Today was the first day of our teaching prac at Drostdy HTS – a day I had anticipated with a mixture of unease and excitement. To tell the truth, after our initial impressions on arrival at the residences yesterday, one could say I was feeling rather apprehensive by the time we woke up this morning.
Thankfully we were all on time for the 07:20 staff meeting, where we were introduced to the staff and visiting students from other institutions. After the staff meeting, which pretty much flew right over our heads, we were lined up and introduced to the learners on the quad. I was surprised by the excitement expressed by the learners at our arrival!
From the quad we returned to the staff room, where we were assigned to our Mentors and escorted to their individual classrooms. I was assigned to Mrs Lambrechts for English (EFAL), and spent the entire day sitting in, assisting learners ( Grades 8, 11 and 12) and checking their homework. I volunteered to help source new texts and authentic material – and was immediately asked to develop a reading comprehension for the Grade 8 classes tomorrow. (Me and my big mouth… bwahahahahaa!)
On a different note, notions of class discipline have changed quite significantly since the 90s. It was interesting to see that the difference between the “strong” Grade 11s and the “difficult” Grade 11s wasn’t evident in the volume, nature or amount of talking amongst themselves during class – but rather in their motivation to participate. One student in the “difficult” class actually defended their lack of motivation by saying: “ons is darem die D klas onthou!” Obviously these learners have accepted the labels applied to the “D class” and are now living down to expectations. Living examples of self-fulfilling prophecies. This saddened me. I wonder if there is anything I could try to do to help these learners regain faith in themselves? Something to think about.
After school I joined the other live-in PGCEs for lunch back at Noordsig Residence, where we got to share our first impressions with each other and meet the visiting students from Potch and Wellington. Mr Van Huyssteen joined me after lunch at the drama, poetry and prose rehearsals for this week’s Eisteddfod participants. It was incredible to see the talent and desire of these young people – not to mention their eagerness to take on critique and suggestions! I thoroughly enjoyed getting to sit with them – and look forward to their performances during the week!
What little free time remained before dinner was spent acquiring extension cables to power our bedroom, and hot beverages to power ourselves. After dinner followed admin, and sprucing up on the CAPS requirements for Senior Phase learners.
Now to set up those comprehension tests…
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