English education in Togo (and in a lot of places) is primarily focused on memorization and repeating stock phrases back to the teacher. Students write a lot of English but don’t get to speak it much. As a result, they learn a lot of grammar but they never really feel they can communicate in English. Therefore, I’m working with teachers as much as possible to encourage the adoption of techniques that will allow students to speak more. It’s often challenging because such change involves the teaching culture on a deep level—encouraging the teachers to give some of their speaking time to the students and to allow the students to speak creatively and develop critical thinking.
The phone system definitely worked for my training event in Kara. I greeted about 110 teachers from the surrounding school systems and spent an afternoon discussing interactive teaching techniques with them.
Here are some (beautifully colorful) shots of the Kara workshop:
Conducting these workshops is always a challenging experience. Amidst the warm smiles and enthusiasm during discussions, there are always concerns of “this might be challenging to apply here”. As much as I am in the teacher’s role, I also learn so much from those I encounter during these events. One major challenge I always hear about is the lack of time teachers have to spend on interactive activities because they must prepare students for the massive exams they will face each term. They also discuss how large class sizes are in Togo. One thing I have strived to do is allow ample time for discussion when these concerns arise, and to ask them how they might apply these techniques in even a tiny way. We discuss the idea of a spectrum between rote and interactive learning and how they can simply focus on taking one small step towards interactive, in a way that feels possible for them.
CHLOE GOES 