ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNERS

On Monday I sat on my chair and was staring at my students. I do that a lot. I stare at a child and do a rough sketch of the progress that child has made that week.

While still staring I realised some of them has forgotten some basic knowledge of mathematics and English language. Reading their multiplication table, arranging numbers, addition, subtraction and the likes are now difficult for some.

Let me take you through my daily routine. I am a full time student of a tertiary institution and a teacher in a primary school nearby. Aside that, I teach two classes. Well the school is situated in a rural area and most teachers because of the pay and state of the learners would rather move to town to get a job.

I wasn’t happy at all. I stared the more , fixing my gaze on each child and was thinking of what strategy I could use to solve the issue and then the Holy spirit popped in a thought ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNERS.

An accountability partner is one who understands the goals you need to achieve and holds you accountable. Think of it this way. You have an assignment you’re to finish I’m your own time, you would just keep procrastinating. The reverse would be the case if you had a teacher who is waiting to mark such assignment.

Accountability partners keep you in check. They ask questions, they’re always there to give you that push.

Immediately I asked them to stand up and grouped them in three’s. I explained what accountability partner is and they were quite excited to learn something new.

I have stated the areas they’re lagging behind so every week I pick one area and give them as a group assignment. For example, their group assignment this week is to learn how to multiply two digits by one digit and Friday would be the day for questioning.

Yesterday I overheard some of them asking their partners if they’ve learnt the assignment. That’s a win for me. I made sure every group has an intelligent student just to create a balance.

Now thinking about it, I must say it’s a beautiful idea. This is a strategy you can adopt in your classroom. I love that it centers around children teaching children. I know the results will be amazing. I know it.