Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Working with the 7 teacher trainees, Days 1 and 2

I just finished the second day working with the teacher trainees at Wilgamuwa. They seem totally comfortable with the Learning Center environment, but I am dripping with sweat throughout the lesson. After two days, I have learned some things about the Learning Center. The physical space is nice, it is conducive to learning and feels professional. I do not think the heat is a problem and in fact the atmosphere is very workable. A few issues I’ve discovered include:

Outside noise is a small issue. It rained hard yesterday and we basically had to stop the lesson and wait it out. I wonder whether that may be a problem during the monsoons. Inside noise is more frustrating. The acoustics indoors are not great. I used the CD player for the first time and no one could really hear the recording. There is also a weird echo when you speak which makes it difficult to hear people who speak softly.

The conference table is not good for teaching. There are several places where nobody can sit because there is no leg room. You can’t really fit more than 3 chairs comfortably on either long side. Most seriously, the head of the table is separated from the rest of the table because there is a big gap where nobody can sit because there’s no leg room. The head of the table on the other side is unusable. Also, the table is so long that there is a lack of intimacy.

The lighting is inadequate late in the day.

Patrick and I wonder whether the humidity and moisture will affect papers and materials. We don’t have enough experience in tropical climates to give advice on this but wonder if it’s an issue.

Today we stayed late so Patrick can make a phone call. It’s 7:30 and it’s very buggy. They aren’t biting, but they are all over.
Basically, it feels more like a conference room than a classroom to me.

As far as working with these teachers, they have been very positive with me and seem to be pleased with the work I am doing. I have asked them to write to me at the end of most lessons and they seem satisfied with me so far. Patrick was here today and he confirmed my feeling that they genuinely like me and are relaxed around me. In addition, some of them are starting to look at me as a resource – one person asked me for advice about a lesson she has to teach later this week. One of my major goals is to create a community of learners where they rely on each other, and strides seem to be made in that way. Also, they talk to me more and more honestly. I feel fortunate to be working with this group of teachers.

I have modeled a number of activities for them over the 4 days. One teacher today (Saman) said that he used one of the activities in his classroom today and that it went OK. He was very pleased to have taken a risk with his teaching. Saman is the most likely teacher of this group to try new things, so it is unsurprising that he is the first to use something I’ve done. I think tomorrow or Friday I’m going to model a series of activities, then leave them alone and have them pick one of the activities that they all commit to use the following week. Hopefully the peer pressure will lead them to do it. I need to do more to encourage them to use what I’ve demonstrated. My fear is that some of them just aren’t getting enough practice during the 3 hours to meaningfully change their practice in a permanent way.

Today I had the group teach for the first time. I assigned them in pairs the same content and asked each pair to prepare a lesson teaching the content and focusing on two of the methodologies I’ve emphasized – engagement and speaking. I also directed them to use an activity “call and response” in the lesson. Observing their lessons tells me a few things. First, they are already competent teachers who all have some real strengths. Second, though I haven’t seen them before, it felt like they were not taking many risks with their teaching. They may have felt like they were innovating but to me it felt like they were more or less just doing what they normally do. I could see them trying to get students moving and talking but changing the paradigm will require more time. I have not given them enough opportunities to teach in front of me and need to do more of that in the next few weeks.

I explicitly talked about the problem of teaching 2 hour classes at Saaraketha. Not one of them had ever taught a lesson that is more than 45 minutes, so I am concerned about what they are going to do with that much time. I am going to focus on this problem starting tomorrow and have chosen project-based learning as the way to both help them prepare and also design a communication based curriculum for students. They (and I) are wondering about making projects work with low level English students but until I know more about the students I can’t speak to how to modify a project for the local needs. Elizabeth has some expertise with this, I think, so she will have to be involved in that.

A major issue that arose today is the meeting time commitment. It is almost unheard of to run a professional development workshop every single day for 3 hours after work. I have never participated or heard of one more than 2 days a week or, if more frequent, lasting more than a week. Most of these teachers are teaching 7-8 classes per day before they arrive. That is a lot of work in a profession where you are on performance and is emotionally draining. In their end of day reflection, 2 asked whether we can break earlier and one of those noted that she did not get home until 7:30 last night. While they have all been willing to work so far, it’s only the second day and I’m worried that by the time Elizabeth arrives, they will start to feel that the trainings are a duty/obligation rather than continuing the level of excitement they have now

There is one teacher who is having some issues – Upul. He has only been a teacher for a short time (I think he said 4 months) and is really struggling at his job. He feels unsuccessful at work and last Friday said to Harshi that he feels like it may have been a bad decision to volunteer for this. He just is so raw right now that it’s all he can do to get through his day and he’s not supported at his job – he’s the only English teacher in his entire school. I’ll keep an eye on him and see how he does.

This blog is mostly issue spotting so it may seem more negative than I feel. I am energized by these teachers, by their openness to me, by their friendliness, and by their professionalism. I have really enjoyed getting to know them and feel like the workshops so far have been productive use of time.

1 comment:

  1. The physical space is nice, it is conducive to learning and feels professional.
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