"It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed." -- Harvey Samuel Firestone
8:30am. Monday morning. First class of the semester for me. 48 students. 1 of which was female.
My assignment was to teach “reading”. Students here already take English, which I believe encompasses grammar, literature, and writing. Since I was essentially given free reign, I created my own plan. Repeatedly, I emphasized the importance of reading aloud to children every day. I was saddened to find out though, that most of the students in this first class did not have that experience themselves. Some said that their teachers never read books to them in school. This was appalling to me. And it is a testament to the disturbingly uneven distribution of resources in the world today. Unfortunately, I imagine that many teachers in Africa simply do not have books to read to their classes, which many of these young people experienced first-hand. Yet in America, classrooms are filled with books that sometimes students and teachers rarely touch. That gets my blood boiling!
After the lesson, I read aloud my favorite poem, Invictus, and everyone’s mind seemed to be engaged. During our discussion, heads were nodding, hands were shooting up in the air, and eyes were constantly glued on me. Reading aloud to students is one of my favorite things about being a teacher. I love capturing the interest of young people with a mesmerizing text by taking them into other worlds and other people’s minds. After my read aloud, the students practiced being the teacher with their own read alouds of poems. This type of student-centered activity was well received. Overall, a successful first class! Later in the afternoon, I taught another class about the development of teaching and learning materials. Class was scheduled to begin at 3:30, but only 8 of the 40-something students had arrived. I began anyways. I want to set an example for timeliness and make it clear that being prompt is important to me. I mean business here people!
I am a teacher. It is my passion. Though at times my role as teacher has made me want to pull my hair out, ultimately, it is who I am. I only wish that with this current position I was getting to do more of it. Unfortunately, I’m not teaching nearly as much as I would have hoped. The students here hold exceptionally high regard for authority figures in their lives and have been nothing but respectful and kind towards me, always. I would love to have this student body while teaching in America. That would make for rewarding and meaningful days at work. With that in mind, I am going to savor every moment of teaching these engaged, enthusiastic, and eager young people, and hope that I can make even the slightest impact.
As the day winded down, I reentered my accommodation to find no running water, again. This has been a regular occurrence. The water flow isn’t very consistent, so at times, I have to resort to buckets. I walked over to the faucet outside of the boy’s dormitory (I’m still in the middle of the boys side of campus waiting for my accommodation to be finished on the girl’s side of campus). As soon as I approached with my bucket, several boys immediately stopped what they were doing and offered to help me. My bucket was filled, placed on top of a young man’s head, and brought to my door. Sweetness J
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