"I'm
transformed!"
A
story of learning, teaching and change in Nigeria
by Jeanette Romkema
GLP Senior Associate
"I had no idea I could teach!"
one participant exclaimed with hands out stretched and face
glowing with excitement after his first teaching session. "They
loved it! and… now I know I can teach!" Hardly able
to contain his excitement, this computer technician explained
to me that he had never taught and had never considered teaching
before he came (you may ask why he was at the course… but
that's another story). He kept repeating "I'm transformed!"
as he and his equally excited partner gave me a play-by-play
description of their active lesson. They taught their colleagues
the new hand-ball rule in soccer and indeed, it was a huge success.
In fact by the end of the 5-day course, this young man was so
passionate and fired up by his learning he had another draft
of a design he eagerly wanted me to review for a course he wanted
to propose he teach!
As a teacher, this story is the kind of
learning that I pray and hope for. This was real learning: transformational
and life changing. This is also what moved our 16 participants
to take the Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach course in
Miango, Nigeria. The participants care about teaching and learning.
They work tirelessly to assure learning that will make a difference
in the lives of pregnant women, improve production of crops
for village farmers, prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in sexually
active youth, and improve pastoral care of religious leaders
(to mention just a few areas of focus). It was an honour and
privilege to pursue quality education with each one of participants.
May this course and future courses, lead to many exclamations
of "I'm transformed" for these learners and their
learners!
This course was
taught by Jeanette Romkema and Jan Disselkoen
August
8th-12th, 2005.
