Teaching in Tanzania

So I now know what it feels like to be tear gassed.  But more on that later.  First I'm going to tell you about my experiences volunteering in the public school system in Tanzania.
 
I arrived in Arusha, Tanzania, on a Tuesday afternoon and then was scheduled to start teaching in one of the local public schools the following day.  I didn't spend much time that afternoon at the EfforTZ office, which is housed in the TACODA Boys' Home, so I didn't have a chance to put together all of the materials I needed for the lessons.  Instead I went with John to the grocery store to pick up some food and then returned to the house to help his wife cook dinner, which we ate with their two young sons.  On Wednesday morning I walked over to TACODA early to quickly pull all of the supplies and then headed off to the first school feeling far from ready.  Unfortunately, when I arrived at Kaloleni with Deo via matatu, we got some very bad news.  The school was in the midst of standardized testing and just couldn't make time for me to teach any English classes.  Aside from that, the school (and all the public schools in the city) was closing on Friday for a week-long spring vacation.  That put a bit of a wrench into my plans since I had been planning to volunteer at three different schools for two days each.  My six days of teaching were at best getting cut down to three.  We left the first school and headed to a different one called Naura a short distance away where luckily they were able to accommodate me.  Here is the summary of my first day that I sent to my dad's friend from the
EfforTZ board, who was helping to coordinate my volunteer efforts from the States:

Day 1 - Wednesday, March 28th

When I first arrived at Naura School, I was a bit nervous since I didn't feel like I had given myself enough time to prepare and I didn't know quite what to expect.  My first stop was a nursery class with eight young kids.  The moment I walked in the room, one of the boys walked up to me with his arms outstretched and then all the kids gathered around for a group hug.  My nerves instantly disappeared and instead I found I was holding back tears in response to this warm welcome.  The kids did a great job singing several songs and then we read aloud "Five Little Monkies Jumping on the Bed."  After reading through the book once, the kids took turns acting out the parts and honestly blew me away with how quickly they caught on and how much they got into it. 

 The second class I went into was a Level One class where I was amazed at the number of students in just one room.  We sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "The ABCs."  The students then worked on "The Skunk" booklet for the rest of the class, alternating writing the missing letters in the key words and reading the words aloud. 

After a break, I headed into my first Level Two class, where we again opened with some songs and then completed The Peacock" booklet.  The students' favorite part of the lesson was when I gave them the chance to come up to the blackboard to write the missing letters in each key word.  They were all clamoring for a chance with the chalk so that was clearly a big hit.  I then went right into another Level Two class where the teacher was a bit less responsive and the kids seemed more distracted so this was definitely the most challenging class out of the four.  It probably didn't help that I was getting a bit tired so my energy was starting to lag.  I also couldn't find any chalk so I wasn't able to have the kids write on the board and thus get them more actively involved.  I still hope they got something out if it even if it was just some enjoyment from singing the songs.  Overall, I really enjoyed my first day and can't wait to go back to Naura again tomorrow.

In the early afternoon, Deo came back to the school to pick me up and we went to lunch at a cafe nearby that's run by a German woman.  After eating, we walked over to the Arusha Museum of Natural History, which is housed in a "boma" or fortification that the Germans built in 1899 when they were colonizing the area.  Deo wanted me to be able to learn something from my visit to Arusha and I had told him I liked museums.  The museum was small and mainly focused on paleontology and the natural environment of the area, but also had a small section devoted to the history of the founding of the city, particularly with regards to the German colonization.  After meandering through for an hour or so, we headed back to TACODA where I prepared for the next day before walking back to John's to make myself dinner.

On Thursday, I was once again at Naura for my second day at that school.  Here is my summary:

Day 2 - Thursday, March 29th

On my second day at Naura, I started in a Level 1-A Class.  The students were very excited to see me because they had been waiting for me to teach them since the day before.  We sang several songs and then worked on the "The Cat" booklet, which seemed to be appropriate for their level.  There were two teachers in the class and they helped somewhat to maintain discipline so the students kept on task. 

 I then went immediately back into the nursery class where I was again greeted with hugs from all the students.  The teacher was out of the room at the beginning of class so we worked on some of the same songs we sang the day before and then once the teacher returned I taught them how to play "Duck, Duck, Goose." The teacher in this class is very helpful and had a lot of great energy.  After singing, we read "Are You My Mother?" with the teacher translating into Swahili.  I then passed out animal posters and we read the story again with the students making animal noises when their animal was mentioned.  The students saw the "Five Little Monkies Jumping On the Bed" book in my bag so I let them act it out one final time before the end of class.  This class because of its small size and very engaged students, was by far my favorite of the two days at Naura. 

After a tea break, I went into a Level 1-B class, which was the most challenging of all the classes.  The teacher was not present and the coordinator had some administrative duties so I was in there all by myself.  It didn't help matters that there were quite a few Level 2 students in the back of the class eating lunch and talking amongst themselves.  It was definitely a challenge trying to make sure the students understood me.  By the end of the class, the coordinator returned so I was able to get the students better under control.  In this class, we sang some familiar songs, I taught them "The Itsy, Bitsy Spider" with the hand movements and then we worked on "The Duck," which might have been a little bit too challenging for the Level 1 students. 

For the final class of the day, I worked with Level 2 students where I taught them how to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" after singing some songs they already knew. They were mildly successful at singing it in a round, but I think they didn't quite understand the concept.  We then worked with "The Cat" book in this class again, which they seemed to be able to handle quite easily.  In all the classes, the children enjoyed coming up to the blackboard to fill in answers in chalk.  That was definitely a big hit.  I am looking forward to working with new students at Mwangaza tomorrow.

On Friday, I went to a new school called Mwangaza that was a bit farther away from the city center.  This turned out to be the most challenging day of all owing to the enormous size of all the classes.  While debriefing with the head master and some of the other teachers as I waited for Deo to come pick me up, I found out that the students from Level 4 and Level 7 would be coming in the following week to work on test prep for their standardized testing.  Since I had already lost a few days because of the vacation schedule, I told them that I would try to come on Monday to teach another class or two.  Here is my summary from Friday:

Day 3 - Friday, March 30th

On my third day in Arusha, I taught three classes at Mwangaza School. The first class was a Level 1-C class with probably between 70 and 80 students. We sang several songs, including "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "If You're Happy and You Know It." We then read and worked on "The Cat" booklet. Since I wasn't anticipating such a large class, I didn't have enough materials for every student and so some of the children had to share. The teacher in this class was very helpful and as a result the students, even though there were so many of them, were very well-behaved.

The second class I taught was a nursery class with about 50 to 60 students. We started off singing "Hello Everybody," "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "The ABCs." The teacher frequently left the room while we were singing to go talk on her phone and when she wasn't there I had a very difficult time keeping things under control. While we were singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" the students kept pushing each other and trying to crowd to the front. They didn't understand when I asked them to spread out into the aisles and instead would just go back to their seats when I told them to give some space.

It was quite challenging trying to convey my message without the teacher there to translate. She finally did return and we read "Five Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed." The second time we read through the book, I had five students come to the front to act out the parts and the participants did a good job following directions. The most challenging thing during the second part of the class was that many of the students in other classes were on a break so they started crowding around all of the doors and windows to see what was going on. The noise and distraction they caused made it a bit difficult to keep the nursery students focused.

After a short break, I taught a very large Level 2 class with at least 100 students. This was by far the hardest class of the day as more and more students kept entering the room and not only did I not have enough supplies to go around, but there weren't even enough seats for all of them. After singing a few songs, we read "The Peacock" and I struggled to explain how the students were suppose to mark their sheets since the teacher wasn't walking around with me to help demonstrate. At first she seemed like she would work with me, but then she ended up just sitting at her desk looking rather tired and defeated. Since she wasn't helping to keep order, I had to repeatedly yell at the class to be quiet. I honestly didn't really blame either her or the students since I don't understand how they can possibly learn effectively in such an environment. It seems to be quite a systematic problem that up to 100 students can be placed into the same class with only one teacher. It certainly opened my eyes to some of the serious problems facing the education system in Tanzania.

Later that afternoon after teaching all morning at Mwangaza, a few of the teachers from each of the schools came to get training on a new software program at the TACODA office.  Time is very flexible in Tanzania ("Africa Time") so just as I was nearly done explaining everything to two of the teachers from Mwangaza (who were late arriving themselves,) a third teacher from Kaloleni arrived and I had to start all over again with her.  Unfortunately, the office printer was broken so I couldn't actually show them how to print out worksheets to use with the students, but rather just the steps they would need to follow to do so.  I realized that since the teachers had very limited experience with technology, they needed explicit instructions on how to do the most basic things.  None of the schools actually have computers, let alone internet access.  I think some of the classrooms don't even have electricity and instead just rely on natural light coming through the open windows.  I was definitely dealing with a whole different set of challenges that I would never have had to face in the U.S.  I just happened to luck out that the Internet worked for me throughout the training session at TACODA as even there it was incredibly unreliable.  By the time I finally got back to John's, I was exhausted and hoarse from talking (and in some cases nearly shouting) all day.  However, the teacher from Kaloleni's repeated assertion to Deo that I was a very good teacher at least gave me affirmation that my efforts were appreciated.

Well, it's getting late and this post is getting long so I will have to leave you in suspense as to the exact nature of how I ended up being tear gassed.  I know you can't wait to read how this cliffhanger ends.  Till then.