Happy Tuesday! I'm dying!
For real, though. I'm either allergic to the entire country of South Africa or I caught a cold. Maybe it's from the rain.
But I stole a roll of toilet paper from Maria's bathroom, and it's my best friend today. I hid in the back of today's assembly and tried to hide the fact that I was dying.
Today's assembly, lord. If there's one thing I dislike about the education system here, it's that it's so focused on pageantry and formality that other, in my opinion more important, things get thrown out the window.
I want students to be recognized for their sports. I also want an entire instructional day. I don't really want to sit on stage for a full hour multiple times a week watching students sing the school song in two different languages, parade into the hall with various flags, etc.
I don't know, I just think there are better ways to do sports awards. Like banquets! Give the kids fancy dress opportunities! Serve hors d'oeuvre! Let the coaches wax poetic about the season without worrying about wasting already-wasted classtime!
Regardless, the kids got their sports awards, and I was glad to see some awards given for extramural sports and "cultural" activities (their term for band, vocal music, drama etc.). There are some damn talented athletes here. Nationally-ranked cyclists and surfers and stuff.
After that, there was technically a first-hour class, but the schedule got... a little changed! A lot changed, actually. There's a previously agreed-upon schedule for a day with an extra-long assembly, but that wasn't in the week's planner, so I didn't realize we'd have a full class. I wandered around, sick and lost, for a little while, then figured out some of my teaching materials for the final period of the day.
For second period, I headed up to one of my favorite English teachers' classes. She's doing a dictionary practice activity with a group of L2 students. Most of the kids here speak Afrikaans natively, though I think there might be one Xhosa-speaker in the room. Not too sure. This practice activity was really well thought out and definitely helped them get a grasp on how to not only use the English language but also how to find help for their English usage.
Afterwards, we're in a ground-floor room for a Grade 11 English class. This one... let's just say there's a lot of student athletes in here, and that most of them prefer the term “athlete” to “student.” Getting these students to do anything was a hassle. Most didn't do anything but talk. One insisted on getting her worksheet written by another student because of a very very small injury on her index finger. I'm... not going to judge. I refuse to judge. I don't know what that feels like. I don't know how many people are like me and can essentially write with a thumb, a ring finger and a pinky. No judgement. I'm trying so hard.
The classroom teacher apologized to me after that class. He really didn't need to--seeing the bad classes is every bit as helpful as seeing the good ones. Disruptive students, exclusive athletes, chatty kids: those are a fact of life. If anything, it's a comfort knowing that kids are essentially kids everywhere in the world.
Also, while the activity went over like a lead balloon, it was actually very well produced. It was a worksheet covering style, tone, source types and authorial intentions for various pieces of written text. Incredibly thorough and relevant! It just hit the wrong class on the wrong day, it seems.
After a free period and the second break, we're off to another Grade 9 class, which had the exciting lesson of... returning marked class materials. There was a little discussion about SASAMS grading system, but I... don't know enough about it to begin listening. I was lost the whole time. More nose blowing. I've destroyed Maria's roll of toilet paper.
And for the final class, I'm with yet another one of my favorite teachers! She's always very willing to pass over classes, and we've already started to trust each other quite a bit. Our teaching styles mesh together nicely, too, so her classes generally have a very easy transition when I take over them.
We worked on the division of sentences today, starting with subjects and predicates. I was given the option to teach about types of phrases and clauses, but I thought the SP talk was more important to start with. And they were very well behaved! Pretty excitable, and they giggled every time I said "y'all," but we got through the planned lesson and I got to placate them with an ask-the-American session.
Dr. Singh is coming in on Thursday to observe me with this class, so I'm feeling pretty stable now that the lesson went well. All's to do now is to stay focused over the public holiday.
Ah, the show tonight. It was a little lukewarm. Most of the crowd was pre-holiday teachers, so they were naturally a little quiet, but the kids got a bit discouraged because of how little they applauded compared to Monday's audience. Oh, well. They've got to learn to handle that.
More later, after a well-needed long rest.
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