Our kitchen

Even though I’m a teacher, observing other teachers lessons can be dull. Observing is always informative and it’s a great way of provoking you into reflecting on your own practice, but I’d rather be teaching a lesson than observing one. Still, observing my HDP candidates teach is an important part of the course and the four observations I did today were very revealing.

First on the list was a biology teacher. I turned up at his room at 8.10am (start of period 1) to be on the receiving end of the usual lets-all-gather-round-the-ferenji-and-stare experience from students. Initially it can be quite unnerving to be surrounded by more than twenty people who are chatting excitedly amongst themselves and staring in a completely unselfconscious way. The only way to deal with it is to talk to them. As soon as I say anything there’s a ripple of excited surprise in the audience: the Ferenji speaks!!!! I’ve learned two important lessons from these situations. First of all, try talking Amharic and laugh with them as they crack up in hysterics. Secondly, talk about football. “Manchester United”, “Chelsea” and “Arsenal” are key survival phrases in Ethiopia. Those three key phrases will get you a long way in most situations.

After 15mins of entertaining my captive audience, it became clear that Mitiku was either late (quite likely) or not turning up. It was time for an early coffee.

Next was period 3 with Zewidie, a history teacher. Zewidie has over 35 years of education experience and he would easily be able to intimidate a bunch of tough kids in a British classroom. His lesson was on International Development and I learned a few things. What was weird was to be a Ferenji from a rich country, in a lesson about the differences between Highly Developed and Underdeveloped Countries, by an Ethiopian teacher to Ethiopian students, who live in the 171^st poorest country in the world out of 175. The lesson was quite good although I’m not convinced the students developed any real understanding of the issues.

From 35+ years experience with Zewidie to 6 months experience with Abayneh, teaching environmental science. Despite his lack of experience, Abayneh was good. His organisation of group work was good and he managed to avoid the death-by-notes-on-the-blackboard approach favoured by so many. This lesson was in Sidamingna instead of English. Sidamingna is the language spoken by the people from the Sidamo zone of the SNNPR region. Students who are going to teach 1^st cycle children (Grades 1 to 4) are taught in the local language as this will also be the language of instruction in the schools they will work in. Sidamingna sounds like Italian to me and unlike Amharic, uses the English alphabet.

After lunch it was Psychology. I turned up on time (2.10pm) and was immediately surrounded by another group of fans gathering to stare at the ferenji-from-another-world. “Manchester United” worked a treat as usual. One of the students appeared with a camera and insisted on a photo of us together. Once his mate had taken our picture there was a clamour from everybody else for a picture with the Ferenji. I now have a lot of sympathy for famous people who are hassled by paparazzi. After 15 mins the cavalry arrived in the form of the teacher. His lesson was on emotions and stress. His English was good (most teaching is in English) if a bit black-and-white (anger is a negative emotion, experiencing an emotion intensely is unhealthy, etc). The idea of getting your students into groups to discuss and generate their own views on a topic is slowly sinking in, and there were encouraging signs of him trying some of the methods we’ve covered on the HDP.

Finally it was Eshetu teaching “Professional Issues for Teachers”. Eshetu’s lesson was the most impressive yet. After a Brain Gym exercise he straight away organised the students into groups to discuss leadership styles and their pros & cons. He had a lovely manner with his students and clearly enjoyed himself.

Punctuality is a big issue. Many students arrive at lessons very late, and most of the staff do not really have an effective way of dealing with them. However, staff being 15 or more minutes late is inexcusable (a period is 50 mins) and is symptomatic of a low awareness of time. A lot of people (and most students) do not wear watches and there are no clocks in any of the rooms. Poor punctuality is part of the African stereotype, and I’m afraid it is often true.

It’s getting late and approaching my bedtime. 10pm is a late night! Yesterday evening I was buzzed repeatedly by a mosquito. This morning I noticed several bites on my arm. We sleep under a mosquito net so at least we don’t get bothered at night. There is malaria in Awassa so I’m going to have to be more vigilant during the evening.