Typical Teaching Day

Teaching

So teaching in Tanzania is so different to teaching in England. I think if ofsted came into the school they would have a nervous breakdown. But that is because we are a school of love not grades, a school of creativity not structure, a school of freedom not rules and regulations. Hope International School gives children the room and environment to explore, grow, be encouraged and learn through their own unique style. It has been an eye opener into the way I see future schools operating.

So here is an example of a typical school day.

I am up at 6 washed, dressed, fed, facebooked, cupper down my neck and see each of my housemates slowly get up (some later than others I must say) and wait for the honk, which means are ride is here (ahhh I just said ride and not lift.) So we get to school and the teachers and the aids all have a short devotion time where we pray for they day and encourage each other. Its then time to let my beautiful students in. Some of the missionary kids I have in my class have only ever been homeschooled so there perception of school is what they have seen in the movies. So a request I had was that when I do the register that they may answer with present. So that’s what we do. Each child angelically says present as if we are in a posh little school in an English village. My lovely student Mercy who is not English speaking, enlightened the whole posh little village school with her response to her name shouting ‘yeasssaaaa’ in her lovely Tanzanian accent. It always made the register so fun. (I couldn’t wait to get to her name) However she now puts on this posh voice that the other girls have adopted and says present as her name is called. But enough about the register we have the rest of the day to get through.

We start each day with a centering time, which is used for prayer, declarations, soaking, journaling and art. We then share visions, word of knowledge and dreams that we have had. It’s an experience that I had never been in before with children and it really does blow my mind. Some days our centering time goes on all morning. But with the freedom that the school entails, there is no problem in doing so.

A picture my student had during our discussions about being Royalty of God

So we then have maths, which my American children use to call math but they now too call it maths. Whoop. Although the pressure is less that an English school and there is more freedom, it was a real struggle to find where my children were all at. With no records from previous schools or level descriptors, I started from scratch with counting to 100 and number bonds to now looking into fractions. It’s an adventure and I am slowly starting to feel more comfortable with what I teach.

Maths wall

We then have Break/Recess. Snacks are provided which is something called Ugi, which contains soybeans, millet, corn and peanuts. I am not completely convinced on the whole idea and would need to add buckets of sugar for it to rest nicely on my tongue. In addition to this there is always another snack of either popcorn, peanuts, fruit or cutup vegetables which I great.

Eagerly awaiting snack

Ugi and veg

After the children are all filled up on ugi and ran around on the playground it is time for quiet reading and a chance for me to listen to them read individually. To be honest I could do that up until lunch but it then is Geography time. We are following a great curriculum that is focused on the world. Each child has their own passport (pretend) and every two weeks we go to a different country and explore their culture, climate, people, animals and anything else the children want to find out. At the moment we are ‘in America’ we are learning about the states, the North American forests and the children’s choice of topic is always the American food (my mouth waters every time the topic is brought up) ha.

We then have time for English in which we are all in the process of writing a children’s story. Each Thursday morning we have been making our way down to the preschool to read to the younger children, it is good to see my children read to them and I think they come out feeling encouraged. After our first session of doing this my students asked if they could write their own story for the children. So that’s where we are, children have their characters down to a tea and we are on planning the plot.

As my classroom is right next to the kitchen my nose senses when lunch is ready. There is always so much, with a Tanzanian and western option you are spoilt for choice.

Children enjoying their lunch

So yey now its afternoon time. Teaching stops! Yes that is right lessons stop in the afternoon and it what we call ART time. Each teacher teaches a different element of the arts. So we have music, dance, art, art history, Swahili, gardening, p.e, swimming and I teach Drama and Enterprise. It I so much fun and allows the children to shine in all aspects of learning. I love teaching drama and I have some real little actors and actresses among my midst. I can’t wait for the Christmas production. So if you were wondering what I do when I am not teaching Drama or Enterprise, I am usually drinking tea sat at my desk planning or preparing for the next day. Its great.

One of the companies in Enterprise class hard at work.

So there you have it a typical day teaching in my school. It has been challenging with language barriers, children at completely opposite levels, transitioning from homeschoolers to students in classroom, my transition from being trained to teach in a certain way to teaching in a school like Hope. But God is there every step of the way and as time goes the challenges will go unnoticed. So keep praying.

View of my classroom from my desk