The end.
The day I realised how much I've been through.
The toughest weeks of my year happened during these 9 weeks.
Not all of them were related to school but that's was my job and a big part of my life.
In a a way I'm glad it's over, but I know I'm already missing all the crazy kids and temperaments of the work environment. I was lucky to be where I was and I am grateful. I saw the real experience but real to my reality. There is so much room for giving in the school environment and I made the most of all my opportunities.
My last week was tough, there were breaking points where I was ready to give up and sleep because I was tired beyond measure but I didn't give up I carried on and worked hard till I was finished.
This last week and all the weeks before have taught me persurverance. I have grown as a leader and I have learned so much about myself. It was not easy but I found every day, good and bad, rewarding. To share knowledge is a gift and I will continue to share it everyday if I can.
Monday, 21 September 2015
Sunday, 13 September 2015
The final countdown
The last week of school is looming.
Week 8: pick a mate
School has sucked all the life out of me. I'm tired lol the time and the lackluster feeling doesn't seem to go away. I count down the seconds to 3 o' clock.
Teaching every day all day takes its toll on your mind and body but I feel like I've finally found my rhythm. Teaching back to back lessons all day and then marking till my brain hurts and I can judge an entire essay by the first two paragraphs.
I've picked up so many skills which I would never have learned in a classroom.
I had a lesson to teach which was very challenging and relied a lot on previous knowledge. It was then that I realised that these learners know nothing about live outside of school, their friendship circles, and social media. This saddened me that they didn't know we have a vice-president or mayor.
I want to do something big and great and grand and show them that there is life beyond the box they live in.
Besides all the doom and gloom and erratic happiness I've successfully planned an open panel discussion for next week. I have invited various members of the LGBQTI+ community to show them a bit of the real world. I am very excited and so are the school kids. I hope it will all run smoothly. Sexuality has been my main focus in teaching Life Orientation. It is a rapid I am passionate about teaching as awareness is needed and the younger you are educated the better for our society.
Hopefully I'm doing something good even if it is only for a small community for now.
Last week, bring it on.
Week 8: pick a mate
School has sucked all the life out of me. I'm tired lol the time and the lackluster feeling doesn't seem to go away. I count down the seconds to 3 o' clock.
Teaching every day all day takes its toll on your mind and body but I feel like I've finally found my rhythm. Teaching back to back lessons all day and then marking till my brain hurts and I can judge an entire essay by the first two paragraphs.
I've picked up so many skills which I would never have learned in a classroom.
I had a lesson to teach which was very challenging and relied a lot on previous knowledge. It was then that I realised that these learners know nothing about live outside of school, their friendship circles, and social media. This saddened me that they didn't know we have a vice-president or mayor.
I want to do something big and great and grand and show them that there is life beyond the box they live in.
Besides all the doom and gloom and erratic happiness I've successfully planned an open panel discussion for next week. I have invited various members of the LGBQTI+ community to show them a bit of the real world. I am very excited and so are the school kids. I hope it will all run smoothly. Sexuality has been my main focus in teaching Life Orientation. It is a rapid I am passionate about teaching as awareness is needed and the younger you are educated the better for our society.
Hopefully I'm doing something good even if it is only for a small community for now.
Last week, bring it on.
Marking is not fun
Monday, 7 September 2015
The snail that could
This past week was quite a challenge for me.
I struggled to come to school everyday feeling like it was pointless.
At my school we have a programmer called week without walls. This means there are speakers, activities and camps going on for all high school learners. I was excited and ready to try new things and be involved as I usually am. I got there on the first day and and we, all 7 student teachers sat and did nothing for 3 hours whilst continuously asking if we can help. I'm a "do-er". I don't like my time being wasted and I like a set plan of what is expected of me. This didn't happen.
I decided enough was enough, I was standing up for myself and fellow students teachers when we were a used of being lazy and "taking the gap", when in actual fact we were being neglected and misused.
I refused to take part in this kind of activity and found teachers who had work for me to do. I took charge of my own life and the teachers did not like this. I had a heat talk with the teacher in charge of the camp program again not completely seeing eye to eye. We came to a compromise -mostly me- but I can say I learned from the experience.
The teachers in school are not really a tuned to our generation and struggle to keep up with the generation who are still in school. This kind of problem will continue to arise with the fast pace world and the slow to change education system. Before a student teacher would be happy to sit and do nothing for once but I came here to learn and to work.
Last week was tough and it forced me to become a leader, leading no one but myself.
Even if I send alone I will always stand for what is right.
I struggled to come to school everyday feeling like it was pointless.
At my school we have a programmer called week without walls. This means there are speakers, activities and camps going on for all high school learners. I was excited and ready to try new things and be involved as I usually am. I got there on the first day and and we, all 7 student teachers sat and did nothing for 3 hours whilst continuously asking if we can help. I'm a "do-er". I don't like my time being wasted and I like a set plan of what is expected of me. This didn't happen.
I decided enough was enough, I was standing up for myself and fellow students teachers when we were a used of being lazy and "taking the gap", when in actual fact we were being neglected and misused.
I refused to take part in this kind of activity and found teachers who had work for me to do. I took charge of my own life and the teachers did not like this. I had a heat talk with the teacher in charge of the camp program again not completely seeing eye to eye. We came to a compromise -mostly me- but I can say I learned from the experience.
The teachers in school are not really a tuned to our generation and struggle to keep up with the generation who are still in school. This kind of problem will continue to arise with the fast pace world and the slow to change education system. Before a student teacher would be happy to sit and do nothing for once but I came here to learn and to work.
Last week was tough and it forced me to become a leader, leading no one but myself.
Even if I send alone I will always stand for what is right.
Monday, 31 August 2015
No comment
This week was torture. I slept through most of it as it consumed me.
I have not filled my required hours yet but I am sure that will be done next week.
Day after day I felt less like I wanted to be at school. School is great.
You start each day with a staff meeting and then you work and work and work some more. I don't mind the work when I see my learners faces light up when I speak passionately about my subject, or when a learner asks if I'll be teaching because my lessons are fun and informative. Those moments are rewarding. Those moments make teaching set my soul on fire but I do not enjoy coming to school and expecting my teacher to evaluate me and they don't show up or they prefer not to evaluate me because "you already are a fantastic teacher".
I don't enjoy my time being wasted. We student teachers work hard. We are students and we want to learn and we have work to do besides our lessons that need to be planned. We are humans just like everyone else.
I come home from school plan my lessons and then sleep at 6, 7, 8-pm.
This cannot be health or right. My family complain that they don't see my, my boyfriend said I disappeared for a week and I did.
I let all this happen, I didn't take care of my own needs but that will no longer be a problem. I was emancipated from the womb and groomed into leadership. I didn't choose it, it chose me. I will always fight for what is right and sometime I forget to do that for myself. Ke nako.
I have not filled my required hours yet but I am sure that will be done next week.
Day after day I felt less like I wanted to be at school. School is great.
You start each day with a staff meeting and then you work and work and work some more. I don't mind the work when I see my learners faces light up when I speak passionately about my subject, or when a learner asks if I'll be teaching because my lessons are fun and informative. Those moments are rewarding. Those moments make teaching set my soul on fire but I do not enjoy coming to school and expecting my teacher to evaluate me and they don't show up or they prefer not to evaluate me because "you already are a fantastic teacher".
I don't enjoy my time being wasted. We student teachers work hard. We are students and we want to learn and we have work to do besides our lessons that need to be planned. We are humans just like everyone else.
I come home from school plan my lessons and then sleep at 6, 7, 8-pm.
This cannot be health or right. My family complain that they don't see my, my boyfriend said I disappeared for a week and I did.
I let all this happen, I didn't take care of my own needs but that will no longer be a problem. I was emancipated from the womb and groomed into leadership. I didn't choose it, it chose me. I will always fight for what is right and sometime I forget to do that for myself. Ke nako.
To all who are struggling, don't stop moving.
Tomorrow is another day.
Wednesday, 26 August 2015
I got lost
Last week was crazy, bring a student teacher doesn't come with the perks of staying home when you are ill.
I spent the last two weeks feeling like death from having the flue to a stomach problem that made digesting food agonising. I was low on energy and I was teachingoing everyday. It was difficult and made me miss being a student the most. I fought through it all and did the best I could giving everything and falling to the floor when I got home.
I had my criteria lesson last Thursday and I taught transgender under sexuality to grade 10's. I got a fairly good mark from the lecturer but I felt his disappointed in my mark with a 74%. I had a class that was engaged and loved the lesson because finally they understood. The girls asked question and even took out their phones to show me they too know the person whom I spoke about. The school is progressive with technology and they don't believe children should be quiet at all times but when a lecturer comes in to view a lesson with a past vision of the classroom, we are not on the same page.
I guess I was frustrated and still am because I have been commended in staff meetings for my work so far. They are excited about my ideas. Maybe the education faculty is far behind where school actually is.
What is in the past is beyond my control. I will keep on working hard and challenging myself and my learners. When I give 100% I get 100%.
I spent the last two weeks feeling like death from having the flue to a stomach problem that made digesting food agonising. I was low on energy and I was teachingoing everyday. It was difficult and made me miss being a student the most. I fought through it all and did the best I could giving everything and falling to the floor when I got home.
I had my criteria lesson last Thursday and I taught transgender under sexuality to grade 10's. I got a fairly good mark from the lecturer but I felt his disappointed in my mark with a 74%. I had a class that was engaged and loved the lesson because finally they understood. The girls asked question and even took out their phones to show me they too know the person whom I spoke about. The school is progressive with technology and they don't believe children should be quiet at all times but when a lecturer comes in to view a lesson with a past vision of the classroom, we are not on the same page.
I guess I was frustrated and still am because I have been commended in staff meetings for my work so far. They are excited about my ideas. Maybe the education faculty is far behind where school actually is.
What is in the past is beyond my control. I will keep on working hard and challenging myself and my learners. When I give 100% I get 100%.
Hard at work preparing lessons
-Lindsay Küger and myself
Monday, 17 August 2015
The triangle of mediocracy
I find it best to blog after the weekend when my mind is fresh and my whole blog isn't a complaint because teaching sure can do that to you.
Are you being given taking advantage of but learning lots in the process? Me too.
Are teachers giving you all their lessons but barely citing them? Me too.
Are all you nights spent thinking about school and dreading the sound of the alarm every morning but bubbling with excitement for what the day could hold? Me too.
I want to be the best so I am. And that how I get things done. I chose subject that I'm passionate about over subjects that will help ensure to make money because a life chasing money is a wasted life if you have not lived through what sets your soul of fire.
As a starting teacher I have found myself always going above and beyond for every lesson. I'll put in 3 sessions of planning for every lesson I have so that when I get to the classroom everyone has learned something. I want my learners to learn , I'm not trying to pass time. I refuse to give anything less than I would expect. This makes life difficult. Do I do work and go sleep or see my friends and sleep? Or do I work and see my friends but then not sleep? .... life has been throwing this challenge at me for the last couple of weeks.
I've really learned the value of time, time wasted is time lost. I use all the time I have to do what have to then what I want to and very little time spent on what anyone else wants because sleep comes first.
The point I'm trying to make is: Do what you can with what you have because if you don't, only you will suffer.
Are you being given taking advantage of but learning lots in the process? Me too.
Are teachers giving you all their lessons but barely citing them? Me too.
Are all you nights spent thinking about school and dreading the sound of the alarm every morning but bubbling with excitement for what the day could hold? Me too.
I want to be the best so I am. And that how I get things done. I chose subject that I'm passionate about over subjects that will help ensure to make money because a life chasing money is a wasted life if you have not lived through what sets your soul of fire.
As a starting teacher I have found myself always going above and beyond for every lesson. I'll put in 3 sessions of planning for every lesson I have so that when I get to the classroom everyone has learned something. I want my learners to learn , I'm not trying to pass time. I refuse to give anything less than I would expect. This makes life difficult. Do I do work and go sleep or see my friends and sleep? Or do I work and see my friends but then not sleep? .... life has been throwing this challenge at me for the last couple of weeks.
I've really learned the value of time, time wasted is time lost. I use all the time I have to do what have to then what I want to and very little time spent on what anyone else wants because sleep comes first.
The point I'm trying to make is: Do what you can with what you have because if you don't, only you will suffer.
We don't know what this cat is doing but he seem like he know and that's all that counts
-See in a random Isle in the learning commons, Bridge House College
Monday, 10 August 2015
If I ruled the world...
I guess I've had a really tough week. Thus my post is late...
1. To charge
2. To plan
3. To print
4. To sleep
5. To eat
6. To live
7. To be alive
8. Always love what you do
Things to follow. Things to do my brain in tired but I love every minute of every day.
School takes all my time so I learn to make time for the things that matter. I want to be the best teacher I can be so my learners can always be open to learning. We don't just teach content we teach how to learn and I think we often forget that in the hustle of school.
I got a worksheet back this week with missing answers and wrong answers and I didn't immediately assume they didn't know the newer but I realised they were not taught in the terminology of music. When I was their age I was immediately taught how we learn not what the answers were and that was lacking in this class. This week I rearranged the my tasks so that my learners could learn how to learn.
We have integrated learning in in the school I'm teaching at. So we have learners with learning disabilities mixed with mainstream learners. But when I teach I have not changed my task only given more time to finish them. I don't think we should make things easier but challenge all learners with more advanced tasks mixed in as challenges not counting for marks. I tried this in the past week and I found it to go very well in my music classes. They really wanted to learn and challenge themselves, everyone's did their work and understood all the concepts. I like this and I will continue to teach in that way. This leaves me with the question: "Does the label we give a child place a limit on the child or were they born with it?". If we take the time and give every child the same opportunities will that change the potential for every learner?
On another note:
All 7 student teachers participated in the Bridge House College talent show. It went really well and we had so much fun doing it. Getting involved in the school help to make school a little less tedious. I hope everyone is making the most of their opportunities given at their school.
Week 3: finished
1. To charge
2. To plan
3. To print
4. To sleep
5. To eat
6. To live
7. To be alive
8. Always love what you do
Things to follow. Things to do my brain in tired but I love every minute of every day.
School takes all my time so I learn to make time for the things that matter. I want to be the best teacher I can be so my learners can always be open to learning. We don't just teach content we teach how to learn and I think we often forget that in the hustle of school.
I got a worksheet back this week with missing answers and wrong answers and I didn't immediately assume they didn't know the newer but I realised they were not taught in the terminology of music. When I was their age I was immediately taught how we learn not what the answers were and that was lacking in this class. This week I rearranged the my tasks so that my learners could learn how to learn.
We have integrated learning in in the school I'm teaching at. So we have learners with learning disabilities mixed with mainstream learners. But when I teach I have not changed my task only given more time to finish them. I don't think we should make things easier but challenge all learners with more advanced tasks mixed in as challenges not counting for marks. I tried this in the past week and I found it to go very well in my music classes. They really wanted to learn and challenge themselves, everyone's did their work and understood all the concepts. I like this and I will continue to teach in that way. This leaves me with the question: "Does the label we give a child place a limit on the child or were they born with it?". If we take the time and give every child the same opportunities will that change the potential for every learner?
On another note:
All 7 student teachers participated in the Bridge House College talent show. It went really well and we had so much fun doing it. Getting involved in the school help to make school a little less tedious. I hope everyone is making the most of their opportunities given at their school.
Week 3: finished
Hope you had a lovely long weekend
Thank you to the women of 1956 for their bravery freeing women of South Africa
Sunday, 2 August 2015
Where did my life go?
Week 2:
I guess this was a really good week for school. I'm doing extremely well in my lessons and teaching up to 9 lesson which all need to be prepared. Preparing a 45 minute lesson doesn't take just 45 minutes as one would hope. The first year of teaching is filled with lesson planning and further exploration into a subject. This means something has got to give but why does it have to be my life?
When life give you lemons squeeze the juice into your water and stay hydrated.
- because lemonade is not sold at my school.
My time here at bridge house is proving to be of utmost value. I'm getting experience and lots of it with everyone wanting to give me with lessons and the learners responding well to my classes. In the middle of most of my days when my eyes start to burn I think "what about me, where is my time?". The simply truth is hat there is never enough time for all your active compartments but what is important is that you make time and take the time. Week days are for my job and weekends belong to my personal life.
If I don't make the time for myself none else will.
Another point I have also been very aware of this week is the ability to keep one's private life separate from one's professional life. School is a very personal and social unit which leads many times to an overlap between personal and professional life. How does one maintain a professional stance without coming off as a "hard" person?
I guess this was a really good week for school. I'm doing extremely well in my lessons and teaching up to 9 lesson which all need to be prepared. Preparing a 45 minute lesson doesn't take just 45 minutes as one would hope. The first year of teaching is filled with lesson planning and further exploration into a subject. This means something has got to give but why does it have to be my life?
When life give you lemons squeeze the juice into your water and stay hydrated.
- because lemonade is not sold at my school.
My time here at bridge house is proving to be of utmost value. I'm getting experience and lots of it with everyone wanting to give me with lessons and the learners responding well to my classes. In the middle of most of my days when my eyes start to burn I think "what about me, where is my time?". The simply truth is hat there is never enough time for all your active compartments but what is important is that you make time and take the time. Week days are for my job and weekends belong to my personal life.
If I don't make the time for myself none else will.
Another point I have also been very aware of this week is the ability to keep one's private life separate from one's professional life. School is a very personal and social unit which leads many times to an overlap between personal and professional life. How does one maintain a professional stance without coming off as a "hard" person?
photo: "ant that something wonderful"
Taken as I take sometime for myself in the school day
Sunday, 26 July 2015
Week one: learn for life
picture: Bridge House College- Learning Commons hall way
The first part of my week was a crazy mad house in a whirl wind. Seems difficult to imagine but school started as usual and I found my self lost between time tables.
By Wednesday I had found my rhythm and really started to enjoy my classes, but to be honest I wasn't sure when people use the bathroom with everything going else going on.
The school I am at, Bridge House College, doesn't run like government schools so most things we learned in the first semester seemed to be irrelevant. The school runs on explorative learning with the motto:"we learn for life". That was exactly what I saw. Phones were out during class at appropriate times with all technology at their disposal. I love the environment, there is no set hierarchy and learners are allowed to be treat as equals across the grades and us as student teachers are teacher in their eyes.
I found my first week to be refreshing but daunting. I became a teaching assistant in the grade 9 music class and by the end of the week I was a source of help for learners. I realised I needed a red pen but I used purple case that's all I had. Next week I start teaching lessons, 7 lesson and two piano students might I add, and I know my teaching style will be different. I hope that the learners will be receptive of my style. There is a sense of freedom in the air and I hope it stays.
The adventure has begun and I feel ready. The most important thing I learned this week is life happens and you have to let it and adapt.
Saturday, 18 July 2015
How do I begin?
It's a casual Saturday night where I'm chilling watching a movie hoping to be inspired, barely concentrating on the film whenight because I've seen it several times, when a line resonates deep into my soul, "our jobs as teacher is to inspire". It was a music related movie but it was about not giving up even when you have just yourself to depend on. It's an out not giving everything you have even if you have given up already. There were just so many lesson in this movie that it left me gear up and ready to take on the challenges of life and teaching with a fresh outlook on life.
I've always been a breath of fresh air, but I must admit, I have been nervous about becoming a teacher. I feel ready and confident. I know it won't be easy but I am up for the challenge. Even if I come out of my time at the school having inspired only one child I have done my job because that is one more than the day before.
"Life without music would be a mistske" - a wise woman
I've always been a breath of fresh air, but I must admit, I have been nervous about becoming a teacher. I feel ready and confident. I know it won't be easy but I am up for the challenge. Even if I come out of my time at the school having inspired only one child I have done my job because that is one more than the day before.
"Life without music would be a mistske" - a wise woman
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