Teaching Again

Classes started this week at George Benson Christian College. My class load has doubled this term. I have two basic English courses for the first year teacher training students and an English for office skills class for the business course students. I am teaching material I have never taught before to students who speak English as a second language, so class preparation is a challenge. I have books spread out all over the living room, dining table, and bedroom as I comb through the pages for ideas. I’m exhausted at the end of every day, but I do enjoy my classes. The students are polite, respectful, and appreciative. They struggle to understand my American accent and I struggle to understand their Zambian English, but they are very patient with me as we learn together.

I have found that the students are quite shy about telling me when they do not understand what I am teaching. Now I have taught them to use signals to let me know how well they are grasping the subject/concept that I am presenting. I have them put “thumbs up” if they are understanding the material, “thumbs down” if they are totally lost, and “thumbs together” if they understand some of it but still have questions. The system has worked well to give me a quick idea of whether I need to go back and review or press on.

This week we worked on learning how to use textbooks and resource books. Some of my students have come from village schools where textbooks were not available or where many students had to share a few available textbooks. I found that some have never used an index or table of contents. Some have never had access to dictionaries or encyclopedias. I’m really starting with the basics! The good news is that they are very motivated to learn and will gladly accept extra work in order to grasp the material.

I remind them often that improving their reading, thinking, and communication skills will make them better church leaders, and that’s what George Benson Christian College is all about.