The Second Term of 2011 has just ended and though I only taught for the last four weeks of it I am looking forward to the three weeks holiday ahead.   Don’t for minute think that things let up in the last week – they don’t.   At this wonderful school at which I am teaching they do a thing called ‘Funscapes’ at the end of term – its a fun time for kids and lots of hard work for the teachers.  The children are offered a variety of fun activities or clubs for which they pay – price depending on costs to run it.  Clubs include scrap-booking, bread-baking, horse-riding surfing, biltong making, network games, chess, aerobics and the list goes on.  I offered bird-watching but was disappointed when only six kids applied. When I  am not teaching I offer this and take six kids in the Caravel   But as a teacher I had to have at least 20 kids so I was therefore assigned to a club that was over- subscribed – Super Scientists!   The teacher in charge had 50 kids so handed half of them to me.  She did all the preparation, buying of ingredients and printing out the instruction booklet and it was just up to me to supervise the explosions in the lab.  So for two days I put on the ‘nutty professor’ hat and endured making fake snot, magic putty, volcanic coke, slime and other equally disgusting and messy experiments.   Of course the kids loved it and the level of excitement and wonder in the class was another challenge to deal with.  In my group I had one particularly strong personality with little self-control but to counter that were four delightful Grade 3 girls who could be relied upon to help with handing out and clearing up without making a huge fuss.   The kids worked in groups of four, it was noisy, it was messy but it was tremendous fun.  At the end of the second day I was totally exhausted – I don’t remember being so tired in a long time. Of course this was the day I came home to too many demands from family – I need you type this on the computer – from Josh.  Call a help-line – the internet is down – from Grandpa. The supper needed to be cooked, the kids and grandpa dealt with and all I wanted was my bed.  At least Lolz stepped in and cooked the dinner and finally everything was sorted out and I could get some rest!  Next day I was fine!  On Thursday school closed at 12:30 so we could do parentline – this is when parents have 10-minutes slots with the teacher to collect their child’s report and have a chat about her progress.   But we are well treated by the school – a lunch of soup and rolls was served before we began and then we had a supper break and were served a delicious babootie and yellow rice in the staff room.   In addition pupil leaders brought us hot chocolate and biscuits for afternoon and evening tea!    My interviews went well and it seemed that except for one couple, the parents were delighted with the school, happy with the change of teacher and pleased with their children’s progress.  The couple who complained, I think, were expecting too much from their child.  They were both high achievers at school, and though she by no means a weak child she’s not top of the class. They thought the level of education at the school was too low and that the child was not learning enough. I explained to them that if it were too low for their child she would be at the top of the class not coping well in the middle. They went on a bit and I had to end it as our time was running out – so I said, This is what I feel – your child is great – she’s doing well.  If you don’t like what is happening here you are always free to move her to a school you feel would suit her better.

Today it was of course early closing for the kids.   It was cold and rainy so no chance of doing any fun outdoor activities. Instead I showed “The Wizard of Oz” and got a few of the girls to tidy up, sort out books and clean the tables.   Its amazing what such small kids can do – I think their mums would be proud.   They were all gone by 11 o’clock and then it was time for the teachers to set up their classrooms for next term.  The children have to be re-seated into new co-operative groups each term.  Each group member has a role – organiser, gate-keeper, reporter and encourager.  During the year they must each have a chance at each role.   They also have to sit with different children each term.   This is to teach them to work well with all the children in the class and not just their friends.   It is a good system and it is amazing how well the children cope with it all.  I eventually got it all worked out, stuck on the place names, arranged the new stationery and a welcome back card on each desk and then wrote a message on the board.  Once all the classrooms are tidied and arranged senior staff came into inspect and photograph and then we may leave.  I was done by 2 o’clock.

My nails have taken a hammering being exposed to green slime and chalk and I have not been vigilant about wearing my rubber gloves when cleaning up afterwards – so I treated myself to a manicure this afternoon. The bright red nails should last through the holidays!

The three days at school this week went well. It took me two days to learn the names of those little strangers but now I feel as if I’ve known them for years!  There are one or two smart ones in the class and I have constantly to be on my toes.  I demonstrated on the chalk board how to write a perfect ‘g’ checked that everyone had mastered the skill then wrote up another.  A bright spark got out of her seat, squinted at my second g and said, “Ma’m – what went wrong here – your first one is perfect but this one is a little odd.”   Kids these days are so strict – I had to rub it out and do it again!

The weather has been cold, the kids have been sniffy and I’ve had four or five of them away at a time.  I wondered why the classroom was so quiet and peaceful when I realised that one of my loudest little girls was not there.  Later I was horrified to find out that she’s been diagnosed with swine ‘flu. I wonder, though.   She didn’t have a blood test. Her doctor says she has all the symptoms and  that it wouldn’t be worth having the test as its so expensive. Whatever – she’s very sick and this ‘flu that everyone is getting is a nasty one.

I am proud to say that after a slow start getting into the routine of my class and getting to know where the girls were at, I’ve managed to catch up with all that needed to be done. I now know whose in which group and have managed to do some proper teaching this week.

The 16th of June is a public holiday in South Africa – Youth Day – and it fell on a Thursday this year.   Lucky for us the Western Cape Education Department gave us Friday of for good measure making it a lovely four day weekend.   My poor husband, recovering from his chest infection decided that we should head off to Tulbach in spite of the prediction of inclement weather and me starting to cough and lose my voice.  I am very susceptible to laryngitis when I’m teaching!   We thought we’d just cosy up in our cottage, watch T.V., read and relax.   The weather was bound to let up sometime during the four days anyway and we were to stay in a nature reserve where the bird life should be plentiful.  But what a shock when we arrived, after a stormy drive at 6 o’clock that evening.   Our tiny stone one roomed  cottage was cramped and cold, there was nowhere to put clothing and very little space for provisions.  The bathroom was partitioned off and when I turned on the basin tap was horrified to get only a trickle of water.    The setting was lovely all among the fynbos but at that moment all I wanted was to get warm.   We could not braai – way too cold and wet – in fact a strong bitter wind was blowing and rain was pelting down.  We decided to settle for soup and rolls which Earl prepared for us on the ancient gas burner.   We snuggled up in the not very comfortable double bed and got very little sleep as the storm kept waking us up.   In the morning we’d had enough and Earl said, – “You’re sick, I’m not well yet – lets just go home!”  I got under the almost non-existent water of the freezing shower and dressed up warmly before we packed and went to complain to our host.  He was at first unsympathetic saying the water would be on in ‘a couple of hours’ as they were filling the tanks for the plunge pools.  “Not good enough I said,” I was unable to shower last night, unable to shower this morning – or rather suffered an inadequate trickle – I can’t spend a whole weekend like this.  He hadn’t realised that the water wasn’t working the night before and after a bit of persuasion agreed to refund us two nights and give us two free whenever we wanted to return.  That, I thought, was reasonable.

We found a little place to have breakfast – we were the only guests at ‘The Reader’ – and the hostess cooked us bacon and eggs and was very hospitable and chatty.      I was disappointed not to stay because the birdlife in spite of the weather was quite good outside our little cottage but once I was home and in my own bed I was so grateful not to have to struggle for space, warmth and water!

Today, I am feeling much better. My voice is back and I’m hardly coughing.   I’ve rested up and worked on making teaching aids.  I now have a lovely set of phonics work cards for initial, final and medial sounds.   Hooray for the internet and google images!   I also made a set of number conservation cards.  Dots are placed in several different arrangements for each number up to 10 and are brilliant for teaching kids to recognise number without counting all.

Today is Father’s Day and Laurie surprised Earl with breakfast in bed.   She made the most delicious scramble eggs with a touch of blue cheese, bacon and spring onions served on toast and with a glass of orange juice.  Of course, I got some too!

I have not been out at all this weekend.  Earl braaied on Thursday and Friday night, I made chicken Kebabs last night and tonight I’m not sure what we’ll do – perhaps order Pizza!   Next week is the last week of the second term. We have Funscapes for two days, parent interviews on Thursday and then break-up on Friday.  The story continues then.

Only two weeks back at school yet I feel as if I’ve been there forever.  I have slotted right back into school life and I’m loving it.  My class is full of interesting little characters and I am enjoying the challenge of having to deal with all their little quirks and problems.   This week I have dealt with a lesser privileged child’s urge to take what does not belong to her.  Our school counsellor is helping me to deal with all sorts of problems we have with this little girl.  I now have her on a behaviour modification programme and when she earns enough stars for good behaviour she will get a reward.  She needs to learn that she can’t take what she wants – she must earn it.

There were also fun moments this week.   It was terrific fun when we played a dancing number game for bonds of 7.  I wrote a number on each girl’s forehead – (with easy to remove white-board pen), took them outdoors and they had to find their partners to make 7.  4 had to check that she and 3 really made 7 and it was so cute to see how they discussed this and used fingers to make absolutely sure they were right!

How rewarding teaching Grade 1 is.   The girls have been at school for only five months. They are just starting to read simple reading books, they can build three letter words, they have a small vocabulary of high frequency words and now it was time to make up their own sentences.  I started them off by putting muddled sentences on the board and getting them to sort the words into a sensible sentence.   The next day we discussed finding words in the classroom and they were all able to tell me where they could find grandma, bake, swing and several others.   Other places they could find words were in their dictionaries, on their THRASS charts and they could use their phonic skills.    Then I sent them to their places to try and compose their own sentences.   I had two moms to help direct them to the ‘word hunting’ places.  Now this is the rewarding part of teaching – every single one of them could write at least one sentence on her own. Most didn’t want to stop and kept coming up with delightful compositions.    Maybe only another teacher can understand the thrill you get when a child reads her first little book and writes her first sentence on her own!  I was ecstatic!   And of course the reward is even greater when you read, “I love my teacher!”

I ended the week with a huge revamp of my classroom.   It is a tiny room and needed some clever organising.  This afternoon I moved the teacher’s desk onto the teaching mat area but was still not happy and felt sure there was another way of arranging the furniture. My friend Margy, who is also an ex-teacher visited me this afternoon and I told her about my woes.   Now Margy has good spatial perception (a weakness in me) and she offered to help me with a fresh design.  It was almost 5 o’clock when we returned to my classroom and she immediately had some excellent suggestions.  I won’t go into detail but believe me when I say we had to do some major re-organisation but an hour later I was delighted with the change around.  There is also a bounty of teaching aids and games in the classroom which I need to get to know and decide what to use in the coming weeks.   Later this weekend we will do a bit of sorting out in that department too.

I am really looking forward to the next week – although it will only be a short one – June 16th being a public holiday and the schools have the 17th off too.

I have not been in the classroom since the last term of 2008 when I taught a Grade 4  class.  But I have kept myself pretty busy with my computer literacy lessons and had made up my mind that I was now past going back to do relief teaching.  Justin, one of Jay’s friend’s dads asked me a few weeks’ ago if I missed teaching – my reply – Yes, I miss being part of a team,  and that I enjoyed working with kids but that I loved the freedom of not being tied down.   My computer lessons with retirees, committee commitments  and supervising my grandsons’ homework in the afternoons, were at this time of my life, enough to keep me busy while still having enough time to myself.

But it is strange how things work out.   Two weeks ago Monique, the head of Grade 1 called to ask if I would be interested in relieving a Grade 1 teacher who was soon to take maternity leave.  But her dates clashed with our planned trip to Kruger in October.   I wasn’t disappointed – I was relieved that I had an excuse.   Then a week later Mandy the vice principal called and said, “Our teacher had her baby on Friday – we are desperately in need – and your dates no longer clash – you will finish at the end of the third term.   Well I didn’t have an excuse did I!   Fortunately I was given a week to sort out my life before taking over from a gap student on Monday.

Its the most natural thing in the world for me to back in the classroom.   Even though things are very different to the last time I was in Grade 1 – seven years ago –  I find that I am just going with the flow and lapping up every minute.  Thrass is the new phonics and though the principles are basically the same the pace is way faster.  I freaked at first thinking it was all too advanced for Grade 1 but – hey – the kids love it and three quarters of them are coping brilliantly.  It’s as always the slower kiddies who get left behind and flounder if they don’t have a good teacher to keep perspective.   It’s like that no matter what method you use.  So I am going along with Thrass while keeping a sane hand on things and not freaking out when the whole class doesn’t catch on.  The tried and tested methods with those who haven’t reached the readiness level, are ADHD or dyslexic I will still employ and make whatever progress we can.   The important thing is that the kiddies are not stressed out – there is no pressure.   They are tested on things that I may feel are not necessary yet – but if they can do it good and if they can’t they can always catch up in Grade 2!

I am lucky – I don’t have to do extra-murals and I have an apprentice.   The school has a GAP programme (guided approach to pedagogy).  Students study by correspondence while working in a school every day instead of going to university and college.   I approve so of this system as the young teachers get the feel of the classroom and what its truly like right from the beginning.   They do not become idealistic and then have a melt down when they finally get a class of their own. They are thrown in at the deep end and are given a lot of responsibility and learn classroom control and see different styles of teaching by observing many different teachers and grades.   My grandson Josh was taught in Grade 3 and Grade 4 by brand new teachers straight from the GAP programme and you would not have guessed that they were novice teachers.   Their professionalism was commendable and there wasn’t a hiccup the entire year.  My GAP student is in her third year and is preparing to teach Grade 1 when one of our team retires next year.   I also have moms who come in every day to help with anything required in the classroom. I use them to monitor handwriting while I am teaching, to listen to reading and to help facilitate story writing or project work when necessary. It really makes life that much easier when you are teaching a class of 30 children.    It frees me up to pay extra attention to the aforementioned strugglers.

I do have one problem – my back – I keep it in shape doing exercise with a personal trainer who is also a myostiopractioner and has been treating me for years.   When I listen to him I am well – when I do dumb things he’s there to rescue me. Standing, bending, sitting on tiny chairs and leaning over children is not the best therapy.  However, I held up well till yesterday and then I felt – “I need Steve before I do something irreparable”.  So I made a visit to him this morning and after a manipulative massage I am feeling much better!  He also gave me some techniques on how to stand with one leg on a stool or low table and how to sit in a semi crouched position on the mat.

So yes – its been a good week – the little girls have crept into my heart.   I am sure I will have many interesting stories to write about them next week.  Till then have a good week and thanks for reading my blog.