Joel, Tanzania, blog, have fun: 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: