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.