I’m excited to spend time with the community today. 
. Let’s get this started. Ask me anything! 
1 Like
Hi, regarding the after school club and weekend club , do you have any provision for remote volunteer ?, where someone can contribute to the various classes remotely through the various remote communication mediums
1 Like
Hello Desiree we appreciate the time you’ve taking for the Community 
, I know you’ve had Experience in handling a team. I would like to ask, What are the challenges one may face when leading a team and what are the leaders expectations.
2 Likes
Hi, @desiree.
What does it take to lead the relearn team?
Do you think the current Nigerian educational structure enables creativity?
Do you think the vision of training 1,000,000 students in 5 years is realistic?
How can students outside Lagos and Abuja benefit from relearn?
3 Likes
Hi Mali,
Your question came first, so I’ll start here
Yes, we do have plans for volunteers who can join re:learn remotely. At the heart of re:learn is our community of trainers and Edtech practioners/professionals who are all working to improve the quality of education within the country. Being a member of the network will not necessarily be dependent on being physically present. As the community grows and evolves new opportunities for volunteering will be created (e.g reviewing of resources etc).
We have something in the works regarding our community of trainers, so be sure to watch this space. 
2 Likes
Hi @wonexo
Very interesting question you have. The whole essence of building a team is to increase the impact/output created by an individual. Personally, the greatest challenge would be learning the right balance between being a supportive team lead, and letting people run with things - which sometimes means things get broken as they learn the ropes. Another important bit of leading a team, which is tricky, is learning to identify each team member’s strengths, and channeling those the right way to benefit the larger objective of the team. It means paying very close attention.
On expectations, I think every team leader/member wants someone who is willing to go the extra mile, especially without being asked. Having team members who take initiative and are willing to do what it takes to get things done is priceless. Good work ethic is also important - people rub off on other people so it’s important that team members hold themselves to high standards. It’s also the easiest way to earn respect. The last will be being bold enough to share suggestions and opinions, while being open enough to accept feedback, particularly when it’s not favourable. The former is especially important because the whole strength of a team lies in its diversity.
2 Likes
Thanks allot @desiree
your Answers were highly elaborated 
.
I once volunteered to be a re:learn trainer and filled a form, due to Schooling (Yabatech) activities I was only available on Fridays (from:12pm) and Saturdays and only selected a Saturday in the form but didn’t get any feedback after that.
Is there anything i need to know to become a volunteer ?
Hi @Wexcely,
That’s a tricky one, because the team is constantly growing - so that evolves each day. I think the major things are having an open mind (needed to learn new things and constantly evolve), being willing and able to trust others to get things done, and being supportive when your team needs you.
You might have to be a bit more specific regarding ‘educational structure’. Do you mean the curriculum, classroom setting or other? In general though, I believe the current system emphasises rote learning, over creativity. That might have worked in the past, when the education system was focused on grooming a new generation of factory workers - you need people to all think a certain way to be more efficient. However, in the current age, creativity and critical thinking is key to developing new frontiers, especially considering how automation has taken over (and continues to take over) many routine tasks.
Yes, certainly. At re:learn we’re building a scalable model to solve the huge problem of shortage of/under-qualified teachers (where available). Nigeria currently has the highest teacher:student ratio, at best for every teacher we currently have, we need an average of 2-4 more to join the workforce. In the next 14 years, to meet the 2030 education goal, countries in Sub Saharan Africa have to produce 17 million teachers, that’s an average of 1.2 million a year. Then consider Nigeria’s fast growing population. Putting these figures into consideration helps put the problem into perspective, and the importance of fixing it early. Ambitious? Certainly. The alternative would be spending time on less ambitious things - which is boring. It’s still early stages yet, so watch this space
Students outside of Lagos and Abuja are already benefiting from re:learn. Apart from those two locations, our Summer of Code programme held in Oyo and Osun. With the re:learn centre in Abuja, we’ll be doing a lot more of expanding outside the 2 locations where we have physical presence.
2 Likes
@wonexo It’s great that you registered to volunteer - people like you are crucial to our work. We have technical and non-technical volunteer roles available, so we’re not necessarily biased towards a particular educational background. Apart from competence, personality and skill level (for technical trainers) the next most important thing is availability - being sure that volunteers’ availability complements our schedule. We have new volunteer positions that open up every now and then. If you haven’t already you can check the available positions here.
2 Likes
Hi, @desiree .
I was absent yesterday, my_bad.
I once asked on this forum to be connected with an embedded systems technician or programmer and I was reffered to you. We have not had time to talk about that.
How do we get started?
1 Like
This thread is too serious. 
Nobody actually asked if she believes in aliens or if she prefers Dominos Pizza to Debonairs’.
Desiree is nice, you know. 
re:learn is also a fun place to volunteer. You get to meet and teach smart kids all day. 
1 Like
Maybe because I see @desiree during work hours alone. She almost never smiles. @anosime I’ll look at re:learn
I’ll try to believe @desiree is nice.
Hey Danny,
First off, what University are you enrolled in? That would be the best way to connect you to a community around you. Second would be what your aim is? To have someone collaborate with you on a project, to learn, or develop the skills you already have?
Nah. Smiling whilst walking to your desk might be creepy. Just saying. 
Hi @desiree
I’m not enrolled in any University at the moment. I just concluded a 3 year program in Computer Sci/Chemistry in a College of Education [FCE(T) Akoka, Lagos], and I spend most of my time on Cc-Hub 6th floor.
My goal is to learn and develop the skills I already have, not neccesarily collaborate on a project.
Fantastic. Have you thought of joining the re:learn community? Apart from teaching kids to code, we build fun projects too. Using the Raspberry Pi we’ve worked on a home-automation system to turn lights on and off automatically, a Twitter-Bot that tweets photos, an AI app (text-to-speech) and a couple of other projects using sensors. You can sign up to the community here, or drop by the MXLab tomorrow for a chat.
Whao!!! That’ll be great.
I’ll apply drop by at MXLab to see how I can get started.
Thanks | Desiree:grinning:
hello desiree,
what are the main challenges you are facing , in reaching your mark of serving 1 million students?
1 Like