Teaching Practice

Week 11 Professional

The weather has changed significantly in the past week here in PE, South Africa, we are finding the evening are quite cold and even Paddy has to put on pair of trousers every now and again.  We still however, are experiencing beautiful sunshine during the day, and are continuing to enjoy the African sun.  On Sunday I attended a concert in the town hall with Leo, Sally and Daneel.  We enjoyed listening to the various pieces and were astounded at the ability of the soloist who seemed to have four hands playing the piano instead of two.

Teaching continued in Cape Recife on Monday and in the short week I have gained an insight on how the school works and the ability of the children that are in my class.  As I reflect upon my previous experiences of teaching at home there is no doubt that school based work in Northern Ireland is an extremely stressful and demanding time for most students and I would definitely agree with this mindset.  However, after completing the 5/6 weeks of late nights and early mornings you forget about this attitude and realise all the hard work is worthwhile and that this is indeed a great profession to be entering into. Although there are definite similarities in daily routine in relation to schooling at home, there seems to be a more relaxed about things such as paperwork and admin. 

As mentioned before I am teaching a Grade one class with twelve children, of which each individual has a special need that requires assistance that cannot be provided in the mainstream school.  The most challenging aspect of the teaching is definitely the pace of and timing of your lesson. Where it would normally take 30-45 minutes to complete a lesson for this age group in the mainstream school, it takes double the time and patience for instructions to be followed and tasks completed correctly.  It took me a few lessons to realise that the children in my class needed to be walked through each process together in order to understand what is being asked and how they were going to complete the work that was required.  Teaching in this particular class has made me increasingly aware of the importance of using correct language and vocabulary that caters the ability of the individual.  In essence I have realised that as a teacher you need to be able to effectively communicate to all your pupils at a level in which they understand and can recognise. 

Although English is the language in which all subjects are taught at the School; English for many is an additional language.  (Most of the pupils either have Xhosa or Afrikaans as first language) This issue itself has been a difficult barrier in not only the classroom but also the staffroom.    Over the past two weeks I’ve have learned to adapt and approach this barrier with enthusiasm making sure to approach each situation accordingly whether it be in the classroom or staffroom .  I believe this has been a tremendous opportunity for me as future teacher to become more aware of the problems and indeed the strategies you can use to help children that have English as an additional language.  Furthermore it has given me the opportunity to practice my own English making sure I pronounce all the sounds and words correctly avoiding as much confusion as possible.  The strategies and tools I am learning will also be useful for when I return home as in the past five years Northern Ireland has witnessed an increase in number of children that are entering our schools, where English is not there home or first language.

 Paddy, Juanita and I began our Easter trip to Zambia on Wednesday with a 13 hour drive to Johannesburg.    None of us were looking forward to the long and boring drive to Jo-burg, but apart from the frequent road works, Paddy and I were happy to see some more of the African countryside.



As our flight to Livingstone, Zambia, was the next day we stayed the night at a friend of Juanita’s, whose mum informed us of her open view on the diverse culture and society found in South Africa.  Let’s just say the topic of conversation was quite frank, but in many ways honest!  Debbie also introduced us to the many pets she owned, of which one was a Capuchin monkey!  On Thursday morning Paddy became a little too friendly with Mojo and as a result the monkey bit him on the thumb as Paddy would not give him his camera.  Debbie told us that Paddy wouldn’t need any injections as Mojo was a domestic animal and had been given all the necessary immunisations.  Luckily, Juanita was at hand to dress the wound and we shortly left for the airport. 

After a short flight we landed in Livingstone International Airport to be greeted by Amy and Jess who had prepared a banner for our arrival.  It was so good to see the two girls and we were all extremely excited for the fun week we had planned.  We made the short journey to Jollyboys to leave off our luggage before the girls took us on a short tour around the town and to the school they had taught in for the past three months.  It was quite interesting to draw immediate comparisons between South Africa and Zambia.  I felt like we had entered the ‘real Africa’ and as we walked through the streets of Livingstone I couldn’t help but think that we were going to experience something completely different and new.  As we had been travelling for the past day we decided to be lazy and go out for dinner to the local pizza parlour.  After dinner we headed back to Jollyboys to talk about and catch up with all that we’ve being doing in Africa.  We decided to sit up in the tree house and had a great time exchanging stories, some of which were extremely entertaining!

I’m sure the rest of the holiday will bring a few stories....

Until next time,

“Baai” (bye)

Callum.