Teaching the Teachers

After a short stint away from teaching, I finally got back on the horse, so to speak. Sometimes it felt like the holiday break had been going on forever. Not that I hated working at GBI, because I actually did enjoy using my admin gifts even if it sounds totally nerdy, but it is not where my passion lies.

For me, I love the look of excitement on a student's face when they are learning something new, when they really GET IT for the first time. I love being a part of that, even if it is the faces of teachers learning new ways of teaching a subject they had, for the most part, ignored in the past.

The latter of the two is what I got to experience this last week. I was the teacher of teachers. A friend had asked me a of couple weeks ago if I would come to the school he worked at to do a training on teaching reading. I was more than happy to do it.

There were about 25 teachers at the training from all levels, pre-school to 7th grade. Fortunately, it wasn't too big of a stretch to tell them that they could use most of the strategies I was teaching in any level, especially since kids are currently leaving primary school without basic reading skills. I got a lot of great feedback from the training, and I actually really enjoyed myself while doing it. One teacher was nodding at everything I said like it was the most genious thing anyone had ever told him, and then he came to ask more questions during the break and at the end(and I'm pretty sure it wasn't because he was looking for a mzungu wife!). I figure it's a good sign when teachers ask additional questions...it shows they were listening and want to know more.

Now, the kids will be returning on Monday for the second term of school. My time is running out quick, but I'm excited to work with them for at least a few more weeks and I'm hoping that the teachers will continue to use some of the reading strategies I've shown them.