May 14, 2022
The Teacher Training team has once again proved itself to be a force that impacts the educational landscape of the Arusha region.
The idea of training 108 teachers across three different districts might seem impossible, but we managed to execute the training effortlessly within five days from April 13th- April 18th. Noah, TFFT’s Teacher Training Program Manager, led and facilitated one of the venues at Leganga Primary School. He was assisted by a TFFT alumni, named Dicklucky. Adrian, TFFT’s Teacher Training Program Coordinator led at Arusha Modern School, with the help of Madam Redempta, from Meru District Council, and Dr. Angelista from Kilimanjaro region, who facilitated some of the classes. He was assisted by Elna; the TTP intern and two TFFT alumni, Nicemary and David.
We were graced with the presence of many prestigious and influential figures in the educational sectors, several active participating District Educational Officers, Ward Education Coordinators, Regional Educational Officers, and School Quality Assurance Teams.
The workshops were nothing short of robust, with early start times of 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, and often later. Each day was bursting at the seams with productive teaching, interactive activities, exchange of laughter, making new friends and connections, and peer learning.
The aim of the workshops was to train the six schools newly inducted into the Teacher Program Program and conduct baseline survey activities on different academic areas including participatory learning, micro-teaching, lesson planning, lesson objectives. These all fall under the theme of student-centered learning.
The teachers were enthusiastic to learn new content that would aid them in the classroom as they displayed a lot of curiosity with streams of endless questions. We were thrilled to see that they were active participants, eager to expand their skills and abilities in the classroom. We observed that their enthusiasm and eagerness only grew exponentially as the days went on.
Mr. Noah Kayanda, Adrian Maganga, Dr. Angelista Joseph, and Madam Redempta Msack conducted sessions on the need for change and different participatory learning techniques, student-centered teaching processes, best practices teaching, the importance of sharing learning objectives, better questioning, techniques and assessments, and the benefits of lesson preparation. Lastly, teachers in their groups were able to prepare and conduct a micro- teaching on the last day of the training.
Over the course of the days, we conducted several icebreakers and team building activities that acted as energizers between sessions. At the end of each day, the in-house team would spend a few minutes reviewing the day and examining feedback from the teachers. At the adjournment of the event, we were able to provide all the attendees with certificates of participation and express our deepest appreciation for their attendance and active participation.
All attendees were provided with quality food and drinks and were provided with transport reimbursement to ensure their active participation throughout the duration of the workshop.
A few quotes we extracted from the daily evaluation sheets are as follows:
“We thoroughly enjoyed all the teachings.”
“The lessons touched upon topics; we hadn’t encountered before”.
“The incorporation of technology through Power Point presentations was innovative and simplified labor work”.
“The use of group/peer learning was very effective”.
“Our facilitator was knowledgeable about all the topics and easy to comprehend”.
Applying what they have learned over the course of the training, we now expect teachers to be active and innovative educators. This implementation stage will help teachers identify their deficiencies and turn these into strength and growth.
At the end of the training workshop, we curated a WhatsApp group for the teachers so that they now have a platform and opportunity to continue interacting with each other, exchanging information about both the challenges and solutions they encounter in the classroom.
Additionally, we hope to supplement these training with future professional development sessions to reinforce the knowledge they gained during the training. What the teachers learned is something that will continuously be built upon and revisited to expand their skill set.
We are preparing a report to issue to the respective district’s educational regulators so they can gauge the impact of the workshop and are an indirect party of progress tracking. Furthermore, we intend to conduct follow up trial sessions with the six schools through a monitoring and evaluation process, with the help of School Quality Assurance Teams and Ward Education Coordinators, to track the teachers’ growth and gain an understanding of our impact.
Overall, The Student-Centered Training workshop was an exciting and engaging experience with much knowledge gained, many key takeaways, and monumental amounts of praise as feedback and appreciation shown at the end of the training, which demonstrates how impactful and effective these trainings are. We were also able to celebrate outstanding teachers by providing them with TFFT branded goods, as well as delivery merchandise to the guest of honor.
We hope to continue to be a positive agent of change in the educational sector in the Arusha region and our hope is that, through these efforts, educational performance in Arusha will continue to improve.
