Trainings

Well I’ve been back in Nadowli now for a few weeks and surprisingly I’ve been quite busy.

In my first week back, I spent most of my time in the office catching up on things I had missed before Christmas. I visited a few local schools to say Hi and welcome the New Year in. The office was very quiet, most people are reluctant to turn up to work in a morning now that the harmattan has set in. The temperatures in Nadowli have now dropped to about 25^oc in a morning (which for me is quite pleasant) and for the people in the office this is positively cold ! ! Those that do turn up, come togged up in sweatshirts, a thick coat, ear muffs, gloves, a bobble hat and scarf, of course I’m still turning up in my blouse and ¾ length trousers. One officer made the comment that he’s lucky, as it’s too cold to get up if you haven’t got a wife to heat some water for a wash . . . .

My housemate returned from England the second week which was nice as it’s very quiet without the company, she brought lots of goodies with her from home, (chocolate, Christmas cake, sweets, mulled wine sachets, spices and herbs)  which we’ve been enjoying sparingly to make them last. Also this week I had my first real request for support from a Head teacher out in one of the villages. He came into the office and asked if I could go into his school and do an INSET on lesson planning as his teachers didn’t know how to write lesson plans. A challenge accepted, although with an air of apprehension, I have been writing lesson plans for the last 11 years in England but had never seen an example of the Ghanaian way. I later discovered they are very similar.

Last week I spent most of my time making phonic resources and planning my INSET. I completed my first ‘full’ day in the office (I went back after lunch) making a handout to give to the teachers explaining how to set out a weekly plan and what information to put where. I also added a few tips and examples to get them started. The INSET went really well and the nerves soon settled, lots of questions followed and I surprised myself by how experienced I felt once I started answering their questions. I was really touched when the Head invited me to share a mineral and some biscuits with him and his staff to thank me.

Today was a day and a half, I was invited to a meeting involving VSO and NAWAG (an assembly women’s group set up in Nadowli that help with educational issues) it was held at the District Assembly, they had invited a selected number of teachers, children, parents and the NAWAG members, all representing their own group interest. The meeting was given a 9am prompt start time, which meant I was there for the obligatory fashionably early 8.50am, only to find that no-one else actually turned up til 9.30am and the meeting didn’t actually start til around 10.30 ! !

The afternoon raised some interesting thoughts for me, the teacher’s group were asked to rate on a 4 point scale a number of issues. One being professional development, from my observations of training here, teachers are given the date and time of a training and are expected to turn up regardless of whether the training is appropriate of their personal professional needs. They were asked to comment on the appropriateness of training and the consultation the training staff have with teachers about their professional needs. They all felt that training was appropriate and that they were consulted about the topics covered. I’m afraid I couldn’t sit on my hands for long and had to throw my spanner in the works and challenge their responses, eventually after some discussion they actually came to realise that they all have differing professional needs and that these are not met on an individual level, oh dear, I’m sure I’d have been shot at dawn had someone in authority heard me sway the vote.

Glad to say I’m still alive to tell the tale ! !