Empowerment initiative stirs students' development
Published:Saturday | June 25, 2011 | 12:00 AM
INNSWOOD, St Catherine:
JEROME 'J ONE' Walford is thankful for life. When he was three years old, he and his family were on their way home after visiting friends in Bog Walk, St Catherine, when they met into a motor-vehicle crash along the McCooks Pen roadway in the parish. His father, who was the driver died.
Now 18, the aspiring artiste is one of the most talented students at Innswood High School, but he's not taking all the credit for his development. As he goes about life's challenges, he sings praises to Eric Brown, empowerment teacher on the school's empowerment programme.
"Mr Brown is a good inspiration to me. Him ever give me good advice, good encouragement. Him motivate me a lot since I met him and the empowerment programme is really good for students like me, at Innswood," Walford, who pens his songs through inspiration from real-life situations, relates to The Gleaner recently.
Programme advantage
Similarly, 16-year-old Romario Boreland is passionate about music. However, unlike Walford, who wants to make a career out of it, at age 12, he decided that the agricultural sector was his calling. Then, he ventured into livestock farming. But, he knows that a good education is essential to operating a successful business, so he ensures that he too takes advantage of the programme.
"I know maths is very important, especially when it comes to doing business, but it was always a challenge for me, coming to the empowerment room, Mr Brown show me different ways to tackle maths and I feel better doing it," Boreland, a member of his school's under-17 Rugby team said.
Seventeen-year-old Markland Bailey, formerly of Munro College and Black River High School, began his sojourn at Innswood in third form.
"Sir is down to earth; he talks not only as a teacher, but someone who understands us. A part from that, he teaches easier ways how to manage maths, whether on a test or otherwise, and I use what I learn from the empowerment programme to even help my cousin," Bailey said.
Brown, a mathematics teacher, tells The Gleaner that the programme has been an effective transformational tool.
"We use the empowerment sessions to get the students to know about their preferred learning style, get them to appreciate setting goals and targets, have individual educational plans, so that they know how they can achieve their goals, and that works hand in hand with the target setting that is in place within the school," Brown explained.
The programme, which has been reaping tremendous success, targets students at various levels.
"There are students who have special educational needs, some of them need special attention, and there are students who are gifted and talented, the empowerment programme seeks to deal with all types of students," he explains.
Instructional tool
So far, there is indication that music has been a critical instructional tool for the teaching of language skills.
"For example, some of the students will say they are not good in English, in writing and so forth, so when they say that they 'meds' a song, you get them to write that song in Patois and from Patois, they convert it to English, then you can introduce the language to them there, and you introduce them to the language lab through that because they want to facilitate their musical development," Brown explained to The Gleaner.
As part of the programme, students are also facilitated via research support, assistance in completing assignments, as well as school-based assessments.
A humble, but fervent Brown is pleased with the progress of some of the students under his tutelage since March last year when he was given the mantle.
"The success story would include a number of students who might not necessarily have been academically endowed but have talent, for example, J One who has four songs and Boreland who wants to formalise his farming programme, the Supremes, an all-female group," he lists.
That's one of the reasons, he is working feverishly to organise a concert to showcase the talent of some of those who had in not been for the motivation they get from the empowerment sessions, might just be under the carpet.
PHOTOS BY KAREN SUDU