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.