Day in the Life of a Teaching Fellow

7:00 am

Waking up in the Faculty house on campus, often the first thing a Teaching Fellow will hear will be the giggling and chatter of some of the 180 middle school girls who inhabit the neighboring dormitories. They are the most cheerful of alarm clocks and most likely have been up since 5:30am preparing for the day. As the morning grows brighter  you will see the campus emerge from the mists, rising from the earth almost like a natural formation -it’s walls of bricks were formed from the same gorgeous red clay as the earth beneath them. The birds welcome the sun with a raucous chorus of tweets, whistles, and squawks from the tops of the bananas and avocado trees in the school garden behind the faculty house.

7:30am

For breakfast, you might quickly cook up some toast with peanut butter you bought in Kigali that weekend.  Or maybe scramble up some eggs or cook up some porridge and pour yourself some creamy delicious milk from the school’s cows that are pastured nearby. Or, perhaps, you are running late and instead have a cup of dark, famously rich Rwandan coffee.

7:45am

Then it is off to the administration building as students line up for school assembly. As is the custom in Rwandan schools across the country, they will start some days with a short prayer, the singing of the Rwandan national anthem, and hear announcements from Sister Juvenal, the Head of the School. Sister Juvenal is a seemingly ageless nun with a quick wit and a ready smile. She is the heart of the school and has an amazing skill of making everyone feel at ease – both students and teachers.

8:00-8:50 – First Period

You are not working with a class for the first period so you will be in the staff room.  There is limited internet so you usually try to check your emails or update the teaching fellow blog before the day’s data runs out!

8:50-10:30 am

You have a double period today during this time with a Senior One class.  They have been learning how to write paragraphs, so your plan is for them to create a travel brochure (complete with drawings!) to attract foreigners to Rwanda.   You start the lesson asking why Rwanda is special.  One of the students thinks Maranyundo is an exciting enough place to attract tourists and makes her paragraph about that.

10:30-10:50am – Break and Tea Time for staff

All staff converges into the staff room to enjoy African tea, a mix of about half tea and half milk.  The students use this time to relax and socialize or perhaps ask a question to a teacher.

10:50-12:30 – Third Period

You help Teacher Juritha set up her ladybug document camera for Political Education class.  Depending on the day, a teacher may ask for assistance because his computer is working very slowly or for you to help find an educational video from RACHEL to show the class.  With the raspberry Pi, he can now download videos and more information without accessing the internet.

12:30-2:00pm - Lunch

Lunchtime on campus is a very joyous and raucous time. Dining Hall staff bring big pots of rice, beans, greens, plantains, and pineapple. A big container of spicy pepper oil is passed around to spice up the dish.  After lunch, teachers prepare for their next class or listen to music. Depending on the day, the teaching fellows might head back to the faculty house for some down time, meet with students for extra help, or help teachers with technological questions.

2:00-430pm – Fourth and fifth Period

You have no more classes today so you work on planning your lesson for next week or simply take this time to read, listen to music or chat on the phone.  Perhaps you have an independent project in Rwanda and work on that.  On Wednesdays, the students have no scheduled class and will sometimes have an extra remedial lesson or meet for school debate in the dining hall.

4:30-6:00pm – Sports

The students change into their sports uniforms and play basketball or handclap games together. Some days it is also fun to go out and play too!

But often, the teaching fellow is scheduled to meet with her English tutoring group during exercise time. One of your jobs is to be a resource for some of the students with lower English skills, often students from under-resourced rural schools who come to Maranyundo Girls School less well-prepared. They are often some of the students from the most economically disadvantaged families. Thanks to the scholarships from the Maranyundo Initiative, these girls are able to attend the school, even though their families have limited resources.  However, they work extremely hard in their extra lessons and quickly catch up to the rest of the students.

 6:00-8:00pm - Prep Time

After a quick shower, all of the girls find study spots all over campus, some moving chairs next to the building walls for complete isolation and concentration. The students are so eager, that when power goes out and they have to wait for the school generators to kick on, they will continue to read by flashlight.

7:00pm – Dinner

Rwandans eat dinner much later than in the US. At the faculty house, it is a familial affair. Everyone helps to prepare the meal and eats together. Dinner is usually a similar meal to lunch.

9:00-10:00pm – Bedtime

Early to rise and early to bed! Everyone tends to go to bed early on the weekdays, especially since you will be up early.

If you are interested in becoming a Teaching Fellow at Maranyundo Girls School to support teachers and students, please see our listing on Idealist, or download an application here at our website.