While working at the Kiembe Samaki Skuli, we were lucky enough to work with a wonderful teacher, Tuma. From the first moment we met her she was enthusiastic about what we were doing. Just like the students, she was apprehensive at first to jump in, quietly observing what we did and the students reactions. Once in a while she would jump in and help with translations or work with students whose English proficiency was not strong enough. Without judgment but unrelentingly, she would work with the students on pronunciation and grammar until they got it right and were confident performing it.
As time went on, she would stop us and ask us what we were doing and more and more she got comfortable jumping in. She managed to do this without stepping on our toes and became a real asset to our team.
Towards the end of rehearsals, she even took a group outside and rehearsed with them. Even though I did not witness this myself, I heard from Maya Turner Singh, one of my co-teachers that she worked creatively from the group and pushed them to speak loudly and clearly. What a success to have a teacher that has never taught drama before take a risk like that!
While we never see Tuma on stage, she was very much a part of our team. She is excited to take what she has learned and implement it into her own classroom. She might even want to start a drama club!
If I ever go back, which I hope I do, I would love to spend time doing professional development with more teachers. If they are anything like Tuma, they will be excited and eager to learn something new that engages the students. What an incredible experience that would be.
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