Clearer Skies

This morning I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, even though my alarm is set for 6. After begrudgingly opening my eyes, I noticed the heavy poking of rain on our tin roof. Our driver arrived late to take us to school. I had to dodge puddles of mud as I quickly floundered toward the car. Arriving at school, I was greeted with the realization that I was the only Form 1 teacher who was prepared for our observation by the assistant field director.

I quickly emailed a much needed vent to my boyfriend, "Its 7:30am and I'm already so annoyed."

However, I'm starting to wonder if there's some magical Mzungu godmother in Tanzania. Soon after my email, the murky clouds began to part ways, both literally and figuratively. I started my first lesson of the day, Describing Objects. Students quickly caught on to the meaning of adjectives and the nouns they describe. We've hit rough waters before when discussing parts of speech, so I breathed a sigh of relief when I sensed their understanding. They were even able to tie the lesson back to our previous lessons on Measurements and Colors. Our second lesson was surprisingly just as smooth! We discussed different modes of transportation and were able to build them into sentences that included when, where, and how the subject was traveling. I caught some students including phrases we hadn't even discussed!

Just as I was showering my students with much deserved praise, the Assistant Firld Director popped in for her visit. I was eager to show her the smooth progress my students had made in the day's time. She seemed pleased with the positive classroom aura. To make her visit even better, she brought two jars of Nutella for our house (we're addicted)!!

Only towards the end of the day, did I notice the students' eagerness begin to decline. The phonics portion of our day requires loud voices and a lot of movement, so I can understand why students were feeling tired, especially after an already long day. However, after reminding the same students multiple times to keep doing their gestures, I could hear the twang of frustration in my voice. Finally, I reasoned, I've had a long day, too!

No, I didn't just cancel school for the day. Instead, I called on one of my more resistant students (typically a boisterous clown) to come to the front. The look on his face showed that he expected a far worse punishment, but I simply handed him the pointer and said, "Teach phonics." After a few minutes of timid instruction, Shabani finally embraced his role of teacher. He even began yelling at students to pay attention and speak louder! The lesson worked so well, I actually let other students conduct the following three sounds. My earlier spark of irritation had been totally vanquished, and back to replace it was my peace of mind.