Volunteer Teaching- Ghanaian Style!

When I decided to come to Ghana on my Around the World trip, the main reason for selecting this country was to experience the culture through volunteer work.  During my 6 weeks in Accra, I was living right next to the school that I was volunteering at.  The school, Central International Academy, went from early childcare (1-3 years old) to 8th grade.  I have so many amazing memories from my time at this school.  Looking through the photos of all of the kids makes me smile, which is funny considering how much they terrorized me during my first week!

On my first day of school I found out that I would be teaching the 1st grade class.  This was slightly intimidating given that 1) I had no teaching experience, and 2) I had no curriculum to look over prior to my first day.  To say that I had a rough first day would be an understatement.  Within about an hour the kids realized that I was incapable of disciplining them the way they were used to which meant that I had absolutely no control over the class.  The 2nd grade teacher had to come over at least once an hour to yell at them!

After the first couple of days I realized that I wasn't quite ready to lead a classroom on my own so I spoke with the headmistress to make alternate arrangements.  I ended up rotating between the different age groups every day so that I could help out with each teacher as something came up.  This was such a better fit and it gave me the opportunity to spend time with all the kids, although I found myself with the 1-3 year olds the most given that the little boy, Adom, that I met my first day was in that classroom!  Another benefit of hanging out with the toddlers was nap time...and yes, all of the teachers took advantage of nap time as well! (see below)

  

On the first day that I was working with the preschool class, I saw a little boy who looked distraught at the sight of me, so I smiled and waved at an attempt to cheer him up.  He started screaming at the top of his lungs! I later found out that I was the first white person that he had ever seen! After a few days he finally warmed up to me!

Here are some of my rotations during the first few weeks!

The little ones!

ABC's with the preschool class

The Kindergarten class

After working with the younger kids, Desmond and Deborah convinced me to come teach their class, 3rd grade, with their teacher, George.  I had a lot of fun with this class and found myself becoming the math teacher for 3rd grade and above! Desmond and Deborah would keep getting in trouble for calling me "Auntie Lisa" rather than "Miss Lisa" which I couldn't help but smile about!  I settled into the 3rd grade class and worked well with George, who was a great teacher.  The kids were very wild but we all had a fun time!  During lunch breaks, they would simply come up to me and poke around my face, laughing at how different my facial features were from them! They would also get a laugh when they saw me trying to eat food, the Ghanaian way, with my hands.

Given that the 4th grade class was next door I often helped out with their class as well

4th grade class with their teacher

And I can't forget the wonderful kitchen staff at the school! I would always sneak into the kitchen in the morning to see what they were cooking for lunch.  I cannot believe how much better their school lunches are than the school lunches that I remember as a kid.  Every day they were making homemade meals!

The wonderful school cooks!

The kids loved the food...always trying to get more!