Week 1 workshops

One of the main goals of the charity, Inspiring Teachers is to be able to train teachers in low resource countries therefore helping to raise the education standards. At the start of the week, I was excited, if a little nervous about our first week of leading workshops. We were able to use the whole of Monday as a planning day and so I worked with a small group of the other volunteers (also known as fellows), thinking of different ways that we could train the teachers in a way which was both informative and engaging. By the end of the day, we felt tired but had come up with a plan for the week! Day 1 of workshops began with an opening ceremony in which the director of education at Silverleaf Academy, our host school, set out the expectations and aims for the week. It was a great start to the programme and a good reminder about the power of education. We were then introduced to our groups for the week, before the hard work began! Over the space of 4 days we led training on an array of different techniques for teaching and learning including positive behaviour management, classroom routines, differentiation and assessment for learning. It was great to see the way in which the teachers absorbed the knowledge and were able to apply what they had learnt. At the end of the week, I was particularly proud to see the progress that the teachers had made when they taught a 15 minute lesson to the group, using the techniques that had been covered during the week.

Although our role was that of a coach or trainer, I also feel that there was a lot that I learned from our Tanzanian colleagues. For example, they demonstrated to me ways in which I can be more creative in the classroom and reminded me how we can teach high quality lessons without being reliant upon technology. I also really enjoyed their passion and enthusiasm for every task we gave them- including teaching them the macarana as a way to model clear explanations and chunking! They were a talented and hard working group of teachers and it was an absolute privilege to work with them. Overall, it was a fantastic start to the programme and I'm excited for the second week of workshops!