3 lesson plans, 25 classes…

And there I was panicking before I came to Ghana that I would struggle with my lesson planning and teaching secondary level maths – no need to as I only have to plan three lessons a week none of which are maths – phew!! My challenge is not the prep but managing to sound fresh for each class. I teach 16 classes of DBE students (teacher training students) of about 8-9 per class. This week I presented an hour long PowerPoint presentation titled What is the Internet? Explaining what a network is, what the internet is, what you can do on the internet and how it works – all theory because you know we don’t actually have the internet in Tumu. By Friday at 2pm I was exhausted. Next week I am sitting back and let them work by using an interactive programme especially designed for Ghana by the BBC to give them a better understanding of the Internet and email, however, there is only so far you can take it before needing to actually use the net! – maybe we will be lucky and it will arrive before the end of the semester!

The students are so eager to learn, the first week I had a few problems wit lateness, but when I told them that if they were late they wouldn’t be allowed in class I have had no problems since. They only get a one hour class a week so time is tight. We often get the added bonus of ‘lights off’ (power cut) which is great fin when you work with computers – teaching theory is manageable, but practical stuff – no chance! Lights off lasts about for about 15-20mins, which can be unfortunate especially when it seems to happen to the same class each time, I will have to come up with some fillers for those times. The students then ask for extra classes, but at the moment I have little free time, I feel for them so need to look into some alternatives…