Last Week

The last week at school was kind of a blurr.
With most of the curriculum work completed and tests marked there was not much left to teach to the learners. As a result, I took the initiative and spoke to the teachers about doing some Kahoot games as part of reviewing the terms work covered.
The teachers were also happy with the idea of doing kahoot reviews as it freed up time for them to do some more marking of tests and projects as the deadline for submitting final marks was Thursday.

An unexpected benefit was that I could spend more time with other teachers to discuss my general schooling experience. It also afforded me the time to ensure that all my paperwork with regards to the school practical visit was up to date.

Thursday was a sad day as it was my last day. I spent some additional time saying goodbye to the learners and was made to promise that I will bring the second grade 10 Math Lit class some fudge next week, as they missed out on the fudge I made the one class previously.

The very last thing that a learner told me after school was that my lessons helped her to make sense of accounting. According to her she never previously was able to do accounting and my way of teaching helped her to get good marks for the first time in her high school career.
Her remark alone is proof enough to me that I made the correct choice to become a teacher as I felt over the moon about having made an actual difference in someone's life and knowing that it is something that will benefit the learner for the rest of her life.
A lot of other classes had a lot of comments regarding ways and means with which I can improve my teaching, but after some discussions there was not really any consensus regarding what I can do except that I need to practice my white board writing skills, Funny enough, the girls commented that my black board writing is great but my white board writing needs some attention as I need to re-write a lot of the times, especially if I get excited or write faster.

Week 9 - Lots to talk about

My grade 10 ML class wrote their second formal test for the term and I had set the test for the grade. It was much easier setting it the second time round, although it took 5 revisions to get to the final paper. I am proud of the paper as the teachers said it was a good paper.
We reviewed the test content the two days prior to the test and still there are learners getting below 50%. I felt like murdering them as they were not paying attention and thus lost out on a lot of marks in the test. Speaking to the teachers showed that it is the norm. There are some learners who do well and others who just does nothing. Their opinion seems to be that you can only do so much and that the rest is up to the learner.
There was one learner who skipped classes and when she was finally at school again and confronted, she said she was unaware that a test was written on that day. I was flabbergasted. Besides myself having personally reminded them about the test for the two weeks preceding it, I could not believe that she found nothing wrong with skipping school.

In covering Vat with the classes, I eventually got to a point where I asked the teachers help. My error was to not go to the most basic. I explained terminology, which they knew, why it was importent in their lives, etc.
When I got to the calculations, I realised that they understand and use direct proportion. I used an Ice Cream with Astro's example to visualise the calculations, which they got.
However, I kept the vat equation on top of the board and used the space below for calculations and that confused the daylights out of them. It turned out that I just had to write the actual calculation separately as the formula on the top confused them.
I never would have imagined that something so basic could confuse them so much.

On a positive note, I'm a lot better at marking answer papers and it is an extremely helpful tool to understand how the learners think. My conclusion is that I should have regular assessments.

I experimented today (Friday) with getting the grade 9 EMS classes to do an exercise while kahoot is waiting for them. When they realised that they can play a game after doing their work, they all worked. This also afforded me the opportunity to walk around and look at them doing the complete exercise as there was no procrastinating, once I checked 2 learner's work who were done. What I also noticed was that before I started kahoot, I reviewed the most common mistakes made and there were a lot of oooohs and aaaahs, as they remembered why they had made mistakes. It is evident that exam technique is something that the majority of learners lack. They get caught up in details and do not read thd question. The result is that they then lose marks unnecessarily. The teachers do however cover it in LO. I have decided that I will need to cover this in my classes when I'm teaching.

In the kahoot games, they said they did not know the answers, yet most of them got the answers correct 99% of the time. It seems they just lack a bit of confidence.

Week 8

What a week. It started off with a grade 8 excursion at the botanical garden, which ended up with the clouds breaking on the way back to school. I had not been this wet in years. Fortunately the school gave me time off, to go home and change, eventhouh the drive took 2hours. All the grade 8's got the day off, but I had to teach official classes towards the end of the day.
The lesson I learned was that I will definitely need to always have a spare set of clothes in my classroom for emergency situations.
I started setting the new Grade 10 official assessment for Math Lit and am exited to see how it would go. Setting up official tests takes a lot of time to do. My test was supposed to consist of only 50 marks, but I ended with 72 marks, so that the subject head can moderate and take out questions that they feel is not required.

I also got invited for an interview and am exited about the opportunity. I realised this week that my internal clock is set for school and i wake up before my alarm and cannot wait to get to school. I defintely made the right choice to study teaching as it is extremely exhausting, yet provides a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day.

I also started to finnish my file and realised there is still quite a bit that I need to get done. Unfortunately I was ill and would therefore not have a holiday this term. At least I'll be able to catch up on some admin during my last week as the school work winds down. My grade 9 EMS classes are already at a point where they no longer have work to cover, so I'm going to start doing Kahoot review games of work done the term.
My Accounting assessment is also on Monday, so I have a big week ahead.

Week7

I can seriously recommend that you do a formal assessment as part of training.
I had set the test for Math Lit and then proceeded to mark the grade 11 test, which has given me signifficant insight into the learners understanding of the subject.
What I found interesting is the correlation between learners paying attention and their marks. The weeks leading up to the test, I told them the work was important. Those that listened, did well, those that did not ...
My biggest issue in the marking was to be consistent. Even though it is math lit, there is still a lot of interpretation, marking with mistakes, etc. It takes muuuuch longer than what the accounting papers did.
Secondly, the learners do not read the questions or just leave out certain questions.
In my feedback, they claimed the paper was very different from their work done in class, but when we went through the paper, they then agreed that it was the same as what we did in class. They jusgneed to learn proper exam technique in my opinion.

Other than the test, there was nothing new or exciting that happened.

Reflection for Week 6

To everyone reading this, I have come to realise that schooling is muuuuch more time consuming than I anticipated. It is most likely because I have not yet hit my stride and perfected my form. I am slow to learn names, and although I'm getting there with some of the learners, I have too many classes to get all their names. Fortunately some of the teachers have calmed my nerves in that they also do not know all of the learners names. For me it would be a process that takes time.

The Grade 11's wrote my official Math Lit test for their term. I have to admit, it is a skill to set the papers. It is almost as if it is a world that I was completely unaware of. ML is completely different from either accounting or Math.
I'm now busy learning how to mark question papers. The teacher, in her wisdom, copied some papers for me to mock mark. It was a blessing in disguise as it is really a hassle to mark ML papers. I am without words for the interpretation some of the learners had for the questions. From the tests I had mock marked, only one was reasonable. It makes you want to get the learners on a one to one basis and just ask them how they were able to get to the methods or answers they had gotten to. I originally thought that the paper was too easy but after this initial marking, I'm concerned about the future of our country. If it was my class, I would write a letter to all their parents and request that they all attend the Math Extra classes that we're doing on a Thursday after school. Funny thing is that none of these learners have been to one single class this whole term, and they seriously need it.

I only have two weeks within which to mark these papers and am slightly concerned that it might not be enough time, especially considering that I need to still finish setting the Grade 10 paper for ML and get my Accounting assessments done and marked as well. Keeping in mind that my number of lessons (and prep) are not decreasing AND that my krit lesson for accounting is closing in, Its going to be a stressful last month.

This week I tried to take the advice of the ML teacher and bring a bit more of myself into the classroom. Instead of doing the standard exercises that was planned for the learners, I made my own exercises for them to do towards the end of the week. I had put a lot of effort into the lessons and questions and was flabbergasted at how things went sideways from what I had planned and anticipated.

The mistakes I had made in this one lesson were as follows:

1. In order to get the learners to pay attention, decided to not give them a printout of the exercise questions, but rather to have them take it down into their books. This was my first mistake as there were some learners that just did not bother to do anything. I was upset about their lack of respect for the effort that I had put into the lesson, but there were at least some learners who did pay attention and were seriously interested, which makes you appreciate teaching them even more.
I should have printed the diagram and questions so that the learners could read and understand as I went through what was expected. According to the teacher, the fact that they did not have this piece of paper, caused some of the learners to decide that the exercise was too difficult and they just switched off.

2. My next mistake was to rephrase the questions. The learners kept asking me to repeat the question. I interpreted this that they did not understand what I had asked and therefore I rephrased the questions. Towards the end, a learner suggested that I rather write down the questions and then they got to it.

3. The third mistake was to not have a printed copy with the dimensions written down. To avoid confusing the learners, I made a shape with and without dimensions. The program I used could only export to PDF. The PDF reflecting the dimensions, was too small to read from my tablet and I could not enlarge the picture. On my laptop it was all good, but in the class I could not read it and I had to decipher and try to remember what the values were. Needless to say, I did get some of them wrong, which messed up the calculations and thus caused me to have to amend the questions on the go.

4. The teacher also commented that my 3's and 5's look very similar when I'm writing on the board. This is the first time that I'm hearing this, so its going to take a conscious effort for me to change this going forward.

The end result is that I will be required to spend another lesson now and redo that lessons so that the learners can understand how to do it. I have however now addressed the previous mistakes and hopefully Monday's lesson would be significantly better.

It appears to me that the later we get into the game, the more I'm learning. Maybe it is because the original hype is over the the learners are now settling and starting to push their boundaries.

Until the next post, happy teaching.

Week 5

Winter caught up and I was booked off for 3 days with a serious ear and throat infection.

The classes I did have however was almost normal by now. The accounting and EMS classes are a breeze, but I'm struggling even more with the math lit classes. According to the teacher, I'm not really putting myself into the lesson, bur rather am drawing on her method of teaching. I'vethus triwd to do my own thing but it is simply not working. I'm spending way too much time reviewing yesterday's homework answers than doing the new work and I'm afraid of falling behind. I have now realised why the teacher hadspent time on going throuhg the homework prior to the learners doing the questions, as it cuts down on redoing the answers the following day and is therefore a valuable time management tool. My concern doing it this way was that I felt the learners then just do what you say and they do not engage with the material. Itis however what they have been doing since taking Math Lit, so I'm going to gi e it a try and will revert back.

I'm going to ask the teacher if I may observe the grade 11's going forward so as to be able to see what she's doing different than me. It is the more difficult class by far.

Week 4

This was a short week.
I spoke to my grade 11 ML class because I felt they were becoming disrespectful. I was surprised the effect it had on their attitudes and participation in class.
After the talk, they were much more positive.
I also had to hand in my formal test, for checking its level and quality, which the learners need to do on 25 August. I will get feedback next week.

The grade 10 class was devided into two separate classes, which makes them much easier to handle. I'vealso changed the way in which I mark homework. I now use that as well to have the girls provide their answers, and then I provide my answers afterwards. When the majority have an issue, I thendo the sum onthe board.
One class I actually asked for two volunteers, and then had them do the question on the board and have them explain the answers. It worked pretty well.

I finally have a routine for preparing for tge next day, driving to and from school, as well as teaching the learners. Although my routine ensures that my energy levels at school stay up, I am finding that towards the end of the day I'm getting tired an do tend to make silly mistakes. The teacher says I just need to become teaching fit.

I messed up on Wednesday after school when I was doing chess. I got so into teaching the one new girl, that I forgot to keep the number of learners in mind. I ended up being alone in a classroom with one girl for approximately 20 minutes. The door was open, but I found the experience shocking as I am enjoying teaching but simply by being male, I'm in a position where I must stop doing anything the moment another teacher is no longer in the class AND the learner numbers are too low. The biggest problem is that there are only 6 chess players. With the regular coach being out of the country for a competition, it is up to me to assist. I understand the dangerous consequences that could happen, which is why I'm torn between helping someone who asks for it and keeping in mind that that person could abuse the situation. Helping is why I want to be a teacher but I cannot help simply because of my gender. It's a shame that our society is like this.

Week3

What a week that passed.
I'm lucky to report that it was not a learner that damaged my motorbike, but rather the rain of the last month.

This weeks' teaching has been both exhilarating and a big dissappointment at the same time.

I'm finding that my Accounting classes are much easier to control, as I have so much practical experience doing it. The girls are hanging on my lips and I can see that they are making sense of what I'm teaching. Quite a few has come to me to say that they want to study further in accounting.

Math Lit is a double edged sword. I'm finding my grade 10 class to be interactive and they participate in class. I have no problem teaching in frontof them. When they do not understand, they ask.
The grade 11's are completely different. Apart from one or two girls who participate, the rest are just not communicating.
I did an informal test in the one double period (only used one period for it) and was so nervous that I completely forgot to check if they had done their homework. Their distance (and my nerves) causes me to also make mistakes that I normally would not make.

I've tried to show them how to do the work, do it on their own and assist the ones that struggle and do an overview and then the questions. 

The teacher says I'm doing better every week and that it is actually a good experience since not all classes are like my grade 10's.

I think the grade 10's are much more involved because I play Kahoot with them in almost every class. It might have some psychological effect that make them open up more.

I'll just need keep at it untill I find something that works for me and them.

I am also struggling to simplify to a level below what I can explain. The time limitations of classes make it difficult to thoroughly explain certain problems especially since the girls appear to not understand the concept of place holders. I am just at a loss on how to further make things simpler but will take it up with their teacher. I'll have time to talk to the teacher about this on Thursday.

Reflections really does help to identify the problem areas.

Ps. To add fuel to the fire, I'm going to be critted on Wednesday, doing my Grade 11 Math Lit class. Here's to hoping it goes well. Will let you know how it went.

2 August 2016

Dissappointment!!!

Some kid had put something into the lock of my motorbike's petrol cap. I cannot get to schopl and wil now have to get this fixed ASAP.
I emailed my class teachers and the schools' student liason teacher, but am now going to miss out on the results of my hard work. Hopefully the garage can fix it quickly and I can get back to school before the day is over.
I'm dissapointed that a kid would do something like that at school. 10+ years of driving motorbike and it is the first time it has happened to me.

01 August 2016

Today was the first day i did not getvtired during school hours.

The Math lit teacher explained that the math lit kids do not work with area mathematically but use rounding. I misunderstood and thought that everything must be rounded. As a result, all my answers were incorrect. I might have confused the class a bit. Fortunately the teacher was there to assist and we got through it. She suggested that I do a mockup test for tomorrow as it is an important concept that carries through to matric.
I did a per on area using a reptile cage. I introduced myself originally as having a 3m red tail boa (snake) so the girls will know its original. I am looking forward to hear the teachers comments on it. Just not 100% aure about the marks, but we'll see.

Week 2

Never knew teaching was this much hard work.
I made a mistake yesterday. I thought the kids were writing  test today and asked the teacher whether the calculations were correct. The principal said she took offence, as the kids were still in the room. It was an honest mistake and I felt terrible since it felt I dissapointed the teacher and principal. I apologised for the mistake and both teacher and principal accepted the apology.
The lesson I learned from this is that there is such a thing as being too eager to teach.

From next week I will have my own classes, so this fortunately cannot happen again.

26 July 2017

Yesterday was my first day doing extra curricular activities. I assisted with chess, cheered for the 2nd hockey team and finished it with the debating practice. Was able to leave school at 18:45, which made it a very long day.

I introduced creditors to the Grade 8 EMS learners today. We covered only 5 transactions involving creditors but I feel like I'm getting through to the majority of learners.

I still find it unbelievable that some of the learners just do not take in what you teach them. At least they are starting to guess the answers. Might just be because I do not take "I do not know" as an answer while being willing to take time to get them to answer.
The teacher commented that my method of writing down the incorrect answers as provided by the learners and then having the class correct the answer is a good way of teaching, since the learners are doing the work and I'm not "thinking for them".

We also had our first official staff meeting after school.

The school is probably on the forefront of technology use in a school environment, since the teacher responsible for technology in the school also teaches other teachers how to use technology in their classroom on behalf of the WCED. We learned how to use Kahoot in the classroom. I've witnessed how excited the grade 8 to 10's get for the chance at playing it and cannot wait to try it myself.

I was also able to pin down which Math Lit Grade 10 & 11 papers I need to compile as well as the classes I'll be teaching, starting Friday. Lots of additional work I'll need to get done after hours, especially since tomorrow will again be a late night.

Back 2 School

On 18 July, 2016, the third school term started and with that our PGCE practical training.

Monday was picture day at the school and as a result, there were not really any formal classes. This worked out well as it afforded me the opportunity to introduce myself to most of the girls with whom I'll need to interact in the classroom. I was amazed with the diverse talents and interests of the young ladies as there seem to be a girl excelling at almost anything imaginable.

An all girls school took some getting used to. Friday was really different, especially the grade 9 girls who talk excessively. It is miraculous how they can go from dead quiet to shouting in less than 3 minutes. I timed it. What is evident is that they are remarkable since none of them are afraid of eating. They are all healthy and seem happy. It truly is a wonderful school and I'm lucky to be there.

I got to teach Grade 8 EMS, which is not one of my specialisation subjects, but covers the basics of business forms. At first, the girls were scared of giving a wrong answer, but eventually they overcame their fears of being wrong and started to partake in class which in turn stimulated their curiosity. What I find incomprehensible is that these young ladies are from families where their parents are more fortunate than most, yet they appear to walk blindly through life, accepting any reality as it is conveyed to them on their electronic devices. Fortunately there are some of them whom have sparked an interest in the topics taught /discussed and one can just hope that it sticks with the other girls as well.

In my second Grade 8 EMS class, I changed tactics. I nominated a learner to answer a question. If other learners volunteered to answer, I would give them time to answer, but then returned to the original learner until I received an answer. I encouraged them to answer regardless of whether it is right or wrong and even to guess if they did not know. The second part of this change is that the learner who answered first got a chance to nominate a learner who then has to answer the next question.
The effect was that all the learners need to listen. They tend to not nominate the same learners so everyone gets a chance to answer, especially if you continue the practice over extended periods.
Secondly, the learners get comfortable to provide an answer, even if it is incorrect. It also cuts down on the ridicule of wrong answers because any outburst can result in the learner behaving badly being nominated to answer.
I have implemented this practice in all my subsequent classes and although it takes extra time for the girls to get used to, I am of the opinion that teaching and learning was more effective than my first Grade 8 EMS period.

I did feel really proud when I got a girl to voluntarily partake in a class discussion while using the above method, since her teacher said she never pays attention. Might just be that I'm the new face.

This coming week is math week, I'll start participating in Chess, some extra math classes and the newly launched reading lab. Just need go get sleeping patterns right because this past week was extremely tiring.

The staff are helpful and accommodating. If I could choose a school to become a permanent part of, this school would definitely be on top of my list. I enjoyed my first week of teaching, although the classes feel really short and it feels like school pace is much slower than what I'm used to.

All things being equal, I am looking forward to next week as I will be taking on more responsibility and be teaching more classes pertaining to my subjects.