We arrived at the Songhees Employment Learning Centre (SELC) in Victoria and met Verna, the coordinator, who gave us a terrific tour of the Songhees Nation facilities. The SELC is primarily geared towards providing Songhees teens and adults with educational support. This support can be wide-ranging and include help with school homework, general tutoring, test preparation, college / job application assistance and even some vocational training.
Verna, Jennifer, and Witt at the SELC
As Verna explained to us, many Songhees youth frequently miss school in order to participate in multi-day ceremonies that are integral to their culture. The effect of these absences can have a snowball effect and many students have difficulty keeping up with their peers as a result. Thus Verna was very excited at our arrival and was eagerly anticipating having access to the Khan Academy educational videos as well as the KA Lite coaching tools that we had come to install at the SELC.
While Witt began the installation on the computers in the SELC, Verna took Quinn and Jen next door to show us the Songhees children’s center, which is called Kwum Kwum Lelum. This facility supports kids from preschool age up through middle school by providing homework help, tutoring, crafts, and other educational activities. Since Kwum Kwum Lelum also has a computer lab on a separate network, we offered to install KA Lite there as well. That’s two installations in one day!
Jennifer sets up an account for Ruse, one of the Center’s instructors.
Jen set Verna up with an account on the SELC computers and walked her through how to use KA Lite to access the Khan Academy videos and practice exercises. Several teens arrived for tutoring so Jen gave a demo on the big screen to them and then set them each up with accounts. She then met separately with the tutors to show them how they could use the coaching tools to monitor and guide their students’ progress.
After Witt completed the install on the Kwum Kwum Lelum computers, Jen set up accounts for the center coordinator and the instructors and guided each of them through the KA Lite software menus. We emphasized the benefits of using the coaching tools as we believe that they will be particularly useful for them.
Students and teachers at the centre