My First Experiences Teaching at Moro Sec!

I woke up at 5:30am on Monday to give myself plenty of time to eat breakfast and relax before walking to the Morogoro Secondary School. My first class was scheduled for 7:30am. I left the house at 6:30am and walked the only route I knew of to get to school along the main road in town, which ended up taking me half an hour. As I approached the school I saw children of all ages in their uniforms of white button downed shirts and turquoise green pants and skirts. As I walked into the campus I got a lot of curious and rather suspicious looks from many of the students. I walked around the corner and ran into a group of teachers and asked them where I should go to teach my Form 1C English class at 7:30. Alex, the Deputy Head Master of the school, escorted me to the main office and told me to wait for assistance until another teacher could show me where to go. I was met shortly after by another teacher who teaches history and geography. Although I cannot remember his name (it was hard for me to pronounce when I first met him so I don’t remember it), we chatted for a while about what I was doing at the school and how he found the campus etc. As we were talking I was surprised to see another teacher lead another white girl into the office. She looked about as confused as I had first been when I ran into all those teachers when I arrived on campus. She sat down and introduced herself as Sarah. She said she was a Peace Corps volunteer and had just arrived in Tanzania only a week before and Morogoro the previous Friday. She came to the campus with her host family who lives just near Becky and I on the Kilakala campus road. She was waiting for the four other Peace Corps volunteers to meet her at the school at 8:00. They are going to be studying Kiswahili intensively for the next two months before they go to their final sites where they’ll teach subjects like chemistry and biology.

As we were all getting to know each other Alex popped back into the office and asked Sarah and I to go to the morning assembly with him so the Head Master could introduce us to the students. Because the A-Level students are still on vacation there were only O-Level students (Form 1-4) present. Sarah and I walked to the front of the area (the assembly was held outdoors in a grassy area in the middle of the school buildings). I felt like I was some sort of dog at a dog show, haha. Everyone was ogling at us! The Head Master asked me to introduce myself first so I stepped forward and told all the students that I was a new teacher who would be teaching Form 1B and 1C English from now on. As soon as made my announcement all of the students started cheering and clapping and jumping up and down. I couldn’t help but smile at their warm welcoming. It felt really good to be so accepted so fast, especially since it’s just me on my own this time as the only WorldTeach volunteer at the school. I stepped back and Sarah took her turn introducing herself. She said she was a Peace Corps volunteer and that she would be at the school learning Kiswahili. The students gave her a huge rush of claps and cheers as well as Sarah retreated to where I was standing behind the Head Master. The Head Master told the students that they should be grateful for our presence on campus and that he expects them to treat us with respect and to listen well when we teach. I thought that was a nice gesture of him. Once he finished his words about us, Alex brought us back to the office to wait again. Sarah was laughing herself silly and was slightly embarrassed because the Head Master had said that she was also going to be a teacher at the school with me. Oops. I guess the students will figure it out sooner or later that I’m the only new teacher (so far at least).

After a minute another Peace Corps volunteer, Carly, joined Sarah and I in the office to wait. I seemed to be waiting a lot during my first day, haha. T.I.T (This is Tanzania) and the cultural motto “Hurry Up and Wait” seemed to be especially salient that morning. The next time I looked at my clock it was already 7:40 and I was late for my first class! I got up and started looking around for Alex again to check to see if someone was coming to show me my classroom. I didn’t want to be any later than I had to be for my first class…I didn’t want to make a poor impression on my new students, after all. I found Alex and he said not to worry. Since it was thestart of a new semester and the first day back on campus for O-Level students who had just finished their break it was unknown where most of the new classes were going to be held. In fact, most of the teachers had no idea where their classes were so I felt a little relieved. Alex insisted he was getting another teacher to show me where my class was, so I sat back down in the office. A moment later the familiar face of Madam Ngowi who was the Academic Master I met the first day I went to Moro Sec to set up my teacher schedule greeted me at the door. She said she was trying to find Madam Shayla, another teacher I had met my first day who also teaches Form 1 English, so she could show me where to go. After 10 minutes Madam Ngowi reported to me that Madam Shayla was sick so Madam Safina would show me to my class instead.

Madam Safina came into the office and introduced herself as the Head of the English Department. I was excited to meet her since I’d be working with her so closely for the rest of the year. She seemed really nice and patient. Funnily, she’s the wife of a teacher at the Kilakala Secondary School whom Becky knows rather well and she lives right next door to us on the Kilakala campus! What a small world! As we walked to the English Department for a brief visit she told me that the Form 4 students are going to take their national exams for the next three weeks and are hence taking up most of the classroom space on campus (there are over 400 Form 4 students at the school). Since the A-Level students are still on break she said that the Form 1 and Form 2 students had been moved to the school’s secondary A-Level campus down the road for the next three weeks. It took us about 10 minutes to walk to the campus. It didn’t look like much when we got there. There were several one-floor school buildings lumped next to each other in a wide-open field and that was about it. There were tons of students scurrying around and the whole campus looked like it was in a state of chaos. Teachers were yelling orders at the students as they ran around with brooms and wet rags to mop the floors. Since it was the first day of school at the A-Level campus in a few weeks, the school buildings had become incredibly dirty and were in need of a good cleaning. Therefore, rather than going to classes on the first day of school, most of the students were cleaning instead. In one way this was good because it was 9:00 by the time we reached the secondary campus and I’d already missed the entirety of my first class, which ends at 8:50 on Mondays. Although my second class didn’t begin until 11:10, I decided to call it off and just start teaching fresh on Tuesday. Since both of the classes I’m teaching are the same levels (Form 1 English) I want to keep them as balanced as possible to make my lesson planning as easy as possible for myself. Before I left the campus, however, Madam Safina and I greeted my two classes and told them I would start teaching them on Tuesday. They seemed pleased.

Madam Safina and I left the campus and took a shortcut to our homes. I’d heard of the shortcut before coming to the school that day, but I didn’t actually know where it was so I’d chosen to just take the long way. Yet, it turns out that it only takes 10 minutes or less to walk between my house and the secondary campus where I’ll be teaching using the shortcut! I was really excited about that. What’s even better is that the shortcut runs right through the local food market where Becky and I get the majority of our fresh fruits and vegetables, so if we even need anything I can just pick it up on my way home from work. Although I’m only teaching Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, I’m sure I’ll be going through the market often enough so I won’t have to make special trips there, which makes my life easier. Madam Safina and I made it home by 10:30. I’d already had a full day of excitement and it was still just the morning! I prepared myself a delicious lunch of stir fried vegetables and decided to walk to town to run some errands for the rest of the day. On Monday evening I looked over my lesson plans that I’d prepared and watched most of the Invictus movie. I got to bed early to make sure I would be fresh and awake for my first 7:30 class on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning I woke up at 5:45, ate breakfast, bathed, watched the rest of Invictus, and was out the door by 7:00. I decided to attempt taking the shortcut to work and see how it went. I went past the market and followed a seemingly familiar path toward the campus behind a bunch of students clad in their school uniforms. Some of the students were wearing the white and green uniforms I’d seen from the day before so I was sure I was going the right way. After walking for 15 minutes, though, I sensed that I’d gotten a little lost so I ran into a girl in one of the Moro Sec uniforms and asked her what form she was. It turns out that she was one of my own Form 1C students from my first period class! I was relieved and followed her lead to the campus. I made it there just in time for the start of my class.

When I walked into the Form 1C classroom my eyes were overwhelmed to see more than 60 students crammed in the classroom. All of their desks were jammed together so there was absolutely no way I could walk in between the students. I went to the front of the classroom and set my bag down at an empty desk and got out the chalk I’d brought with me that I’d kept since teaching at Dakawa. I wrote my name on the board as “Madam Megan” and began my lesson. I introduced myself and told the students a little bit about who I am and where I’m from. I showed them some pictures of Vermont from a book I’d brought with me. They were pretty wowed by all the snow in the photos of Vermont’s winters. I asked the students if they had any questions for me about anything before I began my actual lesson and they all said no. I had planned to do an icebreaker activity to get to know my students a bit, but since there were so many students I decided to scratch that at the last minute. It would’ve taken the whole class to do something like that and I wanted to make sure I taught them at least something on the first day. So I jumped right in. I began reviewing vocabulary that I thought might be challenging for them from the story “Mabala the Farmer” that I was told to assign the students to read. I went over about 15 vocabulary words. I’d originally planned to put the students in groups to define the words themselves and then go over them as a class, but I didn’t have any paper for the students and some of the students didn’t even have notebooks of their own so I decided to just review the vocabulary myself on the board for the class. Again, I had to be flexible and change my plans. Going over the vocabulary took a lot less time than I’d anticipated so I had to improvise. Luckily, I’d brought the book with me to class. Since I didn’t know what the students’ reading abilities were yet, I decided to make the first day more of a listening exercise. Listening is always the easiest learning exercise to do when you’re learning a new language. Although I thought it would be beneficial since the students could start getting used to the way I pronounce words with my American English background (they’re more used to the British English pronunciation). I read Chapter One to them and asked them comprehension questions after I finished each paragraph to see if they could understand me and were listening. They did surprisingly well and I was happy about that! Then again, only a group of about 8 students consistently insisted on answering my questions and there were more than 60 students in the class, as I said. I assume these 8 students know English a lot more than the majority of the students in class do, so I’ll still have to keep most of my lessons pretty basic. I want to create a diagnostic test to see just how much English my students know. I think I’ll prepare a test like that for Monday’s class next week.

Overall the first class did pretty well with the reading comprehension, but I did have a few problems with them. First of all, many of the students came into the class late. Even by half an hour! As I was going over the vocabulary a ton of students kept knocking on the door from outside and interrupted me while I was teaching. It made it really tough for me to stay on track and I assume these students had a hard time catching up with the lesson since they came in late. I tried to tell the class at the end that I really want them all to come in on time next class because it’s hard to teach when so many people come late. I’m not sure how they’ll do on Thursday, but I guess I’ll see! Also, the class was generally very noisy and chatty. I had to stop reading a lot because they were being so loud. I asked them to quiet down every time they started talking a lot. I shouldn’t have to yell or talk over them in order to teach, you know? Hopefully they’ll be more respectful and ready to listen for the next class. All in all we got through three chapters of the book and we’ll continue from where we left off on Thursday.

At the end of my first class students from the Form 1B class whom I was supposed to teach next knocked on the door and escorted me to their classroom. They insisted on carrying my bag for me to the front on my room. They were really sweet. When I walked into the classroom the room looked a little more organized than the previous class. There were just as many students but there were actual aisles I could walk through! Right at the front of the classroom I had several new pieces of chalk and a board eraser waiting for me. I felt relieved to get such a nice welcoming from this class after a rather chaotic and spontaneous first class. I went through the same lesson as I had with my first class except it flew by with my second class. They were so quiet and studious that I didn’t even have to tell them once to quiet down and listen. They made my job so easy and enjoyable! The lesson went so smoothly that we got through one more chapter than the first class (so much for trying to keep the classes balanced…but then again, if one class behaves better than the other I’m not going to punish them by holding them back just so the other class is on the same page. I want to reward them for being good students). As I left the class some of the students walked me out and one of the guys stopped me and said, “Madam, I really like the way you teach us. You are so good!” I smiled at that, happy that I’d at least satisfied one of the students in the class!

As I walked out I went and chatted with a few of the other teachers on campus and introduced myself to them. Then I took the shortcut home, this time without getting lost! As soon as I got home I was so mentally exhausted that I napped for four straight hours! I got up after, still drowsy, made myself some lunch and watched Ratatouille and then the Whole Ten Yards. I was planning on going to town later, but I just decided to relax and let myself rest after my first big day at school. After all, I’d taught for three hours straight and it was pretty exhausting. I made myself awesome homemade tortillas for dinner to go with more veggie stir fry I’d made earlier for lunch. I cleaned up the house a bit and got to bed early again.

I woke up this morning and went for a run. It felt really good to get some exercise again. While I was in Dar staying with my friend’s mom I used their bicycling machine and started to really like it just as I had to leave to come back to Morogoro. Luckily, running is an enjoyable form of exercise for me, too. After my run I watched a few episodes of Sex and the City and then came to town to pay Becky and I’s Tanesco electricity bill (it was painless this time) and to get more drinking water. Since then I’ve been relaxing at the Oasis Hotel where I can get wireless internet! Life’s pretty good so far this week. Tomorrow is another long day of teaching, but I’m ready for it! I’ll finish up my lesson plan tonight and be ready to teach tomorrow morning. I’ll have more updates later about how teaching goes tomorrow.

That’s it for now! Hope you’re doing great!