It is a kind of let-down for me that, not having done much, the school is going to be closed soon for a month until early January next year, after another week of classes. I do however, appreciate the seemingly idling period of time spent at school for the past week for giving me some time to talk to the teachers, adjust to the environment and figure out what I could do.
I’m not sure if this is limited to JOCV or the other international volunteer organizations take similar approach, but I’ve noticed that my program tends to throw you out there to the site with a little information on it, let you find out everything else and work on your own. Inefficient this approach may be, I like the idea since this is a good way to force myself to be involved at the work place in the process of information gathering and establishing solid relationships with the colleagues.
So here’re things that I’ve done at work and the things I’ve learned. Some of them are as trivial as the annual timetable and daily schedule, but others turned out to be quite useful information. Instead of writing down long paragraphs, I’ve put down a list in chronological order.
1. After all, I confirmed that there were more advanced level teachers for biology and chemistry at the school than was necessary and that I was only assigned to have one lesson a week of the physical chemistry section of Form 5.
2. I found out about annual timetable of the school. Major breaks in December and about a month during the period of Ramadan (around September) with few week-long breaks in between.
3. School year form O-level begins in January and goes until December. A-level year begins in March and goes until February of the following year.
4. Morning sessions starts from 7am and goes until 1pm. The afternoon session follows from 1pm to 6pm.
5. Like the school system I’m used to, there’re home class teachers whom I can talk to if the students are in trouble.
6. Organizational hierarchy of the teachers. We have what they call section leaders at school. Above them are the assistant headmasters and then the headmaster.
7. If you’ve got a suggestion, chances of your suggestions getting through would be much higher to first consult with one of the section leaders.
8. Headmaster has changed while I was back in Dar for two weeks.
9. Some teachers do take going to class and giving lessons seriously, and others do not.
10. Laboratory equipments are scarce, especially for biology. I haven’t spotted a light microscope yet.
11. After randomly meeting with an O-level teacher, who is currently teaching all the chemistry lessons from Form 1 to 4 (Grade 7 to 10), I found out that there was in fact a shortage of science teachers not in the A-level but in the O-level classes.
12. Starting from January when the school year for O-level begins, I’ll be taking over his Form 1 and 2 lessons which means I’ll be teaching total of nine 80-minute lessons (1 lesson for Form 5 and 4 lessons each for Form 1 and 2) per week which is standard for the education volunteers.
13. This week is the nation-wide examination period for Form 2 students. The exams are taking place in all the secondary schools including mine. All the teachers and Form 5/6 students are supposed to be at school for regular classes, but on Monday, an invigilator from the ministry of education requested to completely close the school for the examination. Apparently, this kind of abrupt change in plans happens occasionally. Makes me wonder how I could plan out my lessons to cover everything on the syllabus till the end of the school year.
So here I am with this so much extra time in my hand, writing this post.
All together with the month of break ahead, I’ll take this as an opportunity to plan my lessons ahead and studying Kiswahili, since the students in lower grades generally have lower English proficiency compared to those in the A-level. There’s also an annual volunteer conference and a conference for education volunteers in Dar for me to attend in mid- December.
After all, when the new school year starts in next January, there won’t be any major breaks until next September. (According to the official schedule and that if there was no long-term blackouts or major shortages of water)
Friday, November 28, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
[Photos] Memories of Dar es Salaam
It's Friday and my first week of work is over!
I'm slowly settling in my place and becoming used to much slow-paced life on the island. Although it's only been a week, I've learned a great deal about my school. I'll be sure to have a detailed blog update on it, but I'd like to put up some pictures from the 6 weeks of my stay in Dar. (With the slow internet connection, I don't know how much of them I could upload. I7ll try nonetheless.)
View from our bus on the way from the Salvation Army back to our dorm. A mini-van with yellow stripes is daladala, a public transportation. It gets over packed during rush hours. Worse than the rush hour trains in Tokyo in my opinion. I'm glad I don't have to deal with it any more because the daladalas in Zanzibar don't let any more passengers get on when the seats are filled.
Nicholas, our Kiswahili teacher.
Beatrice, another Kiswahili teacher.
I'm slowly settling in my place and becoming used to much slow-paced life on the island. Although it's only been a week, I've learned a great deal about my school. I'll be sure to have a detailed blog update on it, but I'd like to put up some pictures from the 6 weeks of my stay in Dar. (With the slow internet connection, I don't know how much of them I could upload. I7ll try nonetheless.)
View from our bus on the way from the Salvation Army back to our dorm. A mini-van with yellow stripes is daladala, a public transportation. It gets over packed during rush hours. Worse than the rush hour trains in Tokyo in my opinion. I'm glad I don't have to deal with it any more because the daladalas in Zanzibar don't let any more passengers get on when the seats are filled.
Nicholas, our Kiswahili teacher.
Beatrice, another Kiswahili teacher.Okay, this is as much as I can do for now.
I'm going to dedicate myself in cleaning and preparing my place because the place had nothing except some basic furnitures like a bed, a table, chairs and a couch when I came in. It's in a rediculously good shape though. Hopefully I can get stoves and all the cooking utencils this weekend so that I can start cooking.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Out of the Bubble (a short announcement)
I'm finally off to my site today.
I'm exected to be at school tomorrow (Monday) at 7 o'clock in the morning to observe the lessons and take care of some formalities.
Quite excited to be on my own again!
I'm exected to be at school tomorrow (Monday) at 7 o'clock in the morning to observe the lessons and take care of some formalities.
Quite excited to be on my own again!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
The Work
What I thought I was expected to do from the school was to simply be a human resource to cope with the shortage of science teachers by giving lessons. Thus what most of the education volunteers do is to teach 18-24 40-minute periods per week.
But it seems that is not going to be my case, at least for a while, because the issues at my school appear to be somewhat different from that of other Tanzanian schools the volunteers work at.
Here’re several things I have found out during my visit about the current situation at the school:
1. There are more than 1000 students at the school.
Because there’re not enough rooms to accommodate the gigantic number of students, the school is dividing it’s sessions into morning and evening sessions. All the Advanced level classes (equivalent of grades 11 and 12) which I’m supposed to teach, are fit into the morning session which starts from 7am and ends at 1pm.
(Grades 7-10 are called Ordinary or O-level. Though the medium of instruction for entire secondary education is supposed to be in English, in reality much of the O-level classes, especially at the lower grades, are done mostly in Swahili which I’m not yet fluent enough to give lessons with.)
2. No shortage of teachers.
It appears that the school currently has sufficient number of teachers to deal with its number of students. The usual case of Tanzanian secondary schools is that the teachers are scarce especially in the Advanced level sciences and math subjects, but there are four teachers including me who are responsible for teaching A-level biology and chemistry.
3. No Lessons(?)
During the three days of my visit at the school, I saw students in every class room, talking or waiting, but I did not see any teachers in any of the classrooms giving lessons. The teachers appeared to be either having an extremely long break or not leaving the staff room at all until the session was over for the day.
4. Only 4-6 periods per week for my lesson
Because we have so many teachers for the subjects I was supposed to teach and there are only one A-level science class, I have discussed with the teachers and they decided to distribute the periods among three of us, each of us teaching different sections on the syllabus. One lesson usually consists of two 40-minute periods which means I’m going to be teaching only two to three lessons a week.
With a possible exception of the third point, the current situation of the school I have observed is not what I’ve heard as typical of Tanzanian schools. Based on the observations so far, here’re some of my tentative plans on what I’ll be doing for the next three months.
1-Observe the lessons of other teachers and see how it’s done. (for the first two weeks of November before the school is closed for break in December)
2-Lessons: the way we distributed the periods may be inefficient, but without any extra information on the school, I figured I’d better stick with the idea. (I also do not want to offend the teachers by expressing too much of my opinion at this point. Tanzanian culture values politeness and the respect for elders and I’m by far the youngest one among the teachers.)
3 Communication: come to school everyday and stay there for all day to talk with the teachers and the students to find out how often the teachers are giving lessons during the week, and how they are giving assignments and tests.
4 Earn Their Trust: Since I’m the first foreign volunteer at the school and the teachers and the students are definitely not used to work with a person like me, either consciously or sub-consciously, it is natural for them to be on alert of my presence (despite of the seemingly warm welcome I received from everyone) or consider myself merely as a foreign guest. What I have to do besides grasping the situation at the school is to show that I’m capable of adapting to the life in Tanzanian school system by conducting solid lessons and improving my Kiswahili.
To be honest, I am slightly confused by the twisted situation of the school, but I’ll see what I can do with the plans above. After the three months, when I feel ready and fully accepted by everyone not as a foreign guest but as a teacher, I’ll make some proposals to the school based on what I’ve learnt until then. The proposals can be; setting up tutorial sessions during my spare time, taking over the other teachers’ lessons, teaching additional subjects i.e. math and physics or teaching O-level if I have sufficient tact of Kiswahili by then.
When everything fails after my research and work for the three months and I truly believe that my presence at the school is not needed, I will submit a request to the volunteer coordinator, the headmaster of the school and the ministry of education to transfer myself into a school that is suffering from the shortage of the teaching staff.
Overall though, I’m really excited for the challenge. The kind of challenge I have never faced before.
If you got any suggestions on my work, let me know!
But it seems that is not going to be my case, at least for a while, because the issues at my school appear to be somewhat different from that of other Tanzanian schools the volunteers work at.
Here’re several things I have found out during my visit about the current situation at the school:
1. There are more than 1000 students at the school.
Because there’re not enough rooms to accommodate the gigantic number of students, the school is dividing it’s sessions into morning and evening sessions. All the Advanced level classes (equivalent of grades 11 and 12) which I’m supposed to teach, are fit into the morning session which starts from 7am and ends at 1pm.
(Grades 7-10 are called Ordinary or O-level. Though the medium of instruction for entire secondary education is supposed to be in English, in reality much of the O-level classes, especially at the lower grades, are done mostly in Swahili which I’m not yet fluent enough to give lessons with.)
2. No shortage of teachers.
It appears that the school currently has sufficient number of teachers to deal with its number of students. The usual case of Tanzanian secondary schools is that the teachers are scarce especially in the Advanced level sciences and math subjects, but there are four teachers including me who are responsible for teaching A-level biology and chemistry.
3. No Lessons(?)
During the three days of my visit at the school, I saw students in every class room, talking or waiting, but I did not see any teachers in any of the classrooms giving lessons. The teachers appeared to be either having an extremely long break or not leaving the staff room at all until the session was over for the day.
4. Only 4-6 periods per week for my lesson
Because we have so many teachers for the subjects I was supposed to teach and there are only one A-level science class, I have discussed with the teachers and they decided to distribute the periods among three of us, each of us teaching different sections on the syllabus. One lesson usually consists of two 40-minute periods which means I’m going to be teaching only two to three lessons a week.
With a possible exception of the third point, the current situation of the school I have observed is not what I’ve heard as typical of Tanzanian schools. Based on the observations so far, here’re some of my tentative plans on what I’ll be doing for the next three months.
1-Observe the lessons of other teachers and see how it’s done. (for the first two weeks of November before the school is closed for break in December)
2-Lessons: the way we distributed the periods may be inefficient, but without any extra information on the school, I figured I’d better stick with the idea. (I also do not want to offend the teachers by expressing too much of my opinion at this point. Tanzanian culture values politeness and the respect for elders and I’m by far the youngest one among the teachers.)
3 Communication: come to school everyday and stay there for all day to talk with the teachers and the students to find out how often the teachers are giving lessons during the week, and how they are giving assignments and tests.
4 Earn Their Trust: Since I’m the first foreign volunteer at the school and the teachers and the students are definitely not used to work with a person like me, either consciously or sub-consciously, it is natural for them to be on alert of my presence (despite of the seemingly warm welcome I received from everyone) or consider myself merely as a foreign guest. What I have to do besides grasping the situation at the school is to show that I’m capable of adapting to the life in Tanzanian school system by conducting solid lessons and improving my Kiswahili.
To be honest, I am slightly confused by the twisted situation of the school, but I’ll see what I can do with the plans above. After the three months, when I feel ready and fully accepted by everyone not as a foreign guest but as a teacher, I’ll make some proposals to the school based on what I’ve learnt until then. The proposals can be; setting up tutorial sessions during my spare time, taking over the other teachers’ lessons, teaching additional subjects i.e. math and physics or teaching O-level if I have sufficient tact of Kiswahili by then.
When everything fails after my research and work for the three months and I truly believe that my presence at the school is not needed, I will submit a request to the volunteer coordinator, the headmaster of the school and the ministry of education to transfer myself into a school that is suffering from the shortage of the teaching staff.
Overall though, I’m really excited for the challenge. The kind of challenge I have never faced before.
If you got any suggestions on my work, let me know!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
The Site
A typical volunteer life in Africa that people would imagine goes something like this:
Living in a thatched roof house, without running water or electricity, located in the village surrounded only by vast grassland.
Considering the idea, Zanzibar is not a typical place for a volunteer to be in, especially the world famous Stonetown. But that’s where I’m posted; a school located right in the middle of Stonetown.
Most of the education volunteers are posted on the mainland, mostly the schools in rural areas of Southern highlands or Southeast where they desperately need teachers. So it came with a surprise and a little disappointment that I’m actually going to be working at a school in the urban setting (though it’s Stonetown). Through what I’ve experienced during my trip however, I realized that despite of the location of the school and the fact that the place was well-known as a tourist destination, there is a great deal of things to do as a volunteer even at a school located in Stonetown. (Story about my work place is continued on to the next entry)
Having said that, here’re some photos from my trip.
Sunset and a dhow boat.
My school. Besides the location and the 3 floors, it is a typical school you find over here.
He's quite a popular figure in Tanzania. (only a day left before the election!)
A roof top view, from the guest house I stayed, of Stonetown.
Living in a thatched roof house, without running water or electricity, located in the village surrounded only by vast grassland.
Considering the idea, Zanzibar is not a typical place for a volunteer to be in, especially the world famous Stonetown. But that’s where I’m posted; a school located right in the middle of Stonetown.
Most of the education volunteers are posted on the mainland, mostly the schools in rural areas of Southern highlands or Southeast where they desperately need teachers. So it came with a surprise and a little disappointment that I’m actually going to be working at a school in the urban setting (though it’s Stonetown). Through what I’ve experienced during my trip however, I realized that despite of the location of the school and the fact that the place was well-known as a tourist destination, there is a great deal of things to do as a volunteer even at a school located in Stonetown. (Story about my work place is continued on to the next entry)
Having said that, here’re some photos from my trip.
Sunset and a dhow boat.
My school. Besides the location and the 3 floors, it is a typical school you find over here.
He's quite a popular figure in Tanzania. (only a day left before the election!)
A roof top view, from the guest house I stayed, of Stonetown.
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