First Time Teaching Composition.

In my junior year as an undergraduate, I did my Teaching Practice (Internship) at a girls school in rural Kenya. I was extremely nervous on my first day of teaching. Though I had undergone three years of pedagogy training, I still felt inadequate. There were about fifty students in the classroom and I could tell from their looks that they were eager to learn. The fact that I knew something that they did not know and that it was my responsibility to deliver it to them was my chief motivation. At the end of the three months of teaching English, I was impressed at the progress each one of them had made no matter how little. The fact that we all had expectations which were fulfilled in one way or another was satisfying. I will always remember the gratitude of the girls’ as I said goodbye to them at the end of my internship. At that moment, I confirmed that this is what I wanted to be; a teacher. It had never felt so right.


Upon my graduation, I got a teaching job at a small private school in Nairobi. I was the primary teacher of all the four levels in the school which had approximately thirty students in each class.Teaching at this school was both fun and challenging. The job was demanding and kept me on toes all the time. The school had limited resources which called for a lot of improvisation and creativity on my part. At the end of the year, I was surprised at just how much I had achieved. It was not easy but at the end of it all, it was worth it.

 In 2016, I got Fulbright Scholarship to Teach Swahili for a year at Tulane University in Louisiana. This is by far the most exciting period I have had in my teaching experience. Teaching my native language away from home meant a new set of challenges to push through. With cultural and academic adjustments to do, I had to learn how to balance my responsibilities as a student and a teacher and at the same time try and create a fit within my new teaching environment.


I have taken creative writing classes before. I have also taught Writing to High school students in Kenya. That is as far as my knowledge about composition goes. As a TA in a Rhetoric and Composition class, I feel there is a lot I need to learn to be productive enough. Being an international student, I still have some adjustment to do regarding teaching English classes. I however, take this challenge positively. It is an opportunity to mold me into a better teacher.

First Time Up has provided a good foundation for me as a first-time teacher of composition. It is reassuring to know that it is not just me in this space. Others with and before me have felt inadequate too. One thing striking about it is the Imposter Syndrome. This surprisingly, seems to be every other composition teacher’s challenge! I look forward to confronting the challenges before me and taking them down one by one. I can't wait to get to the “fun” part of teaching composition!
Justine Waluvengo. MA English Literature.

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