Training in Kitwe is officially done after four very tiresome days of work. I forgot how tiring it is to teach for a whole day. When training in Ndola, the longest I had taught for was an hour and a half, but when training in Kitwe, I had to teach six hours a day. Teaching for six hours is very tiring. No wonder I took naps in the afternoon when I taught kindergarten. Some days I would fall asleep while the kids were in class. Just kidding!
Anyway, as mentioned earlier, I took Emmanuel and Samson, two of my teachers from Mapalo, to train teachers with me. Emmanuel and Samson absolutely loved the opportunity to train other teachers. It was a great learning experience for them, but it was also a great learning experience for me.
I learned that to empower people I have to give up control! I always want to be in control to make sure that things are correct; therefore, giving up control is hard for me. But releasing control is necessary when training people. Whenever Emmanuel and Samson were teaching, I was constantly having to control myself from adding too many comments. Yes, if material needs to be communicated clearly, I need to step in and make sure the teachers are trained properly, but that was not my problem. My problem was that I wanted to micromanage the presentations and wanted everything exactly like I would state it. Who wants a boss like that?
At least I realized this tendency in myself early. Emmanuel stated that his goal was to present a session without me adding a comment. Ouch! Of course, he did not mean it as a knock against me, but instead meant that he wanted to cover the material adequately enough so that I would not comment. Anyway, one of my goals is to empower these teachers and Emmanuel and Samson to make a difference. I can’t do that though if I micromanage and don't allow them to lead. I will still hold myself and our project to a high standard but that can be done while allowing others to lead. The process may not be as pretty along the way, but the end result will be a lot better.
God will equip them like he equipped you!
ReplyDeleteIt is exciting to see your work going to the next level, insuring that the impact of your work in Zambia will have a more lasting affect. An excellent teacher does hold a high standard while allowing his students to do the job incorporating their "style", not expecting them to be "little
ReplyDeleteDavids"!! Keep up the good work. God is teaching you so much as He uses you to teach others.