November 27, 2015: We're on our own! (Ann)

Monday November 23: Today we're on our own!  Feroz and Hassan have gone to the mainland of Tanzania and we have programmed into our local phone a list of people who can help with various emergencies ranging from lack of electricity (go and buy some more from the shop at “Jaws Corner”), theft of wing mirrors (talk to the lawyer) and medical issues (talk to the Minister of Health). 

Our plan for the next four weeks is to cover the past, present, future and conditional tenses with the teachers and the intermediate class.

We explain the plan to the teachers and they seem to agree that this is a good idea. We start by getting the teachers to ask their colleagues 3 questions relating to what we had taught the previous week and it becomes clear that we have to go more slowly than anticipated (pole pole as they say in Swahili).   Nevertheless we do get onto a new subject and the teachers work in break out groups to come up with a list of “Commitments” that they agree are a good foundation to the class. Interestingly they all agree that punctuality is a priority, but we haven’t seen much of that yet!

TERMS OF COMMITMENT

Please be on time

Everyone must speak loudly and clearly

Please speak English in the classroom

Don’t leave the classroom

Please join in every exercise

Please put your mobile phone on “Silent”

Don’t laugh at each other in the classroom

Tuesday November 24: “The Terms of Commitment” seem to be working.  Some teachers even turn up early and we're able to start quite close to 10am.  We're on “English time” not “Swahili time”.  Now we have to motivate the kids to arrive on time.  They're very keen to have their photos taken and love watching pictures of themselves on the class TV. 

Wednesday November 25: Caroline's managed to get “The Lion King” into a suitable format for showing, so we can finally leave “Frozen” and the snowman behind us.  Unfortunately the song “Do you want to build a snowman” has embedded into our heads... The students clearly prefer “The Lion King” and the songs are currently less annoying than “Frozen”.

Thursday November 26: The day starts with an earnest conversation between Gasica, the Head and the Deputy Head. It turns out that the school is unexpectedly re-opening on Monday.  But only for 2 weeks. The teachers say that they are sad that lessons will be suspended.  We agree that we will teach Standards 5, 6 and 7 next week.  We have no idea what that means in practice or how many students there will be.  Many of the students in our intermediate class are not from the primary school but seem to come from the community (there is a fisherman) and from the secondary school opposite (which is also closed).  They say they really want lessons to continue so we agree to continue a class for one hour at 1pm (English time).

The teachers end the week with a flourish.  After a week of concentrating on the present simple and present continuous tenses, they are able to practice teaching to each other. 

We take tins of fish and crackers for lunch which intrigues the women teachers.  They are concerned it’s not enough and can’t imagine buying fish in a tin.  They haven’t tried crackers before and are happy to give them a go.

 A heavy downpour just at the start of the afternoon class results in a drop in attendance, but it picks up when the rain stops.  The beginners are showing real improvement and crack through “10 Green Bottles”, the alphabet, daily routines, clapping action songs, simple additions and subtractions.  Attention lapses at 2.50pm so the class ends with the Hockey Cokey.

Friday November 27: Gasica is impressed with the teaching methods and wants to introduce them to his teachers at PLCI this weekend.  He collects examples of all our materials for photocopying and takes “The Lion King”, “Frozen” and “Winnie the Pooh” away with him. 

November 20, 2015: Getting to know you (Ann)

Monday November 16: Final preparations for the week ahead.  The challenges are:

What level of English will the teachers have?  The report we had in advance from the school is that they aren’t very capable in English but are expected to teach in English

How many students will turn up?

What level of English will the students have?

We have promised that we will show cartoons to the students, but this poses more challenges:

• Will electricity be working at the school?
• Will the screen be sufficient to project images onto using the school’s projector?
• The only film that seems to be working is “Frozen” – is this too alien for students that never experience temperatures below 20 degrees celsius?

We have some exercises prepared by 3pm but it seems that the photocopier shops all shut at 3pm and don’t reopen until we’re due at school!

Tuesday November 17:  Well 16 of the 24 teachers showed up. Timekeeping wasn’t great, but we got through the first “Getting to know” you exercise. We discovered that one of the teachers has a lucrative second line of business as a broiler chicken farmer, no-one has a computer and none of the teachers can drive.  A couple of the teachers live in houses with more than one room and at lunch time we were invited to see one of the houses that has more than 5 rooms.   They are very basic, cooking is done on an open fire but there is electricity and a very old TV.

After lunch Gasica, Caroline and I sat watching the clock turn two o’clock and we started to think about other ways we could spend the afternoon.  By 2.15pm the first students had arrived and then by 3pm the classroom was full to over flowing...a total of 47 children showed up, from 5 to 18 and a few adult learners as well.  The only video we had got to work was “Frozen” so we had a surreal afternoon discussing snowmen and handed out free pencils at the end of class.

Wednesday November 18: Our first drive to the school without Hassan to guide us through the traffic.  The hour-long drive goes through a busy market where minibuses start and stop at random, bicycles and people meander across theand there is frequent use of the horn.  Caroline does a sterling job in negotiating the hazards andbecomes adept at frequent use of the horn.

Additional teachers show up including a bright young English and Geography teacher who has just started at the secondary school opposite.  We showed them how we used “Frozen” as a listening and comprehension exercise and they become as expert as the students at drawing snowmen on the blackboard!

The afternoon starts slowly, but after an hour we have more than a hundred children, divided into two classes.  I have the older group and Caroline and Gasica have the younger group.  Part 2 of “Frozen” works well, but teaching how to ask questions is more difficult as the students are more used to rote learning and being taught in Swahili than TEFL-style.  At the end of the two hours we realise that we have to adapt our teaching style to the mass-market needs rather than the assumption of a select tutorial group that we learnt about on our course.

Thursday November 19:  The setbacks today included the classroom lock not responding to the key that had worked the previous day and a power cut. So no “Frozen”, but plenty of snowmen on the blackboard. We are giving the kids lots of encouragement and they are learning words like “amazing” – they aren’t used to much encouragement from parents or teachers, so this is quite a novelty. We had a very good session with the teachers in which we had 3 breakout groups to give them an opportunity to do short English language presentations.

We're trying to enforce a prompt(ish) start time – Gasica is reminds everyone that 1pm is “European time” not “Swahili” time.  We make a point of doing something fun at 1pm so students arriving late feel they are missing out.  Today was learning the “Hockey Cokey” and they are now adept at “Shaking it all about”.  We’ve hit on a format of Gasica taking the youngest kids for the first hour.  Some of them can barely read or write.  Meanwhile Caroline and I do a double act with the intermediate class.  Then we teach the youngest children songs and games for the second hour when attention is starting to lapse.

Friday November 20:  We're fairly exhausted at the end of the first week of teaching but get together with Gasica to plan the strategy for the next four weeks...

November 13, 2015: Zanzibar here we come! (Ann)

Tuesday November 10: We met with Mrisho, a Chairman of the school committee from Unguja Ukuu to assess the current situation regarding the school. We discovered that the school is essentially shut until January 2016.  The reasons for this are national exams in the secondary school opposite (the primary school children make too much noise), the re-run of elections and the December break. It was agreed that it would be feasible to run a programme for the teachers in the morning and a club for children in the afternoon.  Mrisho took responsibility for setting up the meeting for Thursday November 12.

Wednesday November 11: We met with Shafii Haji, who is the inspirational young social entrepreneur who set up the Prospective Learning Charitable Institution (PLCI), now renamed "Zanzibar Learning 4 Life Foundation".  PLCI was established in 2006, and in 2010, registration as a NGO was granted by the government. In June 2013, 150 students began taking courses, and money was donated by the local community to expand PLCI's center by two classrooms and a bedroom for the 11 orphans who have been living in the building since its construction.  The PLCI welcomes volunteers from overseas and regularly hosts volunteers from Australia.  PLCI has a strong relationship with Stone Town Rotary Club and Shafii is an honorary member.

Shafii’s initial project at the PLCI is now running efficiently and he is ready to commit to another project.  He is very interested in our plans for Unguja Ukuu’s school and will give his time to work on this with us.  We will agree an appropriate fee with him for his work.

We visited the PLCI school and one of their community projects.  The projects are intended to give young people leadership/entrepreneurial/ practical skills and to generate income for the school.  Projects include a chicken and vegetable farm, bicycle repair shop and girls handicraft club.  For more information visit: www.zanzibarl4lf.ninja

During the visit to the bicycle repair shop we met two young women who attended ZL4LF and who had been awarded Rotary Scholarships.  They had spent a year at high schools in the USA and have been transformed by the experience.  They have excelled academically in their American high schools, gained confidence and are now ambitious to pursue careers in accounting and medicine or dentistry.  The girls want to be role models for what can be achieved in their chosen professions. The Stone Town Rotary Club is assisting them with some of the logistics of their college applications.

The school has a great atmosphere – the students are encouraged to be punctual, respectful and work hard.  Signs around the school highlight the holistic approach of ZL4LF – emphasizing health, sports and social responsibility.  The teachers are primarily successful alumni of ZL4LF.

The library is well-organised, but can’t compare with an English school!  There are books on a range of subjects – some to assist teachers with lesson planning, on English and science. More donations of books would no doubt be welcome.  They have a system of noting what books are loaned and when they are returned to ensure no books go missing.

The school operates from 9am to 9pm – the children are enthusiastic.  In addition to the focus on English language teaching, there is a focus on children presenting effectively in front of their peers.  The younger children are shy, but the children who have been at the school for a while are noticeably more confident.  They welcome interaction with foreign visitors and are keen to practice English and to improve their pronunciation. 

Caroline taught an advanced class who had many questions for her on subjects to study for specific careers.  Ann taught a class of 8 to 9 year olds who quickly picked up English songs.

Thursday November 12: Hassan, Gasica, Caroline and Ann met with the Headmaster, the chair of the school committee and the teachers of the Unguja Ukuu School.  It was agreed that we will support the school from Monday to Thursday each week until December 18:

• English language and TEFL for teachers (2 hours per day)
• English language club for children (2 hours per day)

The teachers expressed support for this initiative and agreed to publicise the children’s English language club ready for the first session on Tuesday 17 November.

During the visit to the school it was apparent that the Book Buddy scheme has not been used properly and the computers need to be audited for functionality.  The LCD projector is working. In the evening Caroline, Ann and Feroz attended the Stone Town Rotary club meeting and updated them on what we are planning for the Unguja Ukuu School.

Friday November 13: We met with Gasica to work on the curriculum for the first week at the school.  It has also been agreed that the most effective way to manage payment to Shafii for his time will be via the Stone Town Rotary Club.  Feroz is liaising as appropriate.