I realized recently that I haven’t
explained very much about my job, and that that might be rather confusing for
everyone back home. As you’ve probably already gathered from this blog, a large
portion of being a Peace Corps Volunteer takes places outside of the workplace.
The lessons, experiences, and mutual giving are most definitely not confined to
the workplace. We’re Americans though, so it comes back around to the job
eventually: “But what is she doing
over there??” Well, I’ll tell you:
My official job title as an Education PCV
in Ethiopia is English Teacher Trainer. This means that unlike most Education
PCVs in most countries, we don’t have a class of our own. Instead, we’re in
more of a consulting and training position. Our first goal is to help English
teachers in primary schools (grades 1-8) improve their English and adopt more
interactive/communicative teaching techniques. Our second goal is to help
students via extracurriculars which means that it falls within our job scope
if we start an English club for students.
This past month I’ve finally started
making headway on both of those goals. Now, the key word there is started. What I’ve accomplished with the
teachers would hardly be considered an accomplishment in America, but bear with
me.
As part of our teacher-focused goal,
we’re encouraged to establish a model classroom that would be spruced up with
visual aids, to be used for teaching model lessons and training teachers on how
to better use the classroom space itself. My school is struggling financially,
so finding an appropriate space was quite difficult, but one day a storage room
happened to be open, and I saw that if renovated, it would be the perfect space
for such a classroom. And after a two hour meeting, my school director and his
supervisor agreed with me! So the room is slowly being cleared out for me, and
I hope to begin using it in the next month. Renovating it will be another
story, since they don’t have funding for such an endeavor. My one funding
option would be to post my project on the Peace Corps website and ask all of
you wonderful people to donate to my cause… so stay tuned, I may be asking for
your help!
In addition to the classroom quest, last
week I taught a model lesson for 8th graders on how to read for
understanding, and I think the teacher really like the ideas I presented, and
will be asking me to help him continue to help students with reading
comprehension. I also observed the 6th grade English teacher and
gave him some constructive feedback afterwards, which he took gracefully,
saying he’d try to implement my suggestion in the future. I’m hoping to repeat
that process with him maybe next week. So I’m taking baby steps toward working
directly with the teachers, and I hope beyond hope that it will continue to
build as I go. In the meantime, I’ve committed to being at the school for a
minimum of an hour each day, during which I chat with the teachers in English,
to help them with their own conversation skills, and to build rapport.
With the students, I have a weekly
English club that my site mate and I co-started. She’s traveling in India this
month though, so it’s just me. Last week we did Christmas, and before that we
did parts of the body and weather. Mixed in with these fun lesson topics we’ll
be inserting mini lessons on English instruction words, so that they’ll start
to be able to follow along better in their classes. The students we’ve chosen
are about 30 4th – 6th graders, most of whom are known to
be OVCs – orphans or vulnerable children. They’re a very rewarding group to
work with. They’re eager to learn and energetic, despite our meeting taking
place after the school day.
It’s slow going, to be sure. The amount
of time that I’ve been here and the amount of work I’ve been able to do that
can be quantified and reported is a frustrating comparison, but Peace Corps
isn’t solely about the measurable outcomes or the quick successes. They say
that most PCVs don’t feel that they really get a lot of work done until the
second year, and I’m starting to understand not only why that is, but why
that’s good. Every day that I go to
school and chat with the teachers, I piece together another bit of the puzzle
of the way things work here, and understanding how things work is key to doing
work that will actually fit their needs. For instance, only a few weeks ago I
learned that the teachers are required to cover every single page of the
textbook. For me, that means that any teaching methods I encourage have to be
able to jive with the textbook lessons,and can’t significantly take time away
from time they would have spent teaching from the book, so that they don’t fall
behind.
I’m starting to feel like I really am
learning the virtue of patience, and I’m happy that we’re encouraged to work
with students while we slowly, ever so slowly try to work with teachers. And of
course, there’s always everything outside of work to keep me on my toes.
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| Fincha Elementary School - the buildings on the right house the offices, the buildings on the left are classrooms. |
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| Two teachers working on their lesson plans during a free period. |
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| The gazebo of sorts where teachers can enjoy tea and bread during the breaks. |
