Jasmine - Teacher
"I have just got back from Ghana where I have been teaching for the last five months. I can honestly say that it’s been an incredible, insightful and life enhancing experience.
I worked as a teacher at Western Royal Montessori School for five months. I taught English, Creative Arts and helped in the library. One of the best parts about being a teacher was thinking up new ideas for each lesson, I would use all different resources that were available to me, including the items that I had brought with me from home as well as the items I bought whilst I was there. I taught Creative Arts including drama, poetry and music. I worked with my drama class in groups to put on a performance.
In music I taught the class popular western songs and then the classes performed these songs with the dances we taught them. My volunteer partner and I were able to join in with the teaching committees and contribute our own ideas for the school. I was able to create, organise and advertise a creative arts competition for which all students in classes K.G. to J.H.S.2 joined in. My partner and I also repainted the letters in front of the school, took photographs for advertising and created a class poster for the graduation day ceremony.
Whilst I was in Ghana I learnt a lot, not just about myself but about another country, another culture, and most importantly another way of life. Heading off to a new country and doing something completely different is admittedly quite surreal but I managed to avoid the panic by building up a support network of good friends. Among these friends I counted my fellow volunteers and volunteer partner, whom I could always bounce ideas off and talk about anything with, our hosts and the teachers who would always lend support and guidance if we asked, and the students who were quick to teach us about Ghana, their language, their customs and how they wanted to be taught.
I’ve learnt how to build up a good network of friends, how to communicate with people and that it’s easy to not feel lonely simply by joining in the community. I rarely experienced homesickness simply because I was home. It was not the case that my life was on hold back home or that I was counting down the days to go home, because now I consider Ghana as my second home."