Jonas K. is reporting

Today was my first day at school - and that’s exactly how it felt. The differences to school in Germany already show before school even starts. More than an hour before teaching starts, the first students are already there, and the school and its grounds are getting tidied up. At seven o’clock a rest period of half an hour begins, the point of which I still haven’t quite worked out, just as I haven’t with so many things over here. After that, it’s time for assembly. Supported by loud drumming, all students line up in the school yard and sing and pray together. Finally, lessons start at eight o’clock.

In order to gain a better understanding of things, I will only passively observe lessons during the first week and have my first French and maths lessons then, which I am happy to attend. I was introduced to the classes with the following words: “He is a proper teacher, just like any of us, so please show some respect.” Ah well, okay, then I simply am a proper teacher – even though I do not have any kind of professional training or preparation. Little did I know at that point, just how much I of a teacher I still was to become today. During the first couple of hours, I joined the lessons of a young social-studies teacher.  It is certainly true, that no teacher is the same, but his teaching surprised and impressed me. He was very lively and there was a lot of laughter. The relationship between teachers and students was unexpectedly relaxed. Still, there were a few things that I had not come across in Germany: Standing up when speaking, students clapping rhythmically when someone gave a correct answer, all students collectively repeating after the teacher, but also the punishment of having to stand or kneel. A lesson in Ghana is an hour and twenty minutes. In the third lesson, I was sent to a different classroom. It took me a while to realise that it all wasn’t a joke and that now I was expected to teach my own lesson and that no other teacher was still to arrive. And there I stood in front of 47 students (sixth form), completely unprepared, with just two lessons as a passive observer under my belt and was supposed to spontaneously think up my own lesson.

At the beginning it all went surprisingly well. Everybody showed interest and participated actively. As was to be expected, this did not last for the whole time, after all a huge class will normally be divided into two smaller groups. However, there were a lot of students with whom you could really tell that they were keen to learn and who engaged enthusiastically until the end of the lesson. What particularly impressed me, was how they kept reminding the others to keep quiet and to contribute.

I subsequently had to deal with question such as which notebook they were meant to use, whether it was a problem if they used the “wrong” pen. But I still haven’t not got my head round everything myself.

Tomorrow the headmaster’s son will come to my lessons with me to make sure students keep quiet and to answer any questions concerning the school. Then I will not only be a “proper teacher” but even one who has his own assistant.

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