WEEK #6 (22-26 August 2016)

My last week before going on maternity leave! At Luckhoff the painting is going really awesomely, I am enjoying it immensely. I am saddened that I won't be able to complete the project myself as I am in my 38th week of pregnancy and about ready to pop. Everyone is really worried about me still being so active, all I tell them is I can't chill yet I am not done with my student teaching practical!

At PJ Olivier on Thursday I had like an extra curricular DAY as I helped out from 9:30 AM until about after 10 PM with the Bloemhofbond Old Girls Exhibition and Auction held at PJ Olivier. It was a lot of fun helping out with the event and just doing whatever the organisers Santie and Maryna needed help with. At least there was chairs and I could sit often in between!

For my theory lessons I used the advise the learners had given me the week before plus some other tricks to keep their attention. I had them come sit in front with me, with just their chairs and a pen and paper. I gave them posted notes (a technique theorised in our digital pedagogy class), and told them to write key notes that stood out about the Renaissance period. Sadly the lecturer walked in late and then told me to turn off the slide in which I just started to introduce the elements of the Renaissance, and then commenced to quiz my learners about something I still had to start with. With a few other interruptions from the lecturer and the learners leaving early again for the bus, I did not get to the part of my lesson which I was most looking forward to. I had the learners put up the posted notes on the wall, and I meant for us to go stand by them and have them read the posted notes out loud and lead a discussion as a summary to see if we can get a clear picture of the Renaissance. Over all though, this lesson was a lot more successful than the previous theory lesson in that they all were more involved and aware and actively payed attention. Everyone seemed to enjoy the posted exercise. I did however get a note that I was going too fast, I fear this was because I knew the time limit and hopefully it is something I can avoid in future when I am in charge of my own lessons and have my own classes.

WEEK #5 (15-19 August 2016)

LÜCKHOFF 

What I learnt from this week is that you can go all out and really put yourself out there for a lesson, but if the learners don't care your lesson still won't be efficient or successful. I still would not give up, but I know after just one LO lesson a day I was exhausted emotionally and physically (being 36 weeks pregnant and walking up and down a class to make sure the rowdy learners know you know they are being rowdy and you won't stand for it and you are giving a lesson here, and to go to everyone who has their hands up even the one's asking questions totally irrelevant to your class, and many times just to try and stir you up, but to go none the less for the sake of those who are actually honestly busy with their work and need your help.... where was I... This was so exhausting, and embarrassing because even though Miss Hector said that the teacher should be present as well with my lecturer coming to visit, and I told her on multiple occasions she needs to be there Miss Hector said so, the teacher found an excuse and at the last minute just told me she has to go look after some learners who's teacher isn't here and left - and the class was rough chaos. I kept calling out the one's making noise and disrespecting, but my visiting lecturer actually said something to the class they were so rough. She wanted to hear me give my lesson. It was really exhausting, I had a good lesson planned and it is really difficult to get your lesson or point across when you cannot hear yourself think and even follow your own train of thought. I was just glad when it was over and my lecturer and I ended up talking and discussing the lesson. 

PJ OLIVIER

I gave my first visual arts theory lesson this week and after the Monday class at Luckhoff I just sat I was so extremely exhausted. That is the one downside from student practicals whilst pregnant, I kept pushing myself as if I was not pregnant, just because that is what I am used to, pushing myself. I have a lot of energy and can go on working for a long time, but at some point in the last few weeks my stamina has dropped. I think it has to do with the rough morning classes at Luckhoff and the having lessons and class at PJ until 17h00 and driving home in traffic everyday. 

What I did learn is that you should get information from the learners about your lesson presentation and how to make it better. I asked my learners on Friday how the theory lesson was and how I could make it better. They gave such honest feedback and I found it really helpful and I plan on using it for my next lesson. They said they needed to be kept busy, not just by asking them questions orally. They said that they lose concentration if they don't get forced to be actively involved. It is my challenge as a teacher to actively involve my learners in a productive manner that won't take away from the lesson content or time but will increase the teaching and learning experience for everyone. 

WEEK #4 (8-12 August 2016)

Lückhoff 

This week it was a school holiday and a public holiday Monday and Tuesday so it was shorter, but I felt just as much exhausted afterwards. I gave my first LO lesson to the Gr8s this week, next week I have them again with Me Conradie coming to evaluate me. I felt it went well up to a point. I felt it worked well to start of with an introduction and a code of conduct I made up for Life Orientation class. But a few learners came late and they were also the ones who didn't hear the code of conduct and kept breaking it. It is quite taxing to be interrupted with irrelevant questions. And it became clear that the learners asking was testing me, my patience and pushing boundries on purpose. It did feel though like I got the class' attention and got them to cooperate with me and things went well until I gave them an activity. At this point the teacher brought in a child that missed the entire lesson and was trying to bunk and he was not participating at all. I went to him individually and tried explaining some of the concepts and what he must do. But got no real response. I didn't quite no how to handle it. The level of not caring and not respecting a teacher was new to me.    

PJ Olivier

I was approached by a teacher from  Lückhoff to paint her classroom and I have commenced planning. I decided to involve the other student art teacher, my dear friend, Suné Burger, so it can also count as an extra mural for her. We have been finding it very difficult to work in extra mural hours considering that we are at PJ Olivier from before our other school closes until 17h00 every day. So I approached the painting teacher, our self chosen mentor, at PJ Olivier, she is our inspiration (we both want to be her when we grow up). She helped me get direction, we decided to label it as a PJ Olivie outreach so it can count for Suné and she would donate some paints to use. I started looking for images which fit the description of what the teacher wanted and also talked to the teacher about involving learners to help paint. I am really excited as it is the first time I organise something like this and it seems like it is really going to come together quite nicely.