Weekly experience of a teacher in the making!

Boy oh boy, I thoroughly enjoyed this week! 

Firstly, let me say that presenting is definitely way more fun than observing. There was absolutely no nerves and everything about teaching felt natural. From Monday I was assertive and told both classes that no behaviour that will disturb the process of learning will be tolerated within the classroom. I knew that when I'm well prepared and know the subject content that things will go well and presenting my first ever lesson in the school bunks was a super special moment and I will treasure it with me always.

This week I started to learn the dynamics of the school. There is great room for improvement regarding the discipline of the school. The behaviour of some learners towards teachers are utterly disrespectful and the young people of today (not all) do not seem to know what it is to have respect for the elderly. As someone who came from an era where you listened when an older person speaks to you, this is sad to see and I have to stop myself from stepping in when a learner is rude toward a teacher. Only afterwards I would approach a learner and try and pick their brain as to why this attitude. Here I learned that the learner is troubled and are experiencing something that the teacher is not necessarily aware of, but in the same breath, some certain learners are just rude and it's not the teacher that is dispositioning them as such, but their behaviour that allows for this disposition.

Also in this week one learns about the staff room politics and I try my best to not notice things, but it is unavoidable and sometimes I have to stop myself from not laughing when I see how one teacher gets annoyed with another during staff meetings! Definitely eye opening, learning how a group of people with different personalities have to stand together at the end of the day to create a cohesive school environment! 

The thing I've looked forward to most was to see how I will handle any disciplinary problems. It was refreshing to know that when learners are reprimanded with gentleness they do feel bad about their behaviour and show respect. With regards to discipline in the observation of lessons, I feel that teachers need to pick their battles more carefully. It is not wise to create an unpleasant atmosphere within the classroom about something that's completely unnecessary. 

For my extra mural activity I have chosen to sit in with the school choir. The only thing about music I know is how to love it and appreciate it. The school choir is fairly small, but they're are competent and are exciting about their performance at the school's talent show next week. 

Saturday's the big inter schools competition between President High School and a neighbouring school. It was a busy week with finalising all the details as the school is hosting the event this year. Friday the school had their "Big Brag" introducing all their teams of respective sports and also getting all the learners excited for the encounter. It was great getting to see this aspect of school, besides the academics and management of a school.

Next week should be another great week of learning and personal growth!
I look forward! :)  

Choir rehearsing for the Talent Show!

Weekly experience as a Teacher in the making!

The journey of being a student Teacher at President High School!

It has been an eventful week with the first day being very overwhelming as I find myself in an environment once well known many years ago as a scholar, but this time unknown as I enter my journey of being a teacher in the future. As many has warned me and the entire PGCE group that teaching requires a lot of planning and commitment from teachers and the entire school governing body and this was noticeable from the very first day of school. 

Throughout the week I've observed a variety of different teaching methods. From the approach being teacher centred, learner centred and teacher-learner centred. I've found that when it is mostly the teacher speaking during a lesson learners tend to get bored and start to lose their concentration. In comparison with the learner centred approach, there is a lot of freedom given to learners to participate within the lesson, they are allowed to discuss answers in groups, but this can only work if the lesson is structured, because it may result in the discussions going off point. Thus the teacher needs to take charge and facilitate the discussion at all times. I've learned this week that it is best to make learners aware of what will be expected of them within the lesson, so that this can also help keep the lesson structured.

I'm fortunate that I was placed at a multiracial school as this brings a certain dynamic into the classroom. I observed in one class where a student called the teacher a racist, because according to this student, the teacher sided with the student of his race. In this I learned to be fair to all at all times and not be placed in a situation where my actions appear to be favouring anyone. I also learned that as much as a teacher motivates a learner to do their class activities or homework the responsibility lies on the learner as there is only so much a teacher can do. There were teachers that would check the homework and then there were teachers who didn't care whether learners did their homework or not, but all teachers gave feedback on the homework.

I had a good week, after the first day everything got better, as I had to find my feet the first day, learning the names of teachers and where their classrooms are, so there was a lot of running around the first day. As the week progressed I felt more comfortable, I became more confident about that which is expected of me to do at the school. When I presented my first lesson on Friday, I've put into practice all the things we've learned during 1st semester, by being assertive the first day so that learners may know where they stand with me. And also the better you're prepared, the more confidence you'll have in the classroom when teaching. Throughout the week I was thinking about how I will deal with telling a learner to behave. I questioned whether they will respect me as the age gap between me and them is small. I look forward to see when the time comes to address a certain situation how I will deal with it. 

The lack of interest of some grade 12 learners in class got me thinking a lot, because they had an attitude of I don't care and that is scary. I approached some of them to ask why this view, then they explained that they're not planning on going to study further, or the subject(Mathematical Literacy) is too easy. I tried my best to motivate them and encourage them to think about their valuable input during class!

Hopefully next week will be a great week of learning as well!

Ulrich F van Wyk

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