Week 3 down
Nothing too exciting this week, but I have learned a lot more about the schools. Here’s some of my random thoughts about the schools and South African life in general.
The hardest thing about student teaching here is that I don’t actually have one classroom to call my own and leave my stuff in. I’m constantly switching from room to room, hauling most of my books and papers with me.
However, observing 3 different teachers is nice, because it gives me a better overall view of education. One consistency with the teachers is that they give a lot of in-class work: they’ll give a short exercise to the students, walk around and answer questions, and then go over it on the board before repeating the process. Not much time is spent lecturing or giving notes and examples; the emphasis is on practice. I really like the set-up, and I feel like it does give the students a lot of practice. However, the students here work so diligently and actually do the work: I don’t think students in America would work so hard during class if they knew they wouldn’t be graded on it.
In my math literacy class, we’re going over household bills like water and electricity. The students are so curious and have all kinds of questions for Linda. Somehow they got onto the topic of affirmative action (in a math class!) Linda saw the opportunity for a learning moment and grabbed it; some students have very strong opinions against affirmative action, and she led a very interesting class discussion before asking me to say a little about the US.
In every math class, the students have test files or portfolio books, where they keep all of their graded assignments and tests. At the end of the year, they have a nice record of everything they did all year. It’s also good for revision.
Students do their tests, and most assignments and notes, in pen.
I haven’t started teaching my own classes yet, but I have taken over some of the register classes (like homeroom) as well as some of the math classes when teachers are absent: just simple things like going over homework or administering a test. It’s nice to have some actual responsibilities, but it’s hard not knowing the students.
The grade 8’s and grade 9’s took the grade-wide “control” tests this week. Everyone in grade 8, for example, takes the same test, sort of as an assessment of the teacher. I learned how to “mark” the tests: which was incredibly hard and confusing at first. Each question has a certain number of marks (like points) that students can receive. For each part of the problem that they solve correctly, they get a mark (a big check mark next to that part of their work), and for the correct answer, they also get one or two marks. Thus, it is important for students to show their work. However, if they miss one mark for not simplifying or distributing correctly, you then have to continue working through their answer to see if they followed through with those numbers correctly. If so, the students may receive the rest of the marks. It’s incredibly time-consuming, and now I can see why teachers rarely mark assignments. However, I like a few things about it: 1) you can see exactly where students have misconceptions or calculate incorrectly, 2) students get points for concepts even if their calculations are incorrect, and 3) the answer key is so strict, in ensures that teachers grade fairly and consistently.
One thing I did not like about marking was the low scores students were receiving. This test is worth 40% of the students’ grades for the term. How can they pass the class if no one received above a 75%? The answer is that students only need 30% or 40% (depending on the grade level) to pass the class.
Interesting classroom incident that gave me a lot of laughs: Mr. Loubster, the teacher of one of my grade 8 classes, asked the class who Ronald Reagan was. I gave them a hint that he was a famous American. The students took wild guesses, from singer to artist to firefighter to the person who performed the first heart transplant, until someone said actor. I said that was correct but he was famous for something else as well. One of the students said “wasn’t he President of the US?” which then had other students saying, “no, isn’t Bush the President now?”
My favorite student question this week: “But how do you subtract 2a-10a without getting into negative numbers?” I held back my smile and very seriously informed the student that it’s okay to use negative numbers.
I’ve started joining some student activities: I do “road running” (long distance running) with the school team two days a week, “coach” the junior math Olympiad team (grade 8 and 9) every week, help with an after school math tutoring program, and next week I’m going to help out with the school dance sport (ballroom dancing). It’s fun to see the students outside of the classroom setting and get to know them a little better.
I’m trying to get out and meet people outside of class as well, and so far, everyone has been so nice and so excited to take me out. I joined an adult group ballroom dance class that meets Friday evenings: after class this Friday we went down to the Boardwalk for coffee (the most beautiful place I’ve seen, with outdoor seating right next to the water, and lights twinkling all around). A few meters away there were some African men outside a storefront playing traditional music on instruments that looked like xylophones but had a different sound.
The ethnic diversity here is incredible, from Afrikaans (or boers) to English to all the different tribes. I have a few Xhosa students in my class, and I’ve been practicing pronouncing their names: when they have the “X” at the beginning of the name, you pronounce it with a tongue click that sounds a little like a “ch.” It’s hard to pronounce that sound correctly and then make it flow with the rest of the name.
Most people that I’ve met and talked to are English, and we’ve had a lot of conversations about race and racism. It seems to me that many of the English people are slightly racist, even though I’m sure they would deny it. They seem to claim (sometimes jokingly, but I don’t think it’s just a joke) that Afrikaans are racist and I should stay away from them. However, the Afrikaans people I’ve met seem to be the least likely to comment on race like this. Casual comments really stand out to me, though. I’ve heard a couple times, mostly from older people, that the black people who live in the townships steal, and that corruption has increased so much since the ANC (this is the “black” political party) came into power in 1994. Someone also remarked to me that they have a lot of respect for young black people who are able to study hard and go to college. It was meant as a compliment, but it sounded slightly demeaning, as though it’s not common for blacks to have the discipline to make it through school. Comments like this are similar to things you might hear in America, but they always make me feel slightly uncomfortable. At home I could spend hours arguing with my brother-in-law over attitudes like this, but here I don’t feel like I have a right to judge people’s beliefs about racism (after all, I’m an outsider), so I tend to listen more. There’s also a big sense of “them vs. us” mentality. I’ve been hanging out with some guys who are my age, so I feel more comfortable having open conversations with them and asking them questions. One of the guys said that he’s not going to vote (the local elections are on Wednesday) because the blacks outnumber the whites and “their” party will win no matter what.
I enjoy hanging out with these guys because I feel like I try so hard to be polite, professional, and a good role model at school, so when I go out with them, I can loosen up and tell them the things that frustrate me here. In return, I get to hear a lot of (joking) negative perceptions of Americans. It’s very stress relieving to have someone to argue with (Holly, tell Josh I found a replacement for him!)
I sat in on one of the Afrikaans classes at school. The teacher is an older Afrikaans gentleman, and he has a very thick accent. He teaches the entire class in Afrikaans, and the students don’t seem to have trouble following along (although I was completely lost). The students have been learning Afrikaans since 3rd grade. I learned a few Afrikaans phrases: good morning, friend, nice. The Afrikaans math teacher, Mr. Loubster, tries to teach me some words, but I can’t trust what he says: when he tells me that a phrase means “Mr. Loubster is a good teacher,” he is really saying “Mr. Loubster is very handsome.” He’s very entertaining in class and the 8th graders love him. He frequently tells them that he teaches in the English school because at the boer schools, students don’t even need teachers because they finish the textbook in one day.
Weird things outside of school:
Traffic lights are called “robots” and flashlights are called “torches.”
Some of the streetlights are bright red or yellow instead of white: they’re made with different chemicals (mercury and sodium).
People say, “I’ll see you just now” when they REALLY mean, “I’ll see you later.” It drives me absolutely crazy to hear people say now when it’s really not now.
No one really eats ketchup. And half the time, they don’t even have real ketchup, they have “tomato sauce” which isn’t very good.
People SMS (text message) ALL the time. Advertisements in the paper ask you to SMS for more information, and commercials on TV do the same.
The hardest thing about student teaching here is that I don’t actually have one classroom to call my own and leave my stuff in. I’m constantly switching from room to room, hauling most of my books and papers with me.
However, observing 3 different teachers is nice, because it gives me a better overall view of education. One consistency with the teachers is that they give a lot of in-class work: they’ll give a short exercise to the students, walk around and answer questions, and then go over it on the board before repeating the process. Not much time is spent lecturing or giving notes and examples; the emphasis is on practice. I really like the set-up, and I feel like it does give the students a lot of practice. However, the students here work so diligently and actually do the work: I don’t think students in America would work so hard during class if they knew they wouldn’t be graded on it.
In my math literacy class, we’re going over household bills like water and electricity. The students are so curious and have all kinds of questions for Linda. Somehow they got onto the topic of affirmative action (in a math class!) Linda saw the opportunity for a learning moment and grabbed it; some students have very strong opinions against affirmative action, and she led a very interesting class discussion before asking me to say a little about the US.
In every math class, the students have test files or portfolio books, where they keep all of their graded assignments and tests. At the end of the year, they have a nice record of everything they did all year. It’s also good for revision.
Students do their tests, and most assignments and notes, in pen.
I haven’t started teaching my own classes yet, but I have taken over some of the register classes (like homeroom) as well as some of the math classes when teachers are absent: just simple things like going over homework or administering a test. It’s nice to have some actual responsibilities, but it’s hard not knowing the students.
The grade 8’s and grade 9’s took the grade-wide “control” tests this week. Everyone in grade 8, for example, takes the same test, sort of as an assessment of the teacher. I learned how to “mark” the tests: which was incredibly hard and confusing at first. Each question has a certain number of marks (like points) that students can receive. For each part of the problem that they solve correctly, they get a mark (a big check mark next to that part of their work), and for the correct answer, they also get one or two marks. Thus, it is important for students to show their work. However, if they miss one mark for not simplifying or distributing correctly, you then have to continue working through their answer to see if they followed through with those numbers correctly. If so, the students may receive the rest of the marks. It’s incredibly time-consuming, and now I can see why teachers rarely mark assignments. However, I like a few things about it: 1) you can see exactly where students have misconceptions or calculate incorrectly, 2) students get points for concepts even if their calculations are incorrect, and 3) the answer key is so strict, in ensures that teachers grade fairly and consistently.
One thing I did not like about marking was the low scores students were receiving. This test is worth 40% of the students’ grades for the term. How can they pass the class if no one received above a 75%? The answer is that students only need 30% or 40% (depending on the grade level) to pass the class.
Interesting classroom incident that gave me a lot of laughs: Mr. Loubster, the teacher of one of my grade 8 classes, asked the class who Ronald Reagan was. I gave them a hint that he was a famous American. The students took wild guesses, from singer to artist to firefighter to the person who performed the first heart transplant, until someone said actor. I said that was correct but he was famous for something else as well. One of the students said “wasn’t he President of the US?” which then had other students saying, “no, isn’t Bush the President now?”
My favorite student question this week: “But how do you subtract 2a-10a without getting into negative numbers?” I held back my smile and very seriously informed the student that it’s okay to use negative numbers.
I’ve started joining some student activities: I do “road running” (long distance running) with the school team two days a week, “coach” the junior math Olympiad team (grade 8 and 9) every week, help with an after school math tutoring program, and next week I’m going to help out with the school dance sport (ballroom dancing). It’s fun to see the students outside of the classroom setting and get to know them a little better.
I’m trying to get out and meet people outside of class as well, and so far, everyone has been so nice and so excited to take me out. I joined an adult group ballroom dance class that meets Friday evenings: after class this Friday we went down to the Boardwalk for coffee (the most beautiful place I’ve seen, with outdoor seating right next to the water, and lights twinkling all around). A few meters away there were some African men outside a storefront playing traditional music on instruments that looked like xylophones but had a different sound.
The ethnic diversity here is incredible, from Afrikaans (or boers) to English to all the different tribes. I have a few Xhosa students in my class, and I’ve been practicing pronouncing their names: when they have the “X” at the beginning of the name, you pronounce it with a tongue click that sounds a little like a “ch.” It’s hard to pronounce that sound correctly and then make it flow with the rest of the name.
Most people that I’ve met and talked to are English, and we’ve had a lot of conversations about race and racism. It seems to me that many of the English people are slightly racist, even though I’m sure they would deny it. They seem to claim (sometimes jokingly, but I don’t think it’s just a joke) that Afrikaans are racist and I should stay away from them. However, the Afrikaans people I’ve met seem to be the least likely to comment on race like this. Casual comments really stand out to me, though. I’ve heard a couple times, mostly from older people, that the black people who live in the townships steal, and that corruption has increased so much since the ANC (this is the “black” political party) came into power in 1994. Someone also remarked to me that they have a lot of respect for young black people who are able to study hard and go to college. It was meant as a compliment, but it sounded slightly demeaning, as though it’s not common for blacks to have the discipline to make it through school. Comments like this are similar to things you might hear in America, but they always make me feel slightly uncomfortable. At home I could spend hours arguing with my brother-in-law over attitudes like this, but here I don’t feel like I have a right to judge people’s beliefs about racism (after all, I’m an outsider), so I tend to listen more. There’s also a big sense of “them vs. us” mentality. I’ve been hanging out with some guys who are my age, so I feel more comfortable having open conversations with them and asking them questions. One of the guys said that he’s not going to vote (the local elections are on Wednesday) because the blacks outnumber the whites and “their” party will win no matter what.
I enjoy hanging out with these guys because I feel like I try so hard to be polite, professional, and a good role model at school, so when I go out with them, I can loosen up and tell them the things that frustrate me here. In return, I get to hear a lot of (joking) negative perceptions of Americans. It’s very stress relieving to have someone to argue with (Holly, tell Josh I found a replacement for him!)
I sat in on one of the Afrikaans classes at school. The teacher is an older Afrikaans gentleman, and he has a very thick accent. He teaches the entire class in Afrikaans, and the students don’t seem to have trouble following along (although I was completely lost). The students have been learning Afrikaans since 3rd grade. I learned a few Afrikaans phrases: good morning, friend, nice. The Afrikaans math teacher, Mr. Loubster, tries to teach me some words, but I can’t trust what he says: when he tells me that a phrase means “Mr. Loubster is a good teacher,” he is really saying “Mr. Loubster is very handsome.” He’s very entertaining in class and the 8th graders love him. He frequently tells them that he teaches in the English school because at the boer schools, students don’t even need teachers because they finish the textbook in one day.
Weird things outside of school:
Traffic lights are called “robots” and flashlights are called “torches.”
Some of the streetlights are bright red or yellow instead of white: they’re made with different chemicals (mercury and sodium).
People say, “I’ll see you just now” when they REALLY mean, “I’ll see you later.” It drives me absolutely crazy to hear people say now when it’s really not now.
No one really eats ketchup. And half the time, they don’t even have real ketchup, they have “tomato sauce” which isn’t very good.
People SMS (text message) ALL the time. Advertisements in the paper ask you to SMS for more information, and commercials on TV do the same.
posted by Katie | 2:52 AM
4 Comments:
We could send catsup too if you want
so you miss arguing with me, huh? so you had to find a replacement, well i hope you at least let them get a word in edgewise. ha ha! p.s. dont come back with any crack-pot theories! josh
so you miss arguing with me, huh? so you had to find a replacement, well i hope you at least let them get a word in edgewise. ha ha! p.s. dont come back with any crack-pot theories! josh
Hey Katie, I dont think you could possibly replace Josh! Sounds like your learning alot. oh see ya just now. You are right, that does not make sense. Love Ya, Shelly
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