Teaching is Learning

                                                                                                                                     (Wrote on Friday)

     The desks are empty. The floor is swept. The rooms are quiet. The blackboard is blank. Memories float like ghosts throughout the warm rays of afternoon light floating in. A child’s smile. Another’s tears. Quiet times with testing minds working hard. Loud times with preposition learning way back on day one….It is hard to think I have one more bus ride till I too am leaving school. Dust will soon settle in the month long vacation that started today at noon. However, this past month has opened so many windows and doors that have helped me learn so much on a profession and personal level. Lessons that will forever influence me as a teacher.

            Individual desk; computers; lined, poster, colored, loose leaf paper; tape; laminators; roll call sheets; books; printers; copiers; break period; glue. In any of the schools and lesson plans I’ve ever had before these are just some of the many assumed resources available to use. That is not the case here. One of the biggest things I’ve learned this month concerning my profession is the need to teach to the students’ needs with the resources available. There is no corner store you can pop over to or a fully stocked supply room just down the hall. However, just because resources may seem limited doesn’t mean to give less to students. With an old puzzle book (missing its pieces), a thin cover over a sample big book, two pieces of old cardboard from calendars, 8 brass brackets, old letter head paper from Minnesota stuffed in old boxes, and markers I was able to create a small class set of clocks to help teach time. Most of this was either in the garbage or just a quick look around. Sometimes the best resource one has is their commonsense and focus on topic. I have never taught or researched any of the lessons I did throughout this month. I just knew there was a purpose that needed to be grasped in 70 minds and prepped for that…and sometimes I abandoned the written plan and adapted to haw the students were responding. That is the second thing I learned: adaptability is not spontaneity and need to follow the purpose one is wanting to achieve. This could be in confirming to existing order or other teachers’ ideas on some things or adapting own style to order, lesson structure and activities as the students’ learning requires it. This could also include getting out of the teachers’ lounge to do fun class community bonding experiences to strengthen teacher-student relations. I have really learned professionally how important it is to have positive relationships and communication between students, teachers, and administration. This helps so much with classroom management and the learning environment. Instead of a teacher just holding power (mostly in the form of the cane) over students to either fear or not care, trust, respect, and understand of each other is needed. Using resources wisely, adapting with a purpose and emphasizing positive student-teacher relations are three things that I learned in the professional setting.

            Sitting in a lecture with undivided attention is hard. Jumping into conversations with new acquaintance is petrifying. Letting anyone know about me without safety walls is unthinkable. Whenever I’m in a classroom these feeling melt away and I am at a confident peace in what I am doing. One of the things I’ve personally been affirmed is how alive I feel around students. No matter how little sleep I got or how bad a morning I dealt with, I don’t feel (or remember) any of it until after I return home for the day. When there is a student around, it doesn’t matter that they ask repetitive questions or need to go to the toilet, but that they can learn and understand what is required of them. At school it’s not about me, but the students. Along with focusing on students’ needs, I also have learned to set aside nay thoughts of peoples’ judgment and jump into something new and goofy with a fun attitude and high energy. This was most apparent to me when I taught the students an new repeat-after-me-song called “Pizza Man” and we did it while other teachers, administrators and students roamed about. It may not make MTV’s top 20 song list, but the kids love getting into it. Now whenever I see them I do the Pizza Man sign and they copy it silently to the bewilderment of those around them. This also has strengthened my relationship with the students as they know I allow time for fun and noise, but also require silence and diligence to work at others. I am more comfortable being myself and having confidence in my abilities with interacting with students than I do anywhere else.

            No one chooses a major and spends three years at a private liberal arts school working for it without an inner drive. When I was a freshman in high school I had the assignment of researching something that related to me personally. While I was watching a commercial with beautiful African children’s faces on it, I heard a voice as close to my ear and as deep as my heart saying: “This is what I want you to do.” I did my project on HIV and AIDS orphans in Africa and have spent the past seven years working towards the goal of teaching someday in East Africa. Finally being here, if only for a month, has positively and completely confirmed my perspective of teaching. I feel such freedom in doing God’s will and knowing He gives me peace and confidence to keep going. This trip has come at a perfect place in my life as I still have a year at Whitworth where I can use 1^st world country’s resources to prepare me to return here after graduation. I feel more at home here than I have in many other settings in the states. When I’ve designed lessons and taught for practicum in the states I’ve always had the moto “This is helping me somehow to prepare for God’s will” and it’s been reaffirming to see how it has prepared me and how eager I m to learn even more.

            The courtyard is silent. The canes are idol. The lunchroom is vacant. The buses are parked. Warm air rustles the leaves. Time keeps going. Sometime it is slow (pole pole) like a chameleon, while other times it is fast (haraka haraka) like a cheetah. Throughout it all I have learned more about myself professionally, personally and my future as a teacher.