Some Observations on Teaching

Teaching has been one of my great joys here. I have the opportunity to teach Grade 8 and 10 English and Math on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons in addition to the computer teaching I do on MWF mornings, Tuesday, and Thursday. The Grade 10s are great because there are only 13 of them and so this creates possibilities to do all kinds of more interesting exercises, especially in English. The Grade 8s too are a fairly small class, although, since they don’t ever all show up, I’m not exactly sure how many there are. Probably in the range of 30 or so. Although I have never taught in Canada, my experience during twelve years of grade school allows me has let me realize some of the differences between Zambian and Canadian schools.

1. For one, I am the only one with a text book. This means that every question and idea has to be written out on the board and then the student’s copy them down. For English, this is particularly hard because it makes things like reading a story difficult, or at least slow, because it would have to be read out loud.

2. There is great respect for the teacher. I am always referred to as “Sir” or, if not that, then as Mr. Epp (which often comes out pronounced “Mr. Hap”). I had a couple of discipline problems once when I was supervising another class but have never had any during the first month in my Grade 8 and Grade 10 classes other than a couple of cheating incidents.

3. Pupils feel the need that I should mark everything that they do – even regular practice questions I assign in class. I haven’t quite figured out why this is. This isn’t a problem – it just means that after assigning work I spend the rest of the class going around and marking. This practice certainly helps identify who is having problems with the questions and what I need to go over more.

4. Similar to number two, teachers here are able to get students to do many things for them. If a desk needs to be moved, or if the board needs to be brushed, or the sidewalk needs to be swept the first unlucky student to be seen will be given that responsibility.

That is enough of a list for now. In many ways, kids are kids wherever they are. It is also interesting to see, however, how educational practices differ between our two countries.