Tot To Teen

Teaching to a room of thirty-four Ghanaian students; me, a young white girl standing at the front of the class alone. It's what I've always wanted to do - to teach. And finally today I did it in a country I am not from, with students I do not know, and with a book I've never read before.

I taught three different classes on Comprehension over the course of the morning. Two fourth grade classes and one fifth grade class. I was given a book by one of the teachers and told that the students would let me know where they had left off in their work. That was it.

I've never been in a Ghanaian classroom before, never been exposed to the way in which the students learn, what they are familiar with, and what they are supposed to be doing. But there I was and I had to make my own decisions about what to do. The first class wasn't supposed to start until 8:30 but since most of the students were there at 8:00 I passed out notebook paper that I had brought, to each of them. On the paper they wrote their names, how many brothers and sisters they have, their favorite subject, and their favorite fruit. It's going to be difficult to learn all of the students' names but hopefully over the four months I am here I will be able to do it.

The second class was slightly different because I didn't have enough paper to do the activity with them that I had done before. We did the same lesson that the first class did and the students took turn reading a passage and then answered questions about it. At the end of class I let them ask me questions about where I am from, why I'm here, and how long I'll be here. There were lots of questions - what does your brother look like? Do you have children? How many universities are there in America? Where do you live? and the list goes on...

Then I ended the day with the fifth graders who are slightly more rambunctious. The activity that we did was a little more difficult and required them to write a passage in their workbooks. After each class finished with their workbooks I was supposed to collect them and grade them all. I'm not sure if the teachers do this while the students are just talking to one another or if they save it for later. Also, I realized that I need to find out the rules on discipline - one of the students tattled on another that he was writing in the book and I wasn't quite sure what to do. I asked the students what the teachers do to get the class to be quiet and once I did, I realized I already knew the answer. The teachers cane them. I told them that I will put my finger to my lips and they will follow. Once everyone is quiet then I will begin teaching. I'm also going to use some transitions that I've learned from the education classes I've taken at Tulane to help class go more smoothly. That is, if I'm not told the next time that I go in that I've done it all wrong today. You never know in Ghana.

Also, getting to Tot To Teen was easier than I thought it might be. I stood on the side of the road (about ten minutes away from my house), got a trotro going towards Madina and then got off at the market. Once I got off though I had no idea where I was - it was like being in New York City without all of the tall buildings. There were people going in all directions and it was only 7:15 in the morning. I stopped a man and asked him where I could get a trotro to Adenta and he motioned to me to follow him. When I got to the main road I had no problem getting a trotro and got to school on time. The commute is about an hour.

I'm excited to be teaching in this school, to learn from the students I am teaching, and to explore what the Ghanaian education system is like. Already in one of my classes (Sociological Foundations for Development Studies) I have read a report about using English as the medium of instruction in primary schools in Ghana. The study that was conducted found that it is better to teach in the child's mother-tongue for the first three years at school. However, when the NPP government came into control it instituted English as the primary language for all students with the argument that it would be difficult to provide instruction in the multiple languages that exist in Ghana. Whether or not this is true remains controversial.