakfast. We then had a great excuse to spend some more time with the children in the village which was fantastic – Emily (another teacher ) had brought some plasticine which the kids absolutely loved! I also brought them some balloons which really did go down a storm, we saw them playing with these balloons 2 days later still when we left!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2VwjskzsZM
The rain stopped and we packed up and headed over to the local school. The school was a small primary school with a few classrooms, in fact the nearest secondary school to the village was actually the one we had visited in Cuti which was a two hour walk away from where we were. It was fabulous to spend some more time with the children in the village as we watched their performances and saw them learning in the classroom. When we spoke to the teachers they also had a fantastic idea of creating a fish farm at the school on the river so that they could actually use the fish for food as often the kids may not have any food some days and so are hungry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTnfiTo1mcw
The local headteacher of the primary school presented me with two gifts, this was an absolute honour and I was really touched. I was presented with two things I could wear round my neck, the first was a turtle’s shell which represented strength and to reflect I was a powerful man and the second a little bit more unusual was the voice box of a howler monkey which represented that I commanded many voices. I was then also told why everyone laughed at me which was because I was a gentle giant with a big smile which was one of the nicest things anyone has said about me.
This was a life time opportunity to learn from the Ashaninka people about the challenges they have to face living within their environment and it was truly an honour to be welcomed and accepted within their community. What Cool Earth is doing is without doubt making a massive difference to the Ashaninka and also the entire world.
You can find out more about the work of Cool Earth on their website www.coolearth.org
