My day as a substitute.

This week has been a rather hectic one. Lots of things happened, but the 'main event', so to say, was the fact that I taught a whole day - by myself - because one of the teachers was absent. (And an adventure it was. I had to teach EMS (Economic Management Science) and maths. Anyone who knows me even a tiny little bit knows that those aren't really 'my' kind of subjects!

When I arrived in the morning Ingrid waved her hands frantically at me and said "I had forgotten you would come in today! I have to talk to you!" but as we were in the middle of the announcements for the week it had to wait for a few minutes. Immediately after the headmaster had concluded his speech she approached me and blurted out: "Could you please take the grade sixes until break-time?" I nodded without hesitation and Ingrid took my arm (after talking to some of the other teachers; the timetable had changed for the day so not everyone knew what they would be doing) and guided me to Mrs W's classroom. She handed me a piece of paper with basic instructions "6K - English (DEAR) 1st hour. 6K EMS (study mindmap about debt, banking and savings) 2nd hour - etc." and left me alone to figure things out. From outside of the classroom I heard "Grade six, please line up quietly! You can come in when you are told to come in." I took out my phone (because clocks are something that seems to be missing from most classrooms in South Africa) and took a deep breath.
"Good morning grade sixes! Come in please!" My day as a substitute teacher had officially begun.

In total I had to teach for 8 periods - the whole day minus 2 periods (a period is 30 minutes). I had one grade six group for 4 periods (EMS, maths and English reading), another grade six for EMS and maths (3 periods), and one grade seven group for EMS. It was a bit hectic to have to teach with less than 5 minutes notice. (I prefer to actually plan my lessons, thank you very much.) Overall it went very well, though. I'm happy and proud that Japari trusts me enough to let me teach by myself like this. (It makes me feel like a 'real' teacher ;) Whatever that means.) There were some challenges during the day, as expected, during the EMS lessons I didn't really know what to do. My instructions only mentioned a 'mindmap' when instead they had to study from something that was more like a summary/explanation than a mindmap. (So the grade sixes didn't know what to do - and I made a mindmap on the whiteboard with them... The problem in that being... I don't know much about debt, savings and banking! So I kept it simple, talking a bit about interest and tax and why credit cards can be dangerous - without explaining *how* these concepts work. Well, I'm studying English, not EMS, so it couldn't be helped, I'm afraid.)

After those lessons it was even harder to keep them interested in maths - I can't say maths interest me at all, so I couldn't blame the learners. They 'sort of tried' to do some work, but when some of the learners asked me some questions I was in trouble. I can blame the 'different ways of doing things', partially, but I couldn't really help them. After almost a full hour of doing maths it was clear they couldn't focus on it anymore (neither could I) so I decided to make a mindmap about 'The Netherlands' with them. We all enjoyed this, and then it was time for assembly!

Assembly is, as it is in the UK, something that most schools do. I love assemblies. They create a feeling of unity (as the whole school gets together for a change) and I love to see the grade noughts and grade ones sing songs, or see the older learners get certificates for their achievements in sports or tests. It's cute! And it's lovely when the whole school starts with "Good morning Mr. (Headmaster), good morning teachers!". It does, in fact, give you this warm and fuzzy feeling, just to know you're a part of this wonderful environment.

After break - second EMS lesson (different grade six group). This didn't go too well. It wasn't too bad, but they didn't feel like studying. Instead of the mindmap I wrote four questions on the board and had them answer these in their own words ("What is debt?" "How do people get into debt?" "What is interest?" and "Saving up for something is better than buying on credit. Explain why.) most learners merely copied the questions into their notebooks without answering them, however. 30 minutes is such a short time for a lesson!

The last 3 periods were ok. I even got some cake (I love primary schools, haha. Any reason for a party means all the teachers get cake!) when two girls from another group knocked on the door during class. This grade six did some more maths than the other one, and again I concluded the lesson by a few minutes of 'Let's talk about my country!'. Grade seven is always a bit more challenging (and awkward at times because my cousin is in this group) but they were better than usual.

Thoughts and feelings about the day:
"Like a real teacher!"
I'm proud that Japari feels confident in leaving me by myself to teach.
I felt calm while teaching, not scared or nervous (even when they didn't want to be quiet).
I'm confident I can do teaching as a job :)
It feels good to be useful, I was afraid this day was going to be another rather useless day (on Mondays I don't typically do much, so I'm glad I could help out).

I kind of hope I'll get another chance like this while I'm here - but I don't want to wish anyone harm, so I hope no one will get sick of the other teachers!

The rest of the day was about as busy - after school I took my cousin to Scusi's (an Italian restaurant around the corner) for a coffee (ice coffee for him) and a toasted cheese sandwich. My younger cousin's 'concert' (aka musical) was that same night, so we had a quick dinner before we rushed off to Crossroads school to see the "Wizard that Woz". It was cute, but also slightly boring, to see the whole musical (Joshua was only in 1 scene).

And Tuesday... I'm at the office because our receptionist is away for the day. More work, of a completely different kind, though! Answering the phone while doing some homework for Windesheim, oh well... it's the best way, because I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten so much done if I had stayed at home!

Other noteworthy things:
One of the teachers asked me "Where in America do you live?" (Me: "Ehm... I'm Dutch..." Teacher: "Oh so you understand Afrikaans?" (She continued in Afrikaans, I replied in English.)

- After 2 1/2 months at their school some teachers still didn't know I'm not a native speaker. That's like, so... cool! (*Insert American teenager-voice*)

Sukkot continued

After a long, long weekend without electricity (and internet) another week arrived. We've had guests over for dinner or lunch every single day since Saturday night. It has been quite hectic - I made 'Hachee' (the traditional Dutch stew) yesterday, and every day I set the table for 16-20 people (in our Sukkah, which is actually a tiny bit too small for this amount of diners).

Sunday night was probably the best night - we were allowed to use electricity (and play musical instruments) on that day, so I decided to take out my ocarina and play some songs. My favourite ever 'older' person came over for dinner, too. I think I can safely say that Jenny (or Jean, actually) is my friend, she's almost 3 times my age, but she's a friend nonetheless. We chatted and people commented on my 'talented' performance (I've only been playing the ocarina since March 2010, so I wouldn't say I'm that good... But it helps that people generally don't really know what an ocarina is!). I also chatted to Neil (Jenny's son) - it was very nice to be able to chat to someone around my age. I even forgot to have ice-cream and fruit salad, so there.

Today I had my first real test at Japari. Teaching the grade 4's a lesson of 'social science' last week was fun, but teaching the grade 7's is more like the real thing. It was nice to see how different classes can change the atmosphere, there are 2 grade seven classes at Japari (one a bit slower - and louder - than the other). I did the same lesson with both of them (and I'm continuing the activity tomorrow). They are preparing for their benchmarks (a kind of exams), so I went through (part) of an old benchmark with them. A long text (3 pages) about Mma Ramotswe (a story about a woman in Botswana) with 6 full pages of questions. Andrea (their usual teacher) left it to me to decide on how to teach this lesson.

I decided it would be best to read the text to the group first (because if I let them take turns they would worry too much about 'Am I reading next???' to listen to the actual story). I asked questions about difficult words, figures of speech and other important things - hinting at the questions. After that I asked some of the learners to read a paragraph out loud and gave them some time to answer the first few questions. Go on to the next paragraph, next set of questions, rinse and repeat.

We didn't finish the whole thing because the school had to practice for the assembly on Thursday (they are officially opening the school hall - it's a pity I can't be there because (you guessed it) Jewish holidays) but I'm continuing with the benchmark tomorrow.

Afterwards I felt more than a little exhilarated - it feels so good to finally be doing what I had wanted to do for so long. I simply love teaching. And I love working with special needs learners/learners at a remedial school. It can be draining, but it's also so rewarding and worthwhile once they do get something you're trying to explain.

Let's end with some more Sukkah pictures!





Comments of the week:

Teacher at Japari (after I said I was at home affairs to apply for an extension for my visa): "I didn't even realise you weren't from here!"
Cousin of my cousins: "Shouldn't you have an accent, if you're from Holland?!" (I even asked him "You think I don't have one?" Haha)

Word of the week:
Lapa (which apparently isn't even an English word, but they use it here all the time - it's one of these.