Day Three

This morning the principle spoke to the staff about the learners arriving late and said it needs to be monitored & dealt with. More than half the school is coming late which is not acceptable. He also spoke about the learners bunking classes: “Learning takes place in the classroom not outside. If they don’t want to learn they must go home.”

School uniform is varied – Short white socks, short blue socks & long blue socks. Different T-shirts under white shirts, different coloured belts with a variety of buckles which make certain statements.

How much leeway do you give in situations like this when students walk such long distances or catch public transport? Are you strict and they just have to make sure they wake up really early to get to school or do you make allowances here that you wouldn’t at an urban school? The same question applies to their uniform – there are those who are more fortunate but the majority are poor and only have one uniform which is torn and tattered. There are not many learners who can afford more than one uniform or the school jersey so they wear T shirts underneath if it is cold and to preserve the uniform so it can be worn the next day. I have always wondered about the purpose of school uniforms, is it to control and discipline or is it to protect the poorer student from feeling disadvantages and puts everyone on a par, does it instil a sense of belonging and pride?

I found it very moving that most students do take pride in their uniform and was interested to see that after the long and dusty walk to school they get water and clean up their dirty dusty shoes. While others have their shirts out, no ties, socks down and dusty dirty shoes.

Another interesting thing happened today – one of the teachers has lost a student’s exam paper and can’t find it – what happens to the students marks in this case? It is not the students fault and they shouldn’t be made to pay for something which is the teachers fault.

Every teacher has a format to fill in for lesson planning, most started the year off well but have got behind. Some have only done plans for January and February. Is it possible to stay on top of things with all the admin that is imposed on teachers?

There is a 3 day waiting period if you want anything photo copied, so planning for y our lessons is KEY. One thing I am definitely learning is how important it is to be organised and what can go wrong if you are not.

Two other things happened today that were interesting: my life science teacher did revision with her class and it was all in Zulu so for an hour I sat like a fish out of water not understanding a word of what was going on. It made me wonder what her motives were. Does she speak Zulu to ensure that they understand and thus is helping them or is it a disadvantage in that their English is suffering and when it comes to the exam they will have to understand, read and write in English.

The second thing which was a cause for concern for me was in the physical science lesson. The teacher explained that he was about to do a demonstration with a very strong acid. He said “ If you happen to drink this strong acid you must not drink water it will make it worse – you need to drink a strong base like sodium hydroxide to neutralise it” he then left the acid on the table and after the class had finished the first thing the learners did was rush up to fiddle with it.

I found this statement rather careless as I don’t think it stresses the danger but rather gives the learners something to “try”. They might interpret that it is ok to drink as long as they drink the base afterwards to neutralise. But maybe I am not giving them enough credit?

Saying that I am enjoying the fact that he is not Zulu so is in a similar situation to me where the students talk in their home language and then laugh at him when he attempt to use a couple of words like above (phezulu) and below (phansi) when stressing the super and subscript notations.

Today I got to observe the teachers in action for the first time and although, the one that was in Zulu was completely beyond me i did get to observe one in English from the Physical science teacher. He has an interesting way of teaching and uses a lot of repetition both from himself and from the learners who are prompted to repeat after him. I am interested to see how effective this type of teaching is. But one thing I did notice was that not much material is covered in an hour. What I was able to summarise into 10 lines took an entire hour to cover – so that is an interesting indication for when I am planning and how I need to structure the lesson and the time it will take.

I took an opportunity to talk to some of the learners and the teachers, it is so refreshing to have such friendly reception and everyone is so eager to help all of the time.

Is this what happens when you are stripped of all the luxuries in life and only have the bare minimum? It always amazes me how poor people always seem to be happy and smiling while those who are rich are burdened and unhappy. Yes I am generalising but it is an interesting concept.

Best I get to the lesson planning I need to do for tomorrow...