What Volunteering Abroad Taught Me About Teaching
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Guest post contributed by Noemie-Capucine Quessy
When reading the description for the IVHQ Morocco Women Empowerment program, it wasn’t clear to me what “occasional childcare” implied. Besides my experience coaching swimming lessons (which I loved), I didn’t have much of a teaching background. And working with kids? I mean, kids are fine although I find it’s awkward at times to deal with their impulsivity, loudness, hyperactivity, whining, disobedience … Besides my two adorable nephews that I see once a year, children are not part of my daily environment.
In the classroom in Morocco, we were sitting at a low table, cramped on tiny chairs around children aged from 2 to 8. Eyes were all on us, with inquisitive faces impatiently waiting for instructions as we stood there, perplexed and confounded. Were we supposed to assist the teachers, bring teaching material, or stand up and actually teach? And besides Arabic, what do the children know about French or English? How do you teach a class that has such a large age difference?