"So You Think You Can Teach? Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" - Part I

Round Three:

Bring your best

Congratulations, you have made it through rounds one and two of, “So You Think You Can Teach: Rwanda.”  Round three will highlight what it is that I do here, and therefore, will focus less on what the Rwandan teachers do, and more on what it means to stop talking the methodology talk and instead put your money where your mouth is.  Here in round three you may find yourself reveling in the joy of work well done, being schooled in front of ten or so Rwandan teachers by a pack of six and seven year old students, sweating buckets in a hot, dark classroom, picking up every stray bottle cap you can find, or wondering far too late why it is that you never learned the alimentary canal system within the digestive system in fifth grade.

Round three finds the folks who are wanting to stretch themselves as teachers and human beings after many internet searches, inquires, applications, discussions, correspondences, trainings, and travel to Rwanda acting as Basic Methodology Trainers at primary and secondary schools in Bugesera District.  What this means practically speaking is that you are putting yourself forward as a trainer and resource person for teachers and schools on how to more effectively teach any subject at any level.  In other words you are now, the guru, specialist, authority, professional and all around educational "expert" who is supposed to know everything, and will have to perform at any level for any subject at anytime.  Round three is really all about going big or going home.  With that understood I say, "Let the games begin!"

 

He makes it all look so easy


First, know that most of what you say will be misunderstood as you have just arrived in the country and don’t speak the mother tongue, and most of the people that you work with do not speak your language, although out of politeness they will pretend that they understand what you are saying, and it will be only after getting into some task that requires their help or translation that will you realize they have absolutely no idea what it is that you were trying to convey.  Therefore, you are on your own, perhaps in front of 60 plus students modeling best practices while an audience of ten or so teachers, who have gathered to observe the “expert,” sit silent and stony faced in the back row as your expert self begins to sweat.
Second, know that you will often arrive at a school prepared to observe several teachers in order to give them feedback and ideas for learner centered lessons, only to find that one or more of the teachers are gone, so the head teacher would like you to step into the classroom and take over the teaching as that is what would be most helpful at this time.  “Um, sure…” you mumble as you stumble into a hot, dark classroom full of eager students who stand and politely greet you, and then sit down,  waiting to do whatever it is the strange lady who can’t speak proper Kinyarwanda asks them to do.  Being polite students they will sing, dance, repeat, chant, move, and do anything this expert teacher asks them to do, including repeating, “listen”, “try this”, “no wait”, “don’t repeat”, “just a minute”, “oh, goodness”, “okay, no really wait”, “just sit and listen”, “STOP!” and the like.  They aim to please, and since what they are usually asked to do is repeat and mimic what they see and hear, they are polite experts themselves indeed.  They may even laugh, grimace, or put their hand over their eyes slowly shaking their head just like you, as you look up to see several teachers watching and laughing at you in this sweltering classroom slowly melting as you wonder who is watching their students if they are standing around laughing at you.  

I think this is the way to go



Third, know that you had better have a big bag of both literal and figurative tricks, be quick on your feet, know the Rwandan tools of carpentry, as well as how to diagram both in the inner and the outer eye quickly and from memory.  To prepare your literal bag of tricks, you will need to save each pencil, crayon, marker, decent looking stone or stick, bottle cap, nail, string, newspaper, and tissue box you come across, as well as every last scrap of cardboard or paper you find as the school supply room consists primarily of white chalk, well, I guess if you are really lucky you might find a few colored pieces in there too.  You save every last pencil, crayon, marker, decent looking stone or stick as you will need them to demonstrate the wisdom and joy of using teaching aides beyond a piece of chalk, a chalkboard, and the sound of your own voice.



The famous digestive system



For your figurative bag of tricks all you can do is thank any teacher who ever taught you anything that stuck, and do your best as you will have zero reference books or Ms. Know it All-Google to fall back upon.  It is all what you have stored in that gray matter of yours and nothing else for this round.

With your bag of tricks packed, get ready for an extreme contact sport known as co-teaching.  Sounds innocent enough I know, but it is not for the faint of heart or slow of wit and imagination.  It involves showing up at a school after a long, bumpy moto ride, peeling yourself off the moto, trying to get your helmet off before being mobbed by students all shouting, “Good Morning Teacher,” rushing into the teacher’s room, and preparing one of four or five ESL lessons on any subject, at any level, of best practices, and with local didactic materials in 40 minutes or less.  You will co-plan and co-teach this lesson with  teachers who will try their very best to follow your logic, reasoning, and rationale only to politely tell you that it is not possible and could we please just teach the way they always do: chalk in hand, standing at the board talking, and on occasion asking the students if they understand, to which they all reply, “Hummmm,” Rwandan child speak for, “Sure teach, sure,” give them rote exercises to do, which they  take 15 minutes to correct, and call it good?  You will then have to convince them, as you desperately try to remember the difference between communicative and distributive properties that your learner-centered lesson with flash cards, visual aids, and peer correction is superior - albeit more involved.

You will then work desperately to construct a lesson with this teacher in which you both have a role to play and will ensure that they and the students so enjoy it that they will be converted to your “put the learner first” ways forever, thus fulfilling your mission as a basic methodology trainer in Rwanda.  Ta Da!  Piece of cake right?  Maybe…but let’s leave that for the Part II of, "So You Think You Can Teach: Rwanda.  Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is."