Week 5: Reality vs Ideology

A pen, black or blue it is what most people use for writing or taking notes. I take one to school with me each day, whether it is for my own use or to assist teachers with admin I also have one. Living in our current world I realise that one has to protect your property and look after it. After the first week the first pen was gone. Thinking that I left it somewhere or a learner took it, but me being naïve I never considered one of the learners in the classes that I teach the most. It is one of the other classes that I had to observe or help out at, definitely not my classes. Taking pen two, I select one which is marked and that I know not a single learner can lay claim to. Last week pen two disappears. This now officially an issues for me, I start thinking of precautionary measures and possible solutions to these disappearing pens. For this week is browed pens from learners each period and returned it to them after the period, inconvenient at times but cheaper than my other alternative.

Thursday approaches, teaching mathematically literacy and going out of my way to help all the learners and help them individually understand. There is one boy, who asks something every five minutes and celebrates when he understands. I took this as I complement, thinking that if it is only this one learner that I help its ok. End of the period and this boy has another question; I am at his desk trying to think of a different approach to his problem. Low and behold… there is one of my pens, written Hoerskool Postmasburg on it. I was stunned, disappointed and sad.

Friday, ‘my class’ (as I have them for all three of my subjects) need an invigilator. There is pen number two, a blood bank pen. Investigation showed that this pen has been traveling through the entire class since they took it from my possession. This week I intend to ask one of the teachers some of their class time to have a serious discussion with these learners and very clearly communicating my disappointment.  Hopefully the results will be more respect and a better attitude towards education and educators – only time will tell.

Fortunately, I do not need to teach these learners further, so their reaction to our discussion I might still teach them. This was quite a shock to my system this whole event with the pens. This was supposed to be my class, the one place where is would surely be able to make a difference. These learners are smart and I believe this may be a contributing factor to why teachers have disciplinary issues with them, they are ahead with work and then disciplinary issues arise. This was a challenge I saw and fully embraced and then just when I tough that I have built both individual and a class relationship with these learners, it blows up and I see that I was surely fooling myself.

Entering the next week, I look forward to teaching other classes, having fun and building new relationships. The classes that have been allocated practicing teachers welcome them with open arms, thus other opportunities for me. 

Week Four

Week four – the short yet continuous week

This was thought to be an amazing week, only three days and then weekend and rest again. Unfortunately, this week seemed to be never-ending!

Wednesday started, the day started cheerfully teachers celebrating birthdays that occurred during the past weekend, all together a happy environment. My thoughts were on another planet tough. On Tuesday I tried to prepare as much as possible for my evaluation lesson taking place on Thursday. All of this preparation seem to have been wasted as the teacher did not agree with what I had prepared and what she was still doing, a communication gap. This was luckily to be fixed as me and the involved teacher decided on a topic and manner of teaching for the next day. Another teacher on the staff gave me some tips and guidelines of how to go about.

Thursday took its time to eventually begin, the minutes before my lesson felt like hours and my nerves ever increasing. During the break announcements I was informed that my lecturer has arrived and is waiting for me. Wow, this just became very real. My mind was a mess, trying to have everything in order and trying to establish whether there is anything that I could have missed.

The whole experience ended up being almost the exact opposite of what I expected. I expected my lecturer to arrive, him/her to attend my lesson and afterwards to be a real critic about what he/she just saw. To my surprise, the person coming to evaluate me was an elderly man, young in spirit and extremely kind. Lectures from other institutions have been in the waiting room, and there was nothing special about it, however this Oom. He created a cheerful atmosphere and was kindly speaking and engaging everyone around. I must say this eased the greeting process, he was friendly, exactly explained the process of what is about to take place, a short history about him and why he is here and not my lecturer.

After break we went to meet the learners at their reporting station, and we all continued to the class. Once in the class we greeted, I introduced the Oom and explained to the learners that we are just to continue as normal. After my short introduction, he also spoke to the learners. At first I was taken aback as this was unexpected, but it ended up being comforting to both me and the students. The lesson began and ended…

Receiving feedback was more of a learning and pleasant experience, than what I expected. The lesson was discussed and recommendations regarding it made. The most important of which is that I need to better time my lesson plans and maybe involve the learners by having them help me time activities.

Mr Honing (Oom), I thank you! I learned so much more than I could have asked for. It’s amazing meeting people who share a passion with you and above that share their wisdom freely.

After that lesson third period I was drained and the rest of Thursday just did not want to pass. Friday finally arrived and was well celebrated, by both learners and teachers. Somehow this short week ended up feeling longer than most other five day weeks. 

Week Three

The learners become comfortable with us being around. This week our responsibilities started and we were appointed classes with off periods, this was a challenge… The school has periods long enough for students to complete homework, thus having free time only equals to fun for them. They are not the quiet chatty types, nor did they know that whispering a whole conversation was possible. I am still not quite sure whether they have grasped this concept.

We are about 15 teaching students doing practical at the school, however all have different time frames in which this will be completed. We are however 5 staying for the full duration of the third term. The principle called all five of us into his office for a discussion. This just started confusing for me… I was in a “busy” let’s not call it a rowdy class, thus we only heard some of the announcements but I was not concerned as I am very seldom involved with announcements. We heard the announcements going of a second time, but we were still busy with the lesson so we continue being “busy”. We finish the discussion and the class becomes quite, the next moment the intercom goes off; the principle in a very serious voice says: ‘Juffrou Bredenkamp, Juffrou ek wag vir jou!’ I don’t know who had the biggest scare me or the teacher I was at. Needless to say I was scared now!

Luckily it was only to talk to us because of the period of our duration, that we will be staying longer and thus really be regarded as teachers. With this he shared with us that the biggest challenge new teachers face is that of discipline, he also invites us to press the intercom and inform him immediately when a class is out of control and not being disobedient. This sounded like one offer that I would wish not to take up, however as the week continues I struggle with discipline. Other student teachers tell me to buzz the principle, not be afraid and that I only need to make an example of one student.

The class that I was allocated, grade 10 D was taking advantage of me and ruling the class, it was ciaos. The next moment on impulse I decide to make good on my promise of buzzing the principle. He answers by first reprimanding the teacher I am with, the learners were refusing to listen to her too, and only then reprimanding the learners. I honestly did not gain anything out of this at that moment. The class was quite for the rest of the period, they had a double (two hours). To date those where the two longest periods of my school career as a teacher.

I apologised to the teacher after school, luckily this class’s reputation exceeds it and this was my saving grace. Because of their reputation the principle did not do further investigation into the matter. I avoided the class and the teacher for about two days. I had to settle in with my teacher relationship, which is thankfully renewed. However, my relationship with the class has changed, they respect and accept me as a teacher now, although we still have relationship.

During this week ATKV choir finals were held in Stellenbosch and my school were to attend. I didn’t care much for the kids, but the teacher that was accompanying them. Firstly, it was great see to familiar faces and gain wisdom from a veteran. This one teacher is now at the university, nonetheless the advice he gave was of invaluable worth. His advice was; to set clear boundaries, the learners should trust you but not see you as their friend (the position I was in at the moment), to be very strict and not show your “nice” side as this will help with respect and to be consequential and fair (thus to follow through on threats and statements). This helped me to understand the current situation that I was in and how to out from under to rise to the top.

I learned a lot during this week, it was not exceptionally fun as my comfort zone was invaded and stretched. But there’s a saying; “Life only starts at the end of your comfort zone”.

Amazement consumed me, there is still so much to learn… I was both scared and filled with excitement to develop. 

Week two - Reality Check

I quickly realised that the first week was relatively fun. 

The main reasons for this being that learners are happy to be back; to have routine, see friends and even some teachers. During this week learners were mostly on their best behavior, the principle was very strict (I realised to set the standard for the rest of the term). The large amount of student teachers, about 12, may also have caught them off guard, thus leading to their best behavior.

Entering the second week, a lot changed. The learners changed their attitude towards almost everything about school. Their behaviour in class changed, their attitude toward the school work and especially toward student teachers. They were now out to making our lives difficult (that’s how it felt). There is one class, grade 10 D, which I have for all three of my subjects. They are a large class of 40 learners, and having attended class with them for one whole week now, I was seen more as a part of the class than a teacher. This had its benefits as they scared and were interested in talking to me, however whenever I had to observe them and keep them quiet it was pretty much impossible. 

They used their size against me, almost like using it to fool me. I would be at one side of the class when the other goes wild, when attending to the other side the first side would be chatting vigorously. What makes keeping the class quiet even more of a challenge is the accepted amount of chatter allowed in classrooms. Learners are not to talk at all, even when having an off period they are expected to work and not whisper. These learners struggle with the word “whisper” and its definition.

There was one day in particular which I had two amazing periods, taking two classes for economics. These classes where both grade 10 but the discussions which we had differed immensely. In the one class we ended up having a debate about genetically modified food and in the other discussing different kinds of sheep, which the learners did not know existed. The last mentioned class made realise the different backgrounds that me and these learners have, thus that there is so much that we can teach each other. When asked where wool comes from, from which sheep, the one learner replied; “from the white sheep”.

But unfortunately after having enjoyed two lessons, the D class came and they were just completely out of control, this was a horrifying period! Fortunately, I had netball after school, which restored my faith in the learners.

This was a very challenging week. At the end of this week, I saw the learners as little devils in disguise. Putting up a nice face outside of the classroom until you’re in the classroom with them.