So within Peace Corps Tanzania there are different groups of volunteers. There are the obvious groupings based on our assigned jobs: Education (me), Health, and Environment. There are different "classes" which refer to which batch of volunteers you came with (July 2013 for me). There are also different club-like groups that you can opt into. One is called VAC which is a group of volunteer representatives who take our ideas to the administration. One is a group called the Peer Support and Diversity Network which offers support to volunteers who are having trouble adjusting to life/work here for any number of reasons. And one is called Shika Na Mikono (hold with hands), which is a group that offers support and advice to science and math teachers around the country.
They go to (and sometimes organize) conferences where they teach Tanzanian teachers to use locally available materials to make science and math topics more real for students with hands-on activities. They also hold lessons for volunteers during education pre-service trainings. There were also sessions from them during my early service training in January.
Shika Na Mikono is currently a group of 5 education volunteers. Four are from the education class above me and one is an extendee from the class above them. A few weeks ago I applied to be a part of this group and I was accepted last week! Peace Corps has decided to expan the group to 7, so six other volunteers from my class and I will be taking over the group when the older 5 end their service later this year.
The first event that this new membership entails is my going to a math conference in March. I will be going with one other new Shika member and two of the veterans to Dar Es Salaam to present teaching aids that are easy to make/obtain and use in the average Tanzanian school, and that we find helpful for students in the classroom. We will meet up before the conference to discuss ideas, and then we will head to the two day conference.
Directly following the conference in Dar, the four of us will meet the rest of the new Shika members and most of the older team in another town (on the way back to Iringa). There, we will have the official "hand-off" meeting. The new class of education volunteers will be arriving in July and we will be putting on some sessions during their PST. So the old Shika team will be teaching us all that they know in order to prepare us for that training, and our future in the group. We will also be putting on a "science day" for a local school to give us new members a first shot at doing what we will be doing in this group for the remainder of our service.
Shika tries to have as much diversity in the different science fields as possible. Currently they have a member for physics, biology, math, chemistry and one representative for advanced level secondary schools. I will be the new physics guy, but as the group is expanding from five to seven, I'm not sure yet if I will be the only one.
Anyways, I'm excited to have this new role! It should be a fun change of pace from the everyday stuff. It will mean that I will be spending more time away from my school and my students when there are conferences or trainings, but the current members have already shared some of their strategies for staying on track at their schools while they are gone.
I also see this as an opportunity to extend the impact of my service. Teaching at one school all the time can get discouraging and sometimes makes me question whether or not I actually have any significant impact on my students and/or Tanzania. The Shika group puts on trainings for teachers and schools around the country, and even has a healthy working relationship with the Tanzania Ministry of Education. This is an amazing chance to help lots of teachers improve their teaching methods, which, in turn, can really benefit their students. That's the idea anyway...
I'm sure there will be more on this in the future. Stay tuned.
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