Drama, Ghanaian Style

I am aware that very little of what I've written this far eludes to why we're actually here. In this way, as you will find out, my title gives nod to subterfuge and entendre. But Before I get carried away listing words I learned in preparation for the GRE, I should note that I am in Ghana because I am, in fact, teaching master classes to the teachers out here.

This makes me sound like some kind of  megalomaniac, I am aware. But teaching master classes is a lot like sharing best practice to a room of people who won't boo you off stage or talk about you when you leave--like your fellow teaching colleagues do at home. 

Our Ghanaian colleagues have been warmly welcoming and very receptive to the myriad tasks at hand. They whoosh and soundscape with aplomb. Their challenges are different--extremely limited resources, gigantic class sizes, a government that doesn't quite deliver (okay, that one's the same) but their true professionalism is refreshing.  These teachers care about their kids and their continued professional development, in Accra at least, has been top notch. 

In a week filled with drama, they have been the true saving grace.

As I spout irrational chatter about my teaching background and then sessions on drama games in the English classroom, interactive learning, inclusion and differentiation, I'm also very aware of how far I've come in my teaching career. And how much I do have to offer the educational scene. It's a rare confidence boost in an educational landscape that always focuses on better, more, quicker.  

There are issues at hand, still.  The WASSCE, the West African Senior School Certificate Exam, mandates a very different style exam to the UK's GCSEs.  Until this year, we've been unable to get our hands on an exam paper or test booklets.  And now that we have it, it seems that our sessions have been delivered at cross purposes.  Teaching PEE and interactive methods is all good until you note that the exam is multiple choice, focuses on idiomatic phrases, grammar and basic comprehension.  This isn't Ghana's choice; they're at the mercy of the West African board.  So if positive change is going to happen, it's got to happen on a much larger scale than we once imagined.  This is a daunting task.  

If infrastructural progress on the ground is anything to go by though, it's a challenge the Ghanaian people are up for.