Crazy.

March 26, 2015

This past month has been crazy. It all started when I went to town to buy supplies for the rain water catchment project at school. I went in on a Saturday and met up with some other volunteers. We went to dinner in the evening and when we got back about an hour later all four of our computers were gone. The next two days we worked with police but nothing turned up. Frustrating.

So I got back to school a couple days later and had about 24 hours to quickly put together some notes and exercises for the students to do while I was at Pi day and the Shika hand over meeting. I also needed to instruct my second master and the mason about how to build the tower and the big tank for the project. Then I took off for Pi day. That took about a week. Then a few days in Morogoro for the Shika hand over meeting. During the meeting, I was informed that, as the warden of my region, I was to organize the site visits for the new group of health/agriculture volunteers coming to Iringa. Also, our midterm tests are this week, so during the meeting I was writing those exams to send to my school for printing.

I got back to school last Thursday evening, taught on Friday, did somemuch  needed laundry, and on Sunday I went to Makambako to meet the new volunteers. This week has been a whirlwind of trying to get into the class for some review, entertaining a guest, showing the new volunteer his site (and helping with communication/transportation), organizing for his return to training, and checking in intermittently on the project at school. We started our midterms today and on Wednesday next week we will be finished and will be on easter break for about a week and a half.

It's been a weird month.

Shika Hand Off Meeting

March 26, 2015

So I'm a little late on this one, but here it is. A couple weeks back, the Shika na Mikono team had a hand over meeting to initiate its newest members. It started with three of us veterans and three of the new members going to Dar Es Salaam for the annual Pi day celebration. We had a prep day and got some math/science teaching aids ready. Then the next day we went to the event and presented them in a sort of science fair context. The event was mostly the same as last year when I went as a new Shika member so I'll leave out the details. Here are a few pictures from that.

A teaching aid to show that the same volume can look different in different containers.

A simple interactive teaching aid for equilibrium and moments.

This Tanzanian teacher brought a clever teaching aid which proves that 1 liter is equal to 1000 cubic centimeters!

After Pi day, we all traveled together to Morogoro where we met the rest of the group. There are six new members and six of the seven of us veterans were there too. 

We arrived in the evening and didn't have anything planned except for us from the older generation to get our schedule figured out for the next few days.

I ended up sitting out the first day because I wasn't feeling well (I'm fine now, mom. Don't worry). But the others started the day with a session about what Shika na Mikono is and what our generation has done in the past year. After that, they went to a local secondary school where we arranged to have a science day the following day. They took note of the space we would have access to, met some of the teachers, and got an idea of what activities we would do with the students. Then they went to town to buy any supplies we would need.

When they got back, we got to work constructing all of the things we would use the next day and planning how we would present them. The older generation tried to stay mostly hands off to let the new members get more experience.

The next day we went to the school again, set up, and guided students through our science activities.

Garret taught about acids and bases

Lucy and Sharon showed the students osmosis and diffusion in action

Rickie and Riley shared a teaching aid using water bottles to show elastic and inelastic collisions

The hand over meeting last year was really helpful to us because it just threw us into a situation where we had to be creative and get a feel for how many of the Shika na Mikono events go. This year it was good being more of an observer and seeing the new members get a feel for what Shika is all about.

Throughout the day, each station saw about 18 groups of kids which was repetitive, but also allowed the new members to improve their lessons incrementally each time. 

We ended the day with a group dinner at a really nice restaurant. Best steak I've had since leaving the states.

The last day was split in half. In the morning we broke into interest groups and in the afternoon/evening we talked about administrative stuff.

The interest groups were my favorite part of the meeting. The projects that we are currently working on were presented briefly to the new members on the first day so by the last day they had an idea of what they were interested in working on. The project I've been leading is a new resource for Tanzanian teachers. It will provide teachers with pre-made lesson plans that include some sort of activity or teaching aid that is worked into the lesson. The idea is to make it easier for teachers to use this book and the teaching aids it suggests than to write their own notes and just talk at their students. At its least effective, it will allow the students to be taught four lessons (for each form for each subject) using alternative teaching methods. At its most effective, it will show the teachers that using teaching aids and activities in the class improves student learning and in turn will spark the teacher into creating more teaching aids and/or activities in the future. So this book has been my baby for the past year and I have been a little nervous about what will happen with it in the next year after I have gone. But during the interest groups, almost all of the new members were really excited about it. We broke it down into what parts need finishing, assigned these parts to new members, and I think by June we should have all of the lessons finished and we should be able to get started on formatting and compiling them. I'm hoping to see a finished first iteration before I leave!

Other sessions were about teacher trainings, science conferences/competitions, IT stuff, and maintaining the current resources we have.

The afternoon sessions were about administrative stuff. Checking email, annual events, choosing a point person for communication, keeping contact with the ministry of education, etc. Boring but necessary.

For the next few months we will keep an eye on the projects in this transition stage and help out where we can. With my class on its way out, it's good to know that Shika is in good hands with the new members.

Good day

March 6, 2015

Today was a good day. Today felt like the kind of day a Peace Corps volunteer should have.

Before classes today I had a short meeting with my headmaster where we talked about the outcome of a workshop I helped lead last week. During the workshop we focused on what we, as teachers, can do to improve our school's results. In the workshop I specifically avoided the issue of corporal punishment. It seems to be such a hot topic and I didn't want that to get in the way of a potentially very constructive workshop. But when I met with my headmaster, he brought it up without me saying anything. He told me that he thought that corporal punishment should not enter the classroom and that we should be creative and use more constructive methods for punishing misbehavior. I was shocked. This came from the man who joked with me about my views of corporal punishment in the beginning and backed up his thoughts with bible passages advocating for hitting kids. So I was thrilled to hear him talk of at least reducing its use at our school!

After the meeting I had a couple of classes which went fine. Nothing too exciting, but also not bad.

After classes we had a staff meeting with all of the teachers. The meeting was to share the conclusions of our teacher workshop with the headmaster and hear his comments on it. We went through a list of things that the teachers had volunteered last week as areas where change/improvement was needed. Things like holding more regular tests, monitoring progress in each department, and being more creative in finding ways to avoid using the 'chalk and talk' method all the time. There were some good ideas shared and I chimed in a couple of times to clarify that using teaching aids does not mean using more time, and in fact it can use less time since the students can more easily understand. When they brought ideas like 'I tried the discussion method but no students said anything and when I asked questions they didn't answer' I tried my best to stay calm and not shout 'maybe that's because you were carrying a stick around in class and all the kids were scared of you' or 'maybe that's because you didn't teach them well and that should indicate that you need to help them understand.' I also pointed out that some teachers don't understand me when I speak to them in English and they are graduates of teachers colleges and universities, so it's crazy for them to expect students to understand them when they're teaching without any visual aids.

The meeting ended well and I felt like a lot of teachers got something out of it. After that, I started heading home and walked with one of the history teachers. He was one of the more active teachers during the meeting and I was so happy that he saw the worth of the workshop and our meeting. He said he liked what I had to say about teaching aids and that he agreed completely. I am pretty confident that some teachers at my school don't like me for one reason or another and it's clear in meetings some aren't really paying attention. So it's really cool to me when some are accepting of new ideas and it's especially encouraging to know that my thoughts are valued by some here.

I think my patience with the school community is paying off. Not blowing up on them when they hit kids, not giving advice before understanding the situation, not pushing unnecessary projects, trying to assimilate into the culture... It's all for the sake of being taken seriously. Not just as a volunteer, but as a contributing part of this community. Only 17 months after arriving...

To top the day off, as I was biking home one of my physics students called out "TGIF!!!" as I passed his house. I had taught them to say that last Friday and he remembered!

Here's a few pictures for all you visual learners:

Students and a couple teachers playing volleyball after school

The girls mostly play netball

Form IV physics students taking a weekly quiz