Each yearly quarter I have to submit a report via a database to the Peace Corps telling them my about my projects and what I think about my experience here in Ghana. Since I've been a terrible blogger I decided to copy and paste some of my report here for your reading pleasure. You'll notice each section has a specific title and question I'm answering. At the end of this blog post you'll find a link to some pictures from the month of January. Enjoy! Godspeed. -Zachar
Community
Integration
As stated by
the drop down list, I feel somewhat integrated.
I stepped into the shoes of the RPCV Guillermo Moratorio and experience
an expectation to be like him both internally from myself and externally from
my community. By the end of Guillermo's
service he had learned Dagbani quite well and was spending many afternoons
around the village sitting with the old men.
The beginning of my service is not at all like the end of his. I struggle with the language, although I try
to speak it as often as I can, and I spend most of my time either in a
classroom, sitting with the other teachers of my school, or in my home
preparing for the next day's lessons or grading the exercises or exams from
that day. I do receive continuous
Dagbani instruction once a week with four other volunteers and speak the
language weekly in the market and periodically through the week when in town
running an errand or buying chop.
However I feel like I have reached a plateau with my language
learning. Until I have the time to sit
and am forced only to use the local language then it will never sink in. I don't think I will be able to find that
kind of free time until I’m nearing the end of my service. For now my days are spent integrated and
excelling as a teacher in my school. I
take a great deal of pride in my work and the performance of my students. I believe I command their respect and
admiration and am regularly sought out for individual tutoring and help. At Diare JHS A I would say I am "well
integrated". I have a friendly and
professional relationship with our staff and students. I am very fortunate to be able to speak
English all day, every day. Although my
Dagbani suffers because of this, I am sought out for English tutoring and
regularly have substantial conversations in English about development, the
"Western" world, and cultural experiences. I am satisfied with my overall community
integration and recognize my strengths and weaknesses within it.
Challenges
The biggest
challenges I face in my service are in my classrooms. Each Form presents its own challenges.
My Form 1
students hardly speak English. It is
clear that they were not instructed in English in Primary School. Many of them cannot read out loud the notes
from the board/their notebook when asked to do so, when I ask a question
whether orally or during a written exercise I regularly get no answer at all,
and I feel nearly every other word I write on the blackboard is a new
vocabulary word for them. Half of the
other teachers at my JHS continue to instruct these Form 1 students in their
local language which only perpetuates the problem.
My Form 2
students are over all the best performing students in the school. Their English isn't great, but clearly
they've benefited from having more in depth English instruction. They are also led by a prefect that commands
their attention and disciplines them when necessary. So the challenge with this class is finding
the balance in instruction to the handful of very high performing students and
to the rest which are struggling with English, concept understanding, and
motivation. The gap between the top and
the bottom increases every week.
My Form 3
students are a hard bunch to figure out.
This is the year that is going to make or break the rest of their
education and maybe the rest of their future, however they sit around sleeping,
playing games, and are generally lackadaisical about everything. Only 5 of 37 passed the First Term. When asked for course feedback they all admit
to not studying and agree that my instruction is fair and of good quality. I'm very worried that it is much too late for
them to steer their collective ship in the right direction and I've resigned
myself to the fact that I can only help those that want to be helped, which
unfortunately is maybe 10 or so out of the 37.
The only other
challenge of my service so far worth noting here is that from the time I
arrived until the problem was solved in mid-October my house was being infested
with bugs at an exponential rate. My
ceilings and walls were increasingly being covered with bugs and I was finding
them in my food. My patience came to an
end and I called the PCVL but he was of no help whatsoever. I then called Mohammed Iddrissu from the TSO
and he came out immediately for an inspection, concurred that my house was unlivable
as is, and within a few days he had my home sprayed with a safe and effective
agricultural insecticide that continues to work to this day. Immediately after spraying my house shed all
its bugs and although the cleanup project was huge, I now continue to enjoy a
house that is bug free. Thanks Mohammed!
Lessons
Learned
Most the
text below is copied from a blog post I wrote on January 3, 2012.
--End of the
Term Reflections--
This is how
the first term ended: 17 of 63 Form 1 students passed Integrated Science, 10 of
53 Form 2 students passed Integrated Science, and 5 of 37 Form 3 students
passed Mathematics. Over all their
performances were very, very poor. I
know this is a combination of my ability to teach but also their own discipline
and responsibility to study, do homework, and review their notes. I know most students not only failed my
courses but also the courses of the other teachers as well. Therefore even though I teach every period
I’m given, assign homework, teach extra classes, and invite students over to my
house for tutoring, these Ghanaian students are just plain and simply bad
students in a bad situation. They don’t
have parents that engage them about their studies but rather send them to farm
or to work in the market, they don’t have textbooks to read and do exercises
in, and they don’t have any role models that exemplify the payoff of education
within their local community. I try to
give motivational speeches and encourage them but it doesn’t seem to sink
in.
New things
that I want to try this upcoming term are: 1. give more homework – assign at
least 5 questions to answer after every class period; 2. get students to copy
the notes before the class is actually taught so then we can do exercises,
discuss, and answer questions during class rather than just copy notes from the
board; 3. bring two students to my house each night for one hour of two-on-one
tutoring – for the Form 3 this means that they’ll get private undivided
attention twice a month; and finally 4. since the in-class work (including
homework, class work, and mid-term exams) is only 30% of the final grade (the
term’s final is worth 70%, a percentage dictated by the Ghana Education
Service) I’ll give mostly pass/fail credit for doing the homework so the
students just need to demonstrate that they’re trying in order to get most of
that 30%.
So, teaching
is a mixed bag but mostly it is extremely rewarding and I believe this is
directly proportional to the hard work I’m putting into it. The other things that I spend my time doing
are spending weekends with other PCVs during which we cook, relax, go to
church, and run. My involvement in the
local church is rewarding and life giving.
I'm very happy to have found a small church home here in Northern Ghana
where Christian churches are few and far between. I try to run twice or three times a week, but
that has slowed as my teaching work increases.
I could save time by paying someone to do my laundry, sweep/clean my
house, and do my dishes, but I like get my hands dirty and doing it all myself. The same goes for cooking. I could eat in town every night for just a
dollar, but not only do I like cooking for myself, I crave the variety in the
food whereas in town only a choice of two dishes is available each evening.
The New Year
will be a time of finding my stride in the classroom and carving time to do
some more intensive language study and hopefully a little grant writing. Christmas and New Year’s Eve were totally
strange here, but nonetheless they were fun to celebrate. The awkward translation of these holidays
left much to be desired. They really
were just another day here in this country which is so different than home,
with people that have so much potential but regularly come up short (myself
included), however this is an experience that is perfect in its own way. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Planned
Activities
My
counterpart and I have recently returned from our Education IST and are highly
motivated to apply for funding to improve our school. I brought up the topic at our staff meeting
and asked for feedback about what the school's/community's priorities are. It was the staff's consensus that the school
building, specifically the classrooms are in dire need of renovation and
improvement. If money is going to be
spent, then improving the learning environment of our students should be our
first priority. Therefore, in the next
few months I intend to begin collecting the necessary information in order to
apply for SPA or PCPP funding. Our goals
are to in all the classrooms: install open air windows and shutters, install
drop ceilings, install ceiling fans, install lights, install outlets, install
whiteboards, resurface the existing blackboards, paint the interior and
exterior of the school, and repair the rain collection system and tank.
Peace Corps
Goal 2
I feel that
I somehow embody Peace Corps' Goal 2. I
often I find myself saying, "In America..." I try not to interject an American/Ghanaian
comparison in every conversation but many topics lend themselves to be
discussed with a global perspective. For
example, we might be discussing the upcoming Ghanaian elections and how the
primaries are conducted. The United
States happens to be also in an election year and so I take the opportunity to
mention how campaigning happens in the USA and how the primaries are
organized. If I'm remembering correctly
I have discussed sports, politics, religion, health insurance, family planning,
education systems, and of course, food in this way with my teacher friends. I believe that in each of these topics I have
helped to promote a better understanding of America and Americans among
Ghanaians. This was especially potent during
the time of the American holidays Thanksgiving, Halloween, and the global
holiday Christmas. I was able to share
even some small "toffee" gifts with my fellow staff and community
members.
When it
comes to my students the cultural exchange is even more frequent and in
depth. My students are very curious how
I live, the pictures I have on my wall, and what I do with my free time. We are constantly talking and sharing, especially
in the evenings when I've invited students into my home for tutoring. This breaks down the student-teacher barrier
a bit and they feel freer to ask me questions.
I also seize the opportunity during these one-on-one interactions to ask
for help understanding the Ghanaian culture and in learning the language.
Peace Corps
Goal 3
I was
approved to and went home to Chicago, IL USA for one week in between PST and
reporting to my site. While I was home
and surrounded by family and friends (on the occasion of my sister's wedding) I
took the opportunity to do a slideshow presentation and tell them about my
experience thus far. I think this
engagement solidified the interest of a number of them when before they were a
little indifferent. Since this return
trip I've communicated with my immediate family every week, with interested
members of my extended family and my friends personally about very month and
via my blog and facebook.com pages even more often than that.
Success
Story
The third
year of JHS is a critical time in the life of young Ghanaians. As students complete their Form 3 year they
have only one thing on their mind, the BECE examination. This exam will determine if they are able to
continue their education into Senior High School or if their educational lives
will come to a dead halt. It has been my
own experience that during similar critical times in my life I relied on the
help of my colleagues' peer education even more than that of the formal
educator. Knowing this I have made
training and educating the Form 3 class leaders a priority so that then they
can educate their Form 3 peers.
This
undertaking has been carried out through focused tutoring and frequent
motivational conversations with the Form 3 class leaders. The feasibility of this "project"
has been further made possible because our school's General Prefect and our
Form 3's Senior Prefect are serious students that are motivated to learn and
are natural leaders among their peers.
In addition to these two formal leaders there are two other Form 3
students that have sought me out for extra help with their mathematics. I've been able to spend at least 2 hours of
extra instructional time each week with these four students.
The
understanding and grasping of mathematical concepts by these four students has
been achieved. These four students are
clearly the best, brightest, and highest achieving in the Form 3 class. They have frequently taken what they have
learned from me in our more intimate tutoring sessions and have re-taught the
material to their classmates. I believe
mathematics has become a priority of these four students and some of their
peers due to the utilization of this peer teaching methodology. Unfortunately, it seems the other students in
the Form 3 class are significantly less motivated to learn and are needing a
great deal of remedial work in their mathematics to bring them up to the same
level of these four class leaders. Group
work has been assigned and encouragement has been given to the class as a
whole, however it seems at times that the Form 3 students have more faith in a
test taking miracle than their own ability to find the answer.
Ideas and Recommendations
Since I teach all three grade
levels of JHS I am able to see the considerable change that occurs between a
Form 1 and Form 3 student. A great deal
of this advancement has to do with teaching using English instead of the local
language. I've been told and I've
witnessed that at the Primary School level most of the instruction occurs using
the local language. This is evident in
the poor English ability of my Form 1 students.
Some of these first year JHS students cannot read or write. I seriously doubt they understand what I'm
saying in class. My recommendation is to
assign Peace Corps Volunteers to teach English at the Primary School
level. By the time students reach JHS it
is nearly too late to mold them. Any
improvement of a student's English ability earlier in life will pay dividends
later on. This is not to take away from
the importance and usefulness of learning the and via the local language,
however it is clear that Ghanaian students are suffering from a severe lack of
English instruction at the Primary School level.
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