1 . STEM major , some experience teaching in a classroom setting as a volunteer . PST was definitely helpful , as we got some handson experience with a local school . I think I was pretty comfortable teaching right off the bat , but adjusting to the school ' s culture and figuring out more effective teaching strategies took a couple of months . 2 . Teaching in English , which my students did not know . Yes , they struggled , but they had to learn it to pass their exams . We did some vocab lessons . Very occasionally I ' d explain something in Swahili , or I would let students come up and do a problem , letting them explain in Swahili if I thought it would help the class . 3 . Most of them were very far behind where they should have been . Part of the issue was that they never properly learned English even though that was the medium of instruction after primary school . But even basic math concepts were lacking . I ended up having to backtrack a lot , which made it hard to get through the curriculum . There were some things I skipped altogether because of time constraints and the complexity of the material . I also worked with students a lot outside of the classroom . You might plan to do a few days of skillsassessment to see where your class is . In any case , after a break in the school year it ' s often helpful to start with a quick review .