Brewer Family: Ready Set TEACH

Day 4

First Day of Teacher Training

This was an exciting day! It was the first day of doing what we came to do...train and teach! We hosted the 2 day Lifeway Leadership Institute in our very own living room. We made cute little color coordinated name tags for our teachers and excitedly waited for the teachers to arrive. They arrived and I couldn't believe that they had even bigger smiles and were more excited than we were! If we're being totally honest, as teachers we sometimes ~~get bored~~ don't always love training. It is alot to prepare for. You have to create sub plans and hand your class over to someone else with an already tight and rigid schedule. But these teachers, these teachers were excited. Really??? I still can't wrap my mind around why anyone would be excited to come listen to me speak and teach about something that I am still learning and growing in myself everyday. I'm glad they did though. You see, I just thought I was there to teach and train them but they ended up teaching me. Teaching me about life, loving my students, letting the small stuff go, and teaching a lesson with practically nothing.

They were troopers. They had enthusiasm the whole day and took our every word like scripture. I'm gonna be real honest here folks...this was our 3rd day in Zambia. Hello jetlag. We each had a part over the 2 days that we were responsible for training on. Whoever was up teaching was good. The rest of us sat in the back laughing at our rolling heads and heavy eyes. It was re-donk-u-lous! I had never had jetlag before but that 8 hr. time change kicked my rear end there and back again. God got us through it. He gave us the stamina we needed. We may have wanted to crawl on the floor and sleep but I promise no one did.

Okay, back to the teachers. This is supposed to be about them. Our main focus was how to create and execute lesson plans. Our goal was to teach them how to teach in a way that is fun and interactive. THEY were fun and interactive! We couldn't have asked for a better group. They were excited to try everything and ask questions. We were each responsible for a small group of teachers. My group was A-W-E-S-O-M-E! They asked tough questions and they were sharp. My most challenging question came from 2 teachers who co-teach in the same classroom...

"How do you teach effective, interactive, differentiated, challenging lessons in a classroom of about 30+ kids grade pre-k, kindergarten, and 1st grade?"

My response...

"Umm I'm sorry did you just say they are all in the same classroom? And there's only 2 of you??? Well heck, let me know when you figure that out cause I sure would like to know the answer to that!"

I was joking but I was serious. Dead serious. I have taught pre-k, kindergarten and 2nd grade. But not all at the same time! Geez! They needed applause just for showing up each day!!! If I had to teach in that situation I would probably just go into survival mode and give every kid a book and hope that I make it through the day without losing one of them. I'm kidding, totally kidding. Kinda. I mean geez! Can you imagine???

I also had a teacher in my group who taught 5th and 6th grade. He wanted me to help him with a lesson on improper fractions. First, I had to remember what those were. Kidding. Kinda. I teach 2nd grade and our fractions are 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1 whole. Improper fractions? Not my favorite, especially since I don't like math, but I survived.

You are probably thinking, "Those poor teachers!" I told you I was kidding. I knew what I was doing. You'll see it all comes together in the coming days. Kinda.

The biggest challenge of the day by far was trying to teach these teachers how to teach like us but with next to nothing. Really. I mean we're talking white board on the wall and maybe kids with some sort of writing utensil and paper to write on. That's hard to stomach. No childrens book to introduce the lesson, no premade kit, no text book, no handouts, no copies, no file folder games, no cute stuff, no workbooks, no construction paper and crayons. It's all on them. I have never been so challenged as a professional in my life. Until that day I had no clue how to do what I do without all of my resources. I learned to be grateful, to appreciate broken itty bitty pencils, to conserve paper, to not be such a perfectionist.

I had no idea. We HAVE no idea. We've got it soooo good. They sweep the dirt out everytime their kids move. I have a custodian who comes and vacuums up all of the pencil shavings and scraps that we don't even bother with. Education in America may not be perfect but we are priviledged.