Geoseed Project Feedback

We recently received your NGM shippment, which we've
already put to use in the library. I've attached some photos
of Majula Kuyateh, easily the best female student in my
class. In addition to keeping up her academics, she is the
Deputy Head Girl, the second highest ranking girl in the
school. She is also a member of the drama team.

One of the things that has helped increase the
interest of my students in the NGMs you have sent is
your own personal story. I've made it a habit of
sharing how you learned English from these magazines.

The Salvation Army Secondary School sincerely thanks you
for your kind donation of National Geographic Magazines.
The addition of the magazines to our library has increased
the volume of students and teachers taking interest in the
library. More often than not, the library remains empty
because it is packed with dust covered books that are
beyond the reading level of most students.

Ghanaian students are very similar to American students, in
that they are not interested in reading, instead they would
rather watch TV or play games. They require some kind of
incentive or motivation to read, in this case the novelty and
more importantly the pictures are the drawing point. I’ve
witnessed both students and teachers sitting in the library
reading the magazine. We have some bright students but
even the brilliant ones have weak English skills. Our hope is
that students will be motivated to continue reading and thus
improve their English. One strategy our school is
implementing to help improve the students’ reading
comprehension is a school newsletter. The newsletter will
include a section on current events and a “Did you know?”
section that will be a summary of a National Geographic
article. Again we are very grateful for your donation.

I am an English teacher in a rural Costa Rican elementary
school and would love to receive a Geopack. My kids are
already enamored of National Geographic magazine; the
only thing that keeps the second graders rapt, in fact, is
paging through old copies and exclaiming over the
photographs while searching for pictures of animals or colors
or people to cut out. I put the maps and posters on the walls,
the kids cut out the pictures to paste into booklets of
vocabulary, and the cook (who doesn´t read English) looks
at the photographs after the lunch dishes are washed. Best
of all, the magazine sparks curiousity in the students (who
spend most of their school time copying paragraphs off the
chalk board): they ask me questions about the people and
places in the photographs, and start to imagine the world
that lies beyond their little mountain town.