Week 9: Goodbye Haties

This week was a sad but also very fun week. We helped our mentors prepare for the exams which officially started on Friday. We also had to invigilate exam sessions as some teachers were busy with meetings, either with the principal or parents.
Exams are times in which learners ought to be more responsible and less disrespectful. This was not the case for some learners. The timeout (TO) room is a isolated room to which learners who are not obeying the school rules are sent to and have to stay there whole day for the duration of their punishment. Thus during exams they also write in TO and not with their class.

Unfortunately, for me, I had to assist in the TO venue the first session. I was shocked to see how these learners behave and also how learners come late for exams and some even asked what they were writing. Some of them have no respect for elders. There was a sweet grade 8 boy whichas looks like he can't hurt a fly. He was in TO with his friends for buying weed from a older boy because it was his birthday and he was an ted too be seen as cool. We still can't believe how the older learners are so ignorant to the little ones innocence.

I watched the two teachers who were with my colleague and I in TO very closely. I have learnt that you should not show these disobedient learners that you are feeling sad for them even if it is the sweetest learner in your class. This is how they take advantage of your kindness. Be firm and never say that you are going to punish learners for disobedience and then later don't do it. This is how they learn not to take you seriously. Most of the teachers reacted in this way and ended up crying because learners were deliberately trying to aggravate them.
The most important thing I will take with  me on my journey as a teacher is, when you are new at a school, especially us PGCE learners next year, do not try and be everyone's friend. Don't care to much if learners or teachers don't like you. Set your rules and punishments out day one and follow through. As long as you do what is expected of you and more, this is how you will earn respect in this industry.

The experience can either break or make you! I hope everyone had such a great teaching experience this term as I did. Friday was also bokke day at school and we could wear our rugby tops in support of our Springbok team. So sad to leave. Enjoy the week rest! #Haties

My PGCE colleagues and I in the staffroom

My gift from my mentor teachers

Reflection 8: One more week to go :(

This week I completed the rest of the themes that were required for knowledge strand 3 for the third term for both grade 9 and grade 10. There were no more lessons left and one could see how learners became restless. I realised that giving assessments also aided in doing revision on the work, especially since most of the marks were bad for the class tests and practical tests in both subjects. Some learners are complaining about doing the work over and over however there is no other way, thus I put my foot down and just did revision. I believe that one could never have to much revision as it will will help in the future tests and exam.

My mentor is the grade head of the grade 8 learners and this week she was very busy with parents and the discipline of the grade 8s. Thus we had to step in and supervise her classes. I'm still shocked to see how the juniors of the school especially the grade 8s behave. Some of them have no respect what so ever for their elders (teachers and older grades) nor their parents. Then you get parents who do not want to hear any bad reports concerning their children and blame whatever the child does on the school.

I have learnt that when faced with such parents as described above, one should stay calm and not indulge in harmful confrontations. Do not take sides, just state the facts with the accompanying evidence. There are also parents that thought of their children as angels and are utterly shocked and speechless when called to school to fetch their children because they broke the rules. Also, what was interesting to observe was the reason behind some learners misbehaviour. Some have problems at home and then get sucked into peer pressure and find it hard to get out of it as they have no one to talk to.
I must applaud the school staff on how they manage illegal substance on the school. The Learners are expelled from school for a certain period depending on the nature of the offense and sent for counselling as well as rehab. They may only return when they are clean, this applies for any illegal substances including tobacco. Learners are also tested for illegal substances regularly. We also found out that it is a group of senior boys that sell or give the junior learners these substances.

Next week is our last week and I must admit that I will be sad to leave!

Week 7: Formal assessments!

Time is surely flying... The atmosphere at HTS Bellville is surely overwhelming. Our mentor teachers are becoming more and more like family. The conversation topics are also much different, much more personal. There is also a clear trustful relationship.

This week the one aspect that stood out for me is the formal assessments. I spent the whole week and my weekend just marking. I did not do soo much lessons this week. I was shocked to see how the grade 9 Natural Sciences test and practical marks look. I still don't know what to think of it.
During the lessons and the activities, learners answer correctly and are participating. The recapping of concepts also stimulates the learning process. However, the  marks are so disappointing. Yes, surely thee are a few learners that do well but the majority is less than average. I am quite worried about this because exams are coming up in two weeks and alot of improvements need to take place.

It took my own grade 9 class 3 periods (3hours) to finish a formal assessment that was suppose to be completed in 1 period (1hour). They are the last grade 9s to write their class test on Monday, thus I'm actually quite worried judging from the results of the other classes scripts we have marked thus far.

Learners tend to get very nervous when writing tests or doing formal assessments that require them not to use their textbooks or writing books. They doubt their answers and make silly mistakes. Thus i feel that we need to emphasise the importance of writing down formulas much more. Also, now we need to do much more revision lessons than what we intended on doing.

Week 6: Half way through teaching practice

This week, not much happened at the school. It was one of those weeks of wishing it could be Friday already.
Friday was the market day hosted by the first grade 8 group. It was also Funky hair day. That meant that students could come to school in any hair style what so ever. Only a few actually had their hair funky, the others especially the girls, just had their hair blown out.

What I noticed about having functions or special occasions at school whilst still having normal class periods has a huge influence on how learners behave in class. My grade 10 class did not want to have a lesson. Learners who normally just sat and ask questions were talking and having  conversations not linked with the work. I allowed for 3 learners of the other grade 10 Life Sciences class to sit in as they did not start with the topic yet. Later on in the lesson it became a problem, as 1 of my class learners kept talking to the learner from the other class. Also, I gave them a crossword on Biomes to prepare them for the test they have in a few days. That worked well as they were kept busy even though there was talking in between it was about the work.

I feel that one needs to be more strict with learners when it comes to such functions. However, functions in their eyes is a time to relax. Thus to benefit both the learner and the teacher, one could give a fun activity relating to the work and create a relaxed environment but stil one in which learning takes place. I feel that the crossword was a fun learning activity especially since my class felt that the Biome concepts were not as fun and stimulating as the other concepts we deat with. It is also complicated to set up questions as it is plain theory work. Most of the learners said that they enjoy doing crosswords and thus I incorporated it into their learning process.

I'm glad to say that the market day was a success. The learners enjoyed it alot and the grade 8s enjoyed making money.

Beautiful decorated cupcake

Week 5

I had my lecturer evaluation yesterday! I really enjoyed it. It felt soo much easier doing my lessons infront of Mrs Fledermaus.  Reason being that she did both my Fishbowl lessons and could criticise my growth at my practice school. I allowed for a disruption in my comfort zone and will surely add to my teaching in a positive manner.
I have learnt that I should allow the quiet learners to do the activities on the board. Even though they do not raise their hands, some of them do want to give their input but are too shy. Thus i should always include them but in the same way not brush off the learners that are raising their hands.
All in all, I'm proud of my achievement thus far, not only the marks but the relationships built in this path.

The learner discipline at school was always breath taking in my eyes. Reason why I say this is because I always thought the learners, even though cheeky are very tranquil and don't seem violent. However this week two accidents took place. First two girls had a huge fight and then another incident was where a girl stabbed a boy. The irony is that he actually defended her by the principal,  that she didn't mean to stab him. The boy actually has a crush on the girl and pleaded that he gets punished and not her. Teachers were in aww when they saw the girl carry the boy to the office because of the stab wound. Luckily no one was seriously injured in both the accidents. However,  even though no one was seriously injured the principal and colleagues feel that the accident should be reported to Safe Schools. I agree it is the right thing to do because even though the learners didn't get hurt, their parents could hold the school responsible if they keep quiet and brush the occurrences under the mat.

The principal as well as the school handles conflict with so much care in not overstepping rights of the learners or colleagues. Thus there is only 1 way: right or wrong, no but or maybe. I was impressed in the way that the principal uses the educational rights of the learners as well as the employees to make the right decisions. He does not try to please people by saying what they like but is straight forward and says what is right and in the best interest of the school.

I am thus glad to be at such a school that is in the control by a firm hand. Hope you all had a wonderful week. Now that my lecture evaluation is completed feel so much relaxed! God bless!

Week 4: Life Sciences after a long weekend!

No long weekend can prepare you for back to school. I felt so rested on Tuesday morning after the hectic week 3. Also, our Life Sciences mentor gave us off for Tuesday as she missed teaching her grade 10s. Thus it was just a day of babysitting and observations.  However, my colleagues and I are starting to talk to more and more teachers and as well as the other student teachers.

I only had Life Sciences this week. This week's focus was Ecosystems,  The Environment and Ecotourism. The learners seemed quite bored at the start but as the lessons progressed they found it interesting. There were many questions posed that one could not have prepared for however to my knowledge I tried to answer it as best as I possibly could and then I would ask the Life Sciences teacher if there was anything she would like to add.

The discipline and respect was much better this week. The learners seem much more comfortable and at times too comfortable.  I was told by my Life Sciences mentor the I have  very good interaction with the learners. This reflected in the way I treated them and their input during lessons. I try my best to incorporate a teacher and learner centred classroom environment in which all opinions matter and are respected. This week was the week in which I gave my grade 10s their first assessment activity.  However, time did not allow us to complete the activity in 1 period but two. Some learners did not complete the activity and asked to take it home. I then used my authority with reason and said no as it was not that difficult and in my experience, if you give learners activities to take home, there will always be one or two with an excuse of why he or she did not bring it back on the due date. Thus I will be marking it as is and handing it back so we can reflect and do corrections together. I added a new strategy this week. When I do my recap of previous lessons, I reward positive input as well as correct answers by giving a sweet. However, if no hand was risen to answer a question, and learners shouted out the answer, no sweet was given. It was interesting to see how many learners actually participated in this because normally it's always the same learners answering.

I attended both hockey practices this week again. However, on Wednesday it was raining but the players were so dedicated that they continued to play in the rain. Thursday they also wanted to continue planing in the rain but the couch refused nd we then moved to shelter and spoke about positions. We have been having hockey games every week now and I'm so proud of the girls they really are improving and it shows by the winnings.

Next week the PGCE evaluator is visiting the school. I'm soo stressed as to all the reflections after the observations which I still have to formally complete. I know that the reflections are helping us, but at times I feel that it's really taking up valuable time as we need to reflect on everything. I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way and just have to handle my time management better but I'm really struggling keeping up with all of that.

Hope you all had a blessed week. Rest well the weekend!

Week 3: The most tiring week!

This week we as student teachers had soo much to. We had to invigilate classes. Also there were many classes we had to give that we were not evaluated on or where we were left alone to teach the class  as there were not many teachers present at school.

My father called me Friday and asked why he never sees me anymore, I told him that I never knew that being a teacher is soo much hard work. When I started my teaching practice I thought : "early afternoons and long holidays", but this week was a contradiction to the thought. I had a paradigm shift. What I thought to be a less stressful job is turning to be quite the opposite. All I can think about is PREPARATION PREPARATION PREPARATION! However, it can also be the fact that as student teachers We are expected to reflect after each lesson, which at times feels tiring because you can't do it directly after a lesson as when the bell rings you have to run to the next class because you still need to set up. Our lunch breaks are 24 min and less. That is not enough time to absorb everything that just occurred in a lesson, lower stress levels or even eat lunch as there is always a line at the microwave. Sometimes I feel like making me bread for lunch, then I think that we already look like the learners and now we still putting in bread like learners. The only time I don't feel like a learner myself is when I'm actually standing in front teaching.

This week I was expected to do two or more lessons everyday. My mentor teacher had an operation and she hasn't been at school since last week. I stil find myself thinking about if she is ok and then tell myself that she wouldn't want us to keep pondering but want us to teach as effective as we possibly can. My colleague took over her grade 9s and I had to take over the other teachers grade 9s. This meant that I had two grade 9 classes as well as a grade 10 class. I was soo overwhelming but fun at the same time. I loved that I had soo much lessons in the beginning but close to Thursday it really took a toll on me. I was exhausted. With this exhaustion came so easy lessons that both the learners and I found boring as it was mostly theory and facts. I had to make it interesting which was a challenge. However,  I survived.  I just took my mentors advice in the first week. She advised us to just go through the process like they are, bring the information down to their level. I even had to do a mixed language  Life Sciences class. I was terrified that I was going to make a fool out of myself in front of the Afrikaans learners. However, it was actually really fun. They even complemented me on my language switch a d was amazed at how well i switched between the languages during the lesson. The lesson was not that long and then they adndsked me to help them with a Life Sciences research task they have. In my own grade 10 class we started with The Biosphere,  we had so much fun in the Biomes lesson. I used movie analogies to describe certain biomes. The The Lion King was used to describe the Savannah and then the learners told me that the Forest reminded them of Twilight.

Our girl hockey team had home matches Wednesday and Thursday.  The under 19 team won on Wednesday.  Thursday they played against a boys team. I still haven't gotten the breakdown as I did not attend the match on Thursday,  I only stayed on Wednesday. 

Even though this week was soo hectic, I enjoyed it as well. However, I am not shy to say that I can't wait to lay in bed late on Monday. It is a well deserved rest.