absolutwillie

Tag: academia

  • When frustration strikes

    There is so much we can share with each other – so many ways in which we can enrich each other’s lives – and so much we can learn and discover together.

    But we don’t. 
    Some don’t know how to, and some just won’t.
    Why not?
    I suspect Fear keeps all of us neatly chained inside our boxes. The fear of losing face keeps us from sharing what we don’t know, in order to grow together. The fear of losing control keeps us from allowing freedom of thought, discovery and risking ideas that might change something. The fear of standing out of the crowd keeps us from fulfilling our own potential and reaching greatness.
    This is what frustrated me today.
    I don’t like being chained.
    I can’t stand it when people chain themselves.
    I absolutely abhor those who chain others.
    Am I the only one?

    As teachers, I believe that we should remain open to new ideas, new ways of doing as well as new ways of learning – especially when the learning party is oneself! There is no shame in stating what we don’t know, for this humanizes us and opens us up to learning whilst simultaneously encouraging our learners to do the same. I also believe that we should remember that teaching and learning are both social as well as intensely personal activities. We should work with the masses in showing the way, whilst remembering to allow for individualization. The internal learning process which should actively work towards encouraging personal growth and development of self in each of our learners. In doing this, we should be nurturing a group which recognizes,  encourages and celebrates the powerful beauty of each of its members.

    Break the chains of Fear – and live in the unique light of Potential!

  • Dear God in Heaven…

    … please let me never, ever be expected or requested to organize colleagues or staff ever again. And have mercy on my soul if it turns out that I have to, despite my plea…

    And also thank you Lord, for kids who step forward and make use of the opportunity to work with us one-on-one! My greatest joy comes from helping someone find some sort of solution. Even if that solution is merely a way to remember Figures of Speech.
    I had a learner come to me after dinner tonight and thank me for the additional tutoring (“study skills” evening class) we  had held at one of the residences. One “thank you” out of over a hundred learners – and it was exactly what I needed!
    Teaching: flame on!

  • Half-n-half

    This week was all about the matter – subject matter as well as the subjects that matter.

    Full immersion teaching, getting to know the learners, to engage with them on different levels, to see them play and excel in various extramural activities… to form some semblance of a bond with them. This is the joy of teaching. This is the stuff that lives are made of. And it is such an honor to be a part of it.

    Remember this in times to come when paperwork and admin, disappointments and conflicts as well as fatigue and frustration team up to try and overthrow us. Hold on to the joy, lest we get jaded.

  • Mid-August particles

    We had a bit of a balls-up with scheduling…

    As liaison student between the University and the School, one of my responsibilities is to compile and relay student teachers’ lesson schedules on the days that our Professors visit for official evaluation. I do this a week in advance, to allow for the required processes back at HQ. This week’s schedule was no different than all the previous weeks. All students to be evaluated submitted their times, the schedule was compiled and confirmed, and sent off to Mrs. Swart – who proceeded to check, compile and disseminate all the timetables of all participating schools.
    Only this time, when I compiled the visiting Professor’s schedule for today, one of our students realized that there was no class available during the time slot he had “arranged”. Following this realization, he first tried to bully another student out of his lesson (which was properly confirmed and secured with the relevant teacher). I did not allow this, which prompted him to try and blame me for the conundrum. I didn’t allow this either. Finally he proceeded to secure an earlier lesson at a time preceding the Professor’s visiting times. I relayed the information to HQ and all necessary steps were taken.
    Unfortunately, the Professor did not check his email for breakfast, and arrived “early” according to the previously confirmed time… 20 Minutes into the unforeseen lesson…
    Karma.
    Anyhoo! Back at school it seems I have been identified as one of the “go-to” students as far as organization is concerned. Thus far  I have been tasked with organizing Matric exam invigilation, Eisteddfod transportation, evening classes, extra English classes, a petition against Cambridge A-level results, and seating arrangements and preparations for the school Orchestra’s performance after the international schools rugby event taking place on our school grounds on Saturday. Fun all, but incredibly time consuming. I think I’ve erred in being too involved in the school’s activities – creating the impression that I can be counted on to help out, and ending up being counted on by too many people. True, I am a go-getter and willing to do what I can, but I suck at juggling. Something’s got to give.
     
    I just hope it’s not my academic obligations for PGCE.

  • Night Work

    Teaching English all day, every day, is still a lot of fun.
    Apart from the poetry (one of my greatest passions), I’m really enjoying Visual Literacy. I don’t recall ever focusing on it as extensively when I was in school – and I find visual literacy to be an amazingly important kind of literacy. Especially on this side of the information-age’s “Third Wave”.

    I never imagined that my design, copywriting and printing background would come in this handy in class!

    I do miss my Life Orientation classes. If only I could split myself in two… then I would be able to teach all the English periods and get to teach L.O. again! (I still have to teach the required Mentor-critiqued lessons in L.O. as well.) I hope to get a chance to regain that balance once my English Mentor returns to school fully recovered from this nasty flu.

    Tonight’s evening class was held in the study hall of the Ladies’ residence. I was delighted by the response I got for English! I had so much fun clarifying tense-issues and word-meaning confusions that I hardly noticed the time going by. I’ve never felt so happy about being asked so many questions – and I’ve never felt so good as I do when a light goes up for a learner.

    “Oh! I get it!!” is my new favorite sound.

  • The hunger

    For some reason, I couldn’t stop eating today. Chewing, thinking, asking questions. Nothing satisfied my hunger: no food nor any answer. So I ate and I pondered and I searched on a day where I was asked to take over all of my English mentor’s classes. Which I did.

    After school I invigilated and marked papers at the regional Mini-Mathematics Olympiad, where my subconscious hunger grew even more. Seeing kids really try to excel filled me with great awe. Marking their papers and realizing how few of them passed, knotted up my stomach.
    “Two towels take two hours to dry on the washing-line. How long do five towels take to dry?” From the Gr.8 paper. Assume that it is a controlled environment and all environmental factors remain equal. Did you get the answer*? Not many did…
    After the Olympiad, some of the Stellenbosch students got together at the boys’ res where I live. We had proposed conducting evening classes for “test taking skills” for all interested students. The school seemed excited about this – although the arrangements they had promised to make for us seemed to’ve gone over some personnel’s heads. Our first class was a bit of a jumbled affair that was moved into a disused room in the res – as the Study Leader had not prepared for us.
    But several learners came forward and took advantage of our offers of assistance. About a dozen boys at first… and we sat them down to tackle their concerns. 
    It was then that I saw it: the hunger in their eyes. These kids were desperate for clarity, and were grabbing hold of a life-line. Several of us were approached with requests for additional classes after school, for them and their friends who were too shy to step forward at the time.
    Yes, I think I can help these learners. Yes, I want to help these learners. Yes, I do wonder how long they will think of me as a “good student-teacher” – and how long it would be before I am considered old news.
    How do I remain relevant, approachable and useful for years to come?
    Perhaps by staying hungry.
    PS. The answer* was: two.

  • Finding Flow

    Today was D-day.

    Professors Beets and Carl came in to critique our lessons, and I was lucky enough to have both my subjects critiqued on the same day. Admittedly I was nervous going into a day filled with two crit-lessons as well as invigilating duties during the Matric English exam after school (which most of my colleagues forgot about).
    Preparation is truly the key to success in conducting a successful class. Having considered the curriculum, prescribed work and positioning of each class in respect to the work – I had a fairly good idea of what to cover in my lessons, and how to approach each specific class. Admittedly, spending all my free time pondering and researching my lessons didn’t make for the most restful weekend – but the work paid off! My learners responded very well to the work I presented and gave their full participation happily. I was surprised, in both Crit Lessons, to see them enjoy my lesson as much as I did.
    And yes, the professors enjoyed my lessons too ;0)

    Alas, my Monday did not remain delightful. When the time came for the Matric paper – most of my colleagues on whom I counted to invigilate didn’t show up. Apparently the verbal confirmation of invigilating during multiple papers during the week was forgotten, and only the text-message confirming Friday’s commitment would be honored. Disaster.
    Thankfully I could count on Miss. Bray and Mr. Van Huyssteen, as well as Mr. Pienaar (allocated to Worcester Gimnasium) to man the required posts for the full 150 minutes. Knowing your team, and surrounding yourself with people you can depend on, is invaluable.
    Lessons of the day: Preparation pays – and your heroes will reveal themselves in times of distress. Cherish them.

  • The missing Thursday

    Hi-ho! Hi-ho! It’s a long-weekend you know!
    With work to plan and poems to scan…
    Hi-ho! Hi-ho! Hi-ho!

    Today was the last day our visiting colleagues from CPUT were with us. It was very interesting to get to know them – and to see how they approach their work! I can honestly say that I’ve learned something from every other teaching student I’ve met so far. Our lecturers at Stellenbosch were correct when they told us that the practicum will be an invaluable learning experience.

    On to academics: the thing that struck me the most today, was how differently we can and should be teaching poetry. Yes, poetry as literature does have quite a bit of technical aspects to it – but it is also much more than a sum of parts. Poetry should be taught as a form of expression, communication and observing. This is how we make sense of the world. This is how we sing. This is the art of sentience.

    In the classroom, it is important to reveal the pleasure of poetry. The enjoyment thereof. The power poetry possesses should be plastered on every ponderable plane! (I digress…) Poetry should be loved first – for it is only when we love poetry, that we can risk analyzing it without killing it off entirely.

    Poems are impressions of interpretations.
    They are left open to interpretation on purpose.

    Many truths can come from one verse – but don’t be fooled: Not all answers are equal and yes, there are such things as wrong answers to questions on poetry. My opening verse is not a navel-gazing enquiry into the metacognitive processes surrounding observations of religious vacillation.

    (Yes, I went there.)

  • Wacky Wednesday

    Timing is my Achiles’ heel.

    Sometimes I get so engrossed in one aspect of my lesson,  that I run out of time and have to try and complete the lesson in the next period. Obviously, this is not ideal.
    I presented two classes on poetic devices today. During the first, I spent too much time focusing revision, and ended up being unable to complete the lesson in the way I had planned. In an attempt to avoid the same situation in the next presentation, I allocated specific time-frames to each facet of the lesson, and tried to stick to them. Naturally, one class is different to another, and lessons need to be organic and able to respond to the needs of the learners. Having the time-guides ended up making a huge difference in the overall flow of the lesson. Not only did I finish the lesson in the way I had planned – by reading the correspondence between me and the poet who’s work we were using in class – but there was also enough time left at the end of the planned lesson for me to work with the class on details, questions and suggestions.

    Having corresponded with Moira Andrew about her poem “Still Life” made all the difference to us all. She spoke of the day the poem was written, and gave us a priceless look into the reality and intent behind the poem! (How cool is that?!)

    Lesson of the day: Allocating time, saves time.
    Lesson of the day (2): Communication via the WWW opens up doors we never even considered before!

  • Shadows and light

    In a classroom that darkened my heart, I found a light today.

    Knowing that it is good to be exposed to various styles of learning, and wanting to obtain experience in different class groups and grades, I observed another English teacher’s class today. The lesson was on a South African drama that I did not know too much about. This lesson was also for a Gr.12 class that I had been warned about, but had not encountered yet. Call it morbid curiosity if you will, but I needed to know what I would likely encounter in future.

    It was horrifyingly mesmerizing to see just how unruly a senior class could be. I would liken it to watching a horror movie: it scares the life out of you – but you just have to see how it ends! I could not fathom how any one of those learners could have the foggiest clue of what was going on in the drama. Or anything at all, for that matter! And that’s where a pinprick of light surprised me.

    I was asked to put a question to the class, and could only draw from my limited knowledge of the drama, my own framework of the period (which I had lived through) and the reading that had been done in that lesson. I decided to look for evidence of subtext-sensitivity, and asked for additional themes that ran through the text – expecting the usual stock answers of love, betrayal, friendship etc.

    One boy, at the back of the class, bowled me over when he picked up on “the trouble with freedom”. There was a kid with a brain, an understanding, and a willingness to think further. Even in the midst of a cacophony of apes.

    This solitary soul showed me that there is always a fleck of sanity and hope in the midst of anarchy.

    Always look for it, nurture it, and find peace in it. Because if it is not about lifting up the few, how can it be about uplifting the many?