Week One

Before entering this past week, I was filled with fear, curiosity and excitement for what awaits.

On the first day, me and my colleagues arrived at the school at 07:15. The principal expects us to be there at 07:30, but being aware of traffic and wanting to make a good impression we arrived early. Needless to say the time leaving Stellenbosch was adapted from the second day. Leaving just 15 min later the rest of the week ended up saving us an hour. Time was precious when being a student, but I have come to respect it much more.

The school starts at 08:05 and ends at 14:30 four days of the week with periods being 55 min each and two breaks, one long and one shorter. However, on Tuesdays learners and teachers alike have a short day ending at 13:00 with periods only being 45 minutes in length and one break. Adding sporting activities after school starting at 15:00 and ending at 16:30 at the earliest results in arriving home, Stellenbosch at 17:00 the earliest if we’re lucky.

This week only entailed observation and a brief teaching of a topic of about 15 minutes. The observation I found interesting as one specific class changed their manner, “vibe” as they moved to different teachers. This class did not act the same in one class, and depending on the teacher, their participation and interest varied significantly. The school itself is well looked after and well equipped with technology and the learners are very neatly dressed in school uniform, which lead me to a misconception of the environment and the learners. I assumed if all these facilities are available surely teaching is not that difficult here, because teachers have what they need (as the teachers all seem to be middle class and higher). The first afternoon at netball practice, I was shocked; most learners were practising in their school uniform (tracksuit during winter) with school shoes, while a few wore tekkies with the school uniform and two or three wore exercising clothing. The practise that I attended was that of three teams, there were only about 25 learners. I realised the discipline that these learners have and how badly they want to play netball to do it in these conditions. One afternoon we continued practise in the rain until it become impossible to see the ball, at which stage the coach called off the practise.

At school there are learners wanting to working, some actually achieving and other struggling because of language barriers. Learners use every opportunity they get to talk and take control of a classroom. The principle is very strict and is present during all periods changes, this can be seen and heard in the learners, the way they don’t talk or look untidy when he is near.

I got the feeling that some learners have decided that they are dumb, not good enough and don’t want to do school work. This is completely as a result of their own choices. I see my biggest challenge not to stereotype while teaching, allowing that to affect my behaviour and getting the general moral of these learners up.

This was an interesting week. Hopefully teaching a few lessons this week will give me more insight into the questions that have arose within me.