Mwalimu Leena (Teacher Leena) na Gonzaga shule (and Gonzaga school)

 Naitwa Mwalimu Leena. Nafundisha dara sala sita Mzcheza, dara sala nne Computers, na dara sala tatu Kiingereza.
(I am Teacher Leena. I teach Class 6 Sports, Class 4 Computers, and Class 3 English.)

I cannot believe how fast the last two weeks have gone since school started!

January 14^th was the first day at Gonzaga for teachers and students. It began at 7:30 am with assembly, where the students line up based on grade level, starting with Pre-Standard 1 (like kindergarten) all the way up to Standard 7, and they are given important news and reminders about school. Sr. Pascaline, the head teacher, welcomed everyone back to school and had all the teachers introduce themselves. I went last and introduced myself as Leena, which I am called by most Tanzanians (at school it is Teacher Leena), and told the students what classes I would be teaching. After that, they sang a short, wonderful song which simply goes, “We are happy to receive you, welcome, we are happy to receive you welcome, we are happy to receive you, we are happy to receive you, we are happy to receive you, welcome!” It was pretty great. Then they finished assembly with a prayer and the Tanzanian National Anthem, which is absolutely beautiful and I hope to learn all the words before my two years are over.

After assembly, the students returned to their homerooms for a two hour period of learning about school rules and procedures. For now, I am not a homeroom teacher. So, on the first day, I simply sat in one of the Standard 4 homerooms and listened to the rules/procedures so that I would know them too!

At ten o’clock it was time for tea and porridge. The students are given porridge and the teachers have a choice; I took porridge on the first day and haven’t looked back since. I really, really like it! Tea break is 30 minutes long so at 10:30 am, the fourth period of the day starts. On the first day, I did not have a timetable/schedule yet for my classes so I just shadowed one of the other teachers; she teaches mathematics to Standard 5, both classes A and B.

At 12:30 pm, it was time for lunch, which was rice, beans, and cabbage. This is lunch every single day; the best part is, it’s so good, I’ll never get sick of it! After lunch, at 1:20 pm, I sat in the staff room for a while but then one of the teacher suggested I go down to Standard 3A’s classroom because there was no teacher there. I was happy for this time with them since I will be with them every day, teaching English. I spent the rest of the day with them until the final bell rang at 4:00 pm.

The next day, the 15^th, I finally had a timetable/schedule and was able to go to all my classes. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 7:30-8:00 am, there is morning assembly and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, students spend that first thirty minutes with their homeroom teachers. There are a total of 10 periods in a day and each one is 40 minutes long.

On Mondays I teach the first two periods; the first one with Standard 3B English and the second with Standard 3A English; in the afternoon I teach another period of English with 3A and a double period (so, 80 minutes) with Standard 4A teaching Computers.

Tuesday is similar, but instead of two lessons with 3A, I have two lessons with 3B and teach a double period of Computers to 4B, instead of 4A. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I am also in charge of English Club. It’s just what it sounds like…an hour and twenty minutes of doing fun activities based around the English language (like playing Scrabble, watching cartoon movies, putting on skits, and reading books).

On Wednesdays, I teach one lesson of English to both 3A and 3B and have two double periods of Sports, one with Standard 6A right before lunch and one with Standard 6B right after lunch. At the end of the double period with 6B, I am one of the teachers in charge of sports competition…this is basically like an hour and twenty minutes of gym class at the end of the day. We take the students outside to play football and other fun games, like Red Rover and Tag.

Thursdays and Fridays are so easy compared to the earlier days of the week…I teach one lesson each to English 3A and 3B, and, again, English Club is on Thursday. This gives me a lot of time to mark class work and homework and write lesson plans, making my weekends relaxing and easy.

That’s just a general outline of how my week at school looks and I think it’s going to work out really well. It is really wonderful to be working and be a contributing member of society again! It’s been a long wait since graduation. Being in a classroom just feels so natural; this has been a great confidence booster and has kept me feeling comfortable in this new environment. The students really are wonderful and I can tell that they are eager to learn. I am still trying to figure out which classroom management techniques work and which ones don’t in this culture/context; turns out elementary school aged children are noisy and rowdy no matter where you are in the world. J Some of the strategies I learned in college don’t really transfer to this culture but I am eager to learn some new ways to keep my students engaged and well-behaved.

So many things happened in the last two weeks that I can’t possible write it all here now. But I hope that my next blog or two will include more stories about school and my students, as I get to know them better and become more comfortable at Gonzaga. Overall, everything has been overwhelming positive and I can’t wait to see what’s next for me here!