November 4th to November 10th, 2023
This week I was rather busy from going to the schools where I will be teaching English, to attending clubs at the American Corner, to spending time with some of the people that I have gotten to meet here. Being busy definitely made it a good week and it gave me a chance to meet more people here and start feeling more comfortable in Majunga.
Throughout the week, I went and visited the two schools that I will be teaching English at this year, the public school, Lcyée Philbert and the private school, Saint Gabriel. The purpose of this week was simply to observe teachers in their classrooms to get a better idea of what the teaching process is like here and give me ideas for lesson plans for the rest of the year. While that was the goal of the week, I did get thrown into some classes where I had to teach the class. I ended up teaching a lesson on parts of the body to 8th graders which was actually pretty fun. While it was scary to begin teaching that quickly, the teacher I was with helped guide me through the lesson and it gave the confidence to realize that I can actually be an English teacher. In the other classes, I mainly observed the teachers which was helpful for me. It was interesting to see the differences in teachers’ teaching methods and the difference between the public school and the private school.
There are good students at both of the schools, but the private school, Saint Gabriel, is more structured than the public school, Lycée Philbert. At the public school, there is more flexibility with lesson plans and the students have more freedom within the class. While there are many benefits to this style, there are also some drawbacks such as there being less accountability among the students to push themselves for good grades. But this is understandable because many of the students at the public school come from poorer families and the focus on school is not stressed as much compared to other things such as ensuring there is food to eat and a place to sleep.
At Saint Gabriel, many of the students come from wealthier Malagasy families who stress the importance of school to their children. The students are expected to do well, and the teachers push them to do well and participate in class too. The private school has more resources than the public school which allows for an optimal learning environment. The school has a lap pool and boasts one of the best swim teams in the country. The school is also designed to allow all the classrooms to have a breeze, allowing for cooler learning conditions. From what I have seen from both schools, the students are respectful and excited to learn English, the private school is just able to give more attention and facilities to their students.
Visiting both the schools also made me think about how they were similar and different to schools in the U.S. They are similar in that the classes and subjects that are taught are almost identical to ours with students learning about Chemistry, Physics, Geography, History, Language, and Math. However, there were many differences that I noticed too. The class sizes here are much bigger ranging from 50 to 70 students and there is no technology in the classroom, teachers write on the chalkboard and students copy into their notebooks. While I think it is a benefit to have smaller classes sizes, like in the U.S., what I did notice was that the students here were much more respectful to the teachers and eager to learn. If we were to fill a class with 60 students in the U.S, it would be chaos, and nothing would get done. But here, students pay attention and don’t talk over the teacher, and they are able to cover a lot of material quickly, even the young kids pay attention in class. I guess there are good things and bad things to both the schools in the U.S. and the schools here.
I was also able to do some things outside of the classroom this week. I went to the American Corner and participated in a class designed for English teachers in Madagascar. I also led a discussion group on Wednesday where we discussed the differences between Universities in the U.S. and Madagascar. This week I also met two American missionaries, Pastor Miguel and Natalie who have been living here in Majunga for 4 years. They have been really nice, and Natalie has already cooked me some delicious meals.
Overall, this week has kept me busy with some challenges along the way, such as teaching a class in English or leading a discussion group, both of which I felt unprepared to do. But hey, I guess that’s what I should be doing here and the more I do it, the comfortable I will get. Next week, I begin to actually teach in the school, so I am excited to see what that looks like.