DIL’s Curriculum Director, Annie Field, and Program Development Director, Brenda Erlinger, are headed to Pakistan for their bi-annual trip in April.
Annie, DIL US’s longest serving employee, is most looking forward to connecting with the team face-to-face on projects and seeing the impact our work has made in the field.
“It’s always productive to be in the field together sharing our observations and collaborating as a team on how best to tackle new challenges that arise.”
During the trip, Annie will review curriculum revision plans with English teachers and observe the newly implemented curriculum guides for science and KG. She will also observe and monitor ongoing progress with existing curriculum guides and materials. As part of her capacity-building efforts for the DIL Pakistan team, she will conduct reading comprehension training with members of the reading task force. She will work with language trainers to revise the phonics audio program and test out new videos for future use.
“I just saw that the weather in Khairpur is over 100F degrees so the heat won’t be easy, but knowing that I can end my day with gulab jaman (a traditional Pakistani sweet) is always a great incentive,” quips Annie.
Brenda is excited to be bringing on library coordinators this year, and will be working closely with our team to ensure our new coordinators will be set up to guide library usage and after- school reading programs designed to help DIL students experience the joy of reading while practicing fluency and comprehension skills. She will also follow up with pilot after-school programs already underway.
“We’ve been working hard to develop a mentoring component to shepherd DIL students toward opportunities that will spark their imaginations to dream big. We’re also expanding our English and IT Vocational Training Centers due to popular demand, so there will be lots to see,” Brenda adds. “I’m enchanted by Pakistan and the lovely people I’ve had the good fortune to get to know, but I can’t say the same for the long flight! After 15+ hours in the air we hit the ground running to make the most of our time on these trips. In the past, I’ve depended heavily on the tasty chai to keep me going and I’m sure this trip will be no different!”