Teacher Training

We are happy to have a guest writer this week, Melissa Benton our close friend and third grade teacher who has been running a teacher training workshop with Leora Klein for the last 12 days in Malawi. Take it away Mel....

Leora and I did not know what to expect. We both spent months gathering materials, items that would have otherwise ended up in our schools’ waste bins. The truth is that all of the preparation in the world could not have prepared us for the 14 teachers we were assigned to work with. The teachers ranged in age and experience. One had over 25 years of classroom experience, while several of them had not yet graduated from their teacher education programs. Although we mastered Chichewa greetings, we experienced a few communication difficulties. Don’t get me wrong, their English was ok, in fact, it was quite good, but between our accents and sometimes speaking too quickly, we were often left with big smiles, which in Chichewa means, “I have no idea what you are taking about.”

All of the communication mishaps aside, Leora and I felt that we were able to share many ideas with the teachers as well as learn a lot from them. We covered a range of topics in the two week workshop including creative writing, classroom management, and research skills. The teachers were excited and enthusiastic, and it turns out that no matter where you teach or what you teach, the challenges facing educators are pretty universal—too many students (I really can’t complain, the Malawian classrooms have at least 50 kids per class), not enough time, meeting the needs of all learners, not enough materials... The successes are common, too—creating an inspiring lesson, watching a child enjoy a book, the light bulb moments when your students truly demonstrate a passion and understanding for learning. The light bulb moments are a problem when the lights keep going out. (Note, the electricity went out as I was writing this). We really came to appreciate the Goods for Goods philosophy of not only providing necessary supplies for communities, but empowering local people to help themselves and improve their communities. I hope that our workshop helps the teachers to improve the education of their students, because these are the children that will one day become the leaders of this country.