I Don't Know What I'm Doing...

The past 2 weeks have been crazy whirl wind of teaching in a Rwandan classroom for the first time. The past 2 weeks have been Model School which is when we put on a summer school of sorts at different schools in the area in order to practice teaching in a Rwandan classroom before we move to site. We were placed into pairs with a Rwandan teacher to co-plan and co-teach during these 2 weeks.

The first day my co-teacher Haley and I walked into a class of 150 P4 students (4th grade in the US). We were immediately overwhelmed and had to figure out how to teach these students for 5 hours a day for 2 weeks. I must, say I had not idea what to teach. Our students had never been taught in only English. They had just finished P3 and this was the first class they had ever had only in English, and now they also had to learn an American accent. The next few days went by so quickly and teaching was great!

I hadn’t realized how much I missed being the classroom until I stepped into one again. I quickly found my groove and was finally getting through the students. Due to some unfortunate circumstances Haley had to return to the US and today I began teaching the entire class alone. I instantly become overwhelmed again and truthfully the first day of me teaching

alone was a disaster. Losing control of a classroom of 100 students does not feel good and I left school feeling defeated. I am prepared for school tomorrow and confident it will go better than day (which isn’t hard to do). I have 3 more day of teaching model school and I can’t wait to finish it strong.

Over the last 2 weeks I have quickly fell in love with my students who could not be more exited to participate in any activity or game I teach. Everyday my students run to school during their break and love learning in my classroom.

Everyday I walk into my classroom and my students remind me of why I came to Rwanda. In 11 days I will move to my new home in the Southern Province and I have a renewed outlook of why I become a Peace Corps Volunteer. I could not be more excited to move to site and finish my last few days with my current students.