Teacher for 3 months?

Teaching in the refugee camp is awarding, the students are inspiring and and the teacher role has given us the possibility to get to know people we elsewhere wouldn't have met. However, being a teacher in the refugee camp has also proven to be very challenging and sometimes on the brink to frustrating. I keep reminding myself that I don't have gone though the same teacher education as others, in order to justify all my wrong-doings. I spend hours trying to explain a rule, only to find the students making the same mistakes the next day, leading me to question the sanity of my old teachers... There are days where I simply wish I didn't have to make my way down to the community centre, and lack of motivation, freezing classrooms, or a badly planned lessons have all been contributing reasons. Nevertheless, most days are excellent, and my little classroom has turned into a little sauna in the hot sun. On good days I have up to four people per desk, twelve women in total in addition to one one man. Add all the smell and you have a room filled of cooking oil, chalk and sweat.

I was surprised to find dictation the class' favorite activity, in addition to tests and competitions. I have some very competitive students, however they might have misunderstood the concept as they believe it is all about being the loudest.. Yet, when Bruno Mars, Michael Jackson or Tom Gee are played the class turn quiet. After all, it is important to understand the lyrics of 'when you smile, the whole world stops for a while' or 'heal the world, make it a better place'.

The end of this week was celebrated with homemade cake made by two of my students. It is strange to imagine that we only have one full week on teaching left and that my students will be left to themselves after that. Perhaps some of them will be picked up by the next years Norwegian volunteers. Others will perhaps start their studies in Algeria, the not so lucky ones (depending on how you look at it) might spend more time in the kitchen. The only thing I know is that I for sure will miss every individual student that I have spent three hours with, every day, for the last three months.