Bringing Joy Back to Teaching

This fall, we started our rural teacher training workshop series at the Create Change office in Tamale. Teachers came from twelve schools across the Nanton District, giving up their weekend to spend two full days reflecting, sharing, and learning together.

Our senior team, Emmanuella and Patience, led the sessions with support from a facilitator from Ghana Education Services. It was the beginning of our three-month pilot program, aimed at helping teachers rediscover their purpose and transform how they teach literacy in their classrooms.

The workshop began with coaching conversations that invited teachers to reconnect with the reasons they chose this profession in the first place.

One teacher shared a story about a former pupil from Kpunduli, a community where very few children go on to high school. Years later, that student called him from university in Accra to thank him for his encouragement. The story stayed with everyone in the room. It was a reminder that even in small rural schools, teachers can change the course of a child’s life.

After the reflections came the practical side. Teachers explored activity-based learning, discovering how children’s brains absorb information and how stories, repetition, and fun create deeper understanding. The workshop was noisy, lively, and full of laughter as small groups experimented with simple activities using local materials.

“It was important to understand how children’s brains actually learn,” one teacher said. “We were never taught that during our degree training.” Another added, “We all get tired of standing at the chalkboard... and so do the students. Learning through activities makes us and the children excited to come to school.”

By the end of the weekend, the mood was entirely different. Teachers who arrived unsure and tired left energized and hopeful. They understood that when lessons are interactive, everyone learns... not just the students.

This was only the first step. Over the next three months, these teachers will take what they learned back to their own schools and train their colleagues, helping to reshape entire classrooms across the Nanton District. Next year, we hope to expand this work to twenty-five more schools, led by our new Rural Education Fellows who are now being selected.