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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Eagerly awaiting snack |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| View of my classroom from my desk |
This is Mercy when she first tried out typing. 
