on teaching

I'm on Day Two of teaching English, and it's already been a long week! But it's also been a great week. I'm enjoying getting to know the students. I'm also enjoying the challenge of building their confidence in their writing and grammar skills. I hope I'm helping ... there are some big challenges to teaching in Liberia. One of the biggest problems is that there are hardly any textbooks. Students go to college without textbooks, even. The closest one can get to a college bookstore is a stand on the side of the road where students can buy old, random English or geometry or biology books.

This makes the 45-minute class period a difficult time to navigate. I've watched the teachers here, and they spend a lot of time writing examples on the board. The chalkboards aren't very good. Photocopies are expensive. Right now, I'm teaching about 120 students. I have a grammar book that I use to make my lesson plans, but my plan is to try to make photocopies for some of the classes.

I originally wanted to do more counseling than teaching during my time at Ganta United Methodist High School. But I'm finding that teaching English is helping me build relationships with the students and perhaps will make counseling more natural and maybe even easier. Here is an encouraging example: Today, one of my students told me about one of his classmates who hadn't been to school for several days and didn't know if she was coming back for reasons I won't discuss right now. So we walked to her house and I got to sit with her and encourage her and just reach out to her.

She promised she'd be back to school on Monday. And I know the problems she is facing right now aren't going to go away now. But getting back to school is a start. And now we have the beginning of a relationship that can be fostered in and out of the classroom. I look forward to investing in the lives of high schoolers here — especially the young women.

Tomorrow is another full day of classes. After school, I'm hosting the first “English Pop Quiz Club.” (If you think of a better name, send it to me. Every great event must have great name!) So many Liberian youth love games and competitions, so we are going to have a grammar drill competition to help them practice punctuation, subject-verb agreement, etc. I'm giving away candy and canned soft drinks as prizes. I hope there's a good turnout.

Every day at around 11 a.m. (this is during recess), I'm also available to students in the guidance counseling room, so pray for that time if you get a chance (that's 7 a.m. if you East Coasters are up!) A girl in one of my classes today told me she'd be stopping by to see me tomorrow.

Comments

[jen]

girl - i can just see you do an amazing job teaching and counseling these kids!!

and you made me smile w/your naming of the event - makes me think of all the things w/did that had great names thanks to you! :)

miss you and am sending you a big hug!