Reflection on a Year- Part Three: Teaching in Tanzania

Don't forget to also check out Part One and Part Two of my Three-part Reflection!

In what was undoubtedly the most rewarding aspect of my time as a WorldTeach volunteer, serving as a teacher in Tanzanian secondary schools provided me with some of the most challenging, memorable and fulfilling experiences of my life.  As someone who had never taught in a formal classroom setting before joining WorldTeach, I arrived in Tanzania a year ago with little more than a strong enthusiasm to teach.  What I would discover over the following year as a first year teacher was a deep passion, love and respect for teaching both in and out of the classroom.  My experiences of teaching English to secondary students at a wide range of levels and in a diverse variety of environments taught me as many valuable lessons as I was fortunate enough to teach.  As I look back on how far I’ve come and how much I’ve learned about being a better teacher in a short year, I can truly appreciate every moment and opportunity I had in the classroom to be a teacher, role-model and friend for every person I had the honor to call my student.

Over the past year, I taught over 400 students throughout three different schools in Morogoro. Teaching at each school (Mzumbe Secondary School, Mongola Secondary School and The Hill Education Center) provided me with an incredibly diverse teaching experience, as I was able to teach at all levels of English ability (beginner, intermediate, advanced).  While it was initially difficult to get adjusted to the Tanzanian system of education, eventually with a lot of trial and error and also the great support from my wonderful colleagues I was able to hit my stride and really feel like I was making a strong positive impact with my students and in the school community.  At each school I was faced with immense challenges as a new teacher (class sizes up to 70 students, no books or resources, etc), but I was fortunate enough to have many eager students always ready to work hard in learning and improving their English skills which made my job a lot easier.  This also made for a lot of rewarding and memorable moments.  Moments like hearing my students give passionate and enthusiastic speeches on ways to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, or listening to a student give a thought-provoking and insightful analysis of a poem about slavery, or successfully teaching a classroom of 70 students how to identify different types of conditional sentences.  Also, as there are for every teacher, there were many frustrating moments in the classroom, like teaching a failed lesson, students not understanding me due to language barriers, or seeing some of my students fail their exams after putting in as much effort as possible.  From each wonderful and not so wonderful moment in the classroom I was able to learn from my successes and mistakes and use them to help make me a stronger teacher as the year went on.  With each passing week as I proudly watched my students grow in their education, I also felt myself grow and improve as a teacher and person, as well.

My Mzumbe Form 3 A2 Class

Mzumbe Form 3 A1 Class

Mzumbe Form 3 A3 Class

My Mzumbe Form V HGL Class

 The other highlight of serving as a teacher at my schools was getting to know so many other wonderful and dedicated teachers that I was proud to call my colleagues.  Not only was I able to exchange culture and provide a presence of diversity in the staff room, but I also made a lot of really great friends who served as cultural and professional mentors.  Not only were they my co-workers, but they were also my teachers in many respects, too.  Whether it was at the morning parades, during daily tea breaks or throughout the weeks grading exams, there were always a multitude of opportunities to get to know my fellow teachers and also learn how to become a better teacher from their guidance and advice.  From sharing our unique perspectives as teachers and former students from different educational backgrounds, I truly felt that my colleagues and I were able to fully support one another in making our schools the best learning environment for our students now and in the future.

Mzumbe Secondary School Faculty and Staff

Coming into this year, I began this journey with an open mind and I didn’t really know what to expect from serving as a teacher in a developing country with an educational system that I was totally unfamiliar with.  In a country such as Tanzania, where they take education very seriously and yet are faced with immense challenges, I found the experience of being a secondary school teacher an incredibly dynamic introduction into the profession of teaching.  From my teaching experience, I learned that being a teacher can be one of the most difficult, demanding and also fun, creative and rewarding jobs you can have.  To be a good teacher, you need patience, flexibility and the willingness to want to improve each and every day, and that is no different for any teacher anywhere in the world.  On a good day, there isn’t a better job in the world.  On a bad day, you never want to enter a classroom again.  During my year as an English teacher in Tanzania, I experienced many of those good and bad days, and I’m grateful for every one.  I got to know and teach so many amazing and hard working students, and also befriend and learn from many dedicated and talented teachers and colleagues at my schools.  As I leave Tanzania I can only hope that over the last year I have made as much of a difference in the lives of my students and colleagues as I dedicated myself to make throughout this extraordinary year.

Take a look at one of my classes in action!