11 August 09
In the same way I forget how daunting beginning to work with kids can be to novice teachers until I get to observe them, I’d forgotten how nerve-wracking conference presentation can be to the uninitiated.
Tuesday was a refresher course.
As part of building capacity in the second year of TWB-C being her in Naivasha District, some of last year’s participants are leading the sessions this week.
For North Americans, conference attendance and even presentation may seem like part and parcel to the teaching gig. For most Kenyan teachers, such is not the case. Indeed, last week, I was trying to explain continued professional development to a teacher in Suba District and received the reply of, “If you’ve graduated from teacher college, why would you need to attend more trainings?”
Luckily, this particular sentiment is not held by the majority – at least not the majority of those teachers I’ve met.
For my own part, I was proud of and impressed by the confidence and preparedness of the Kenyan facilitators. Things weren’t perfect, but nothing went haywire either.
Whilst I could sense some anxiety, I didn’t have a clue as to what they were feeling until our debriefing Tuesday night.
Nerves all around, we found.
One Kenyan facilitator, Samuel, summed it up best, “I thank God I gathered my courage and kept on.”
I’m thankful he did too. If the comment from the teacher in Suba is any indication, many teachers here don’t see the need for continued professional development. With colleagues like Samuel, though, I expect minds will be changing.