Back in the Classroom – Building Sentences, Valentine’s Day and Our First Project

2013-02-14 | puppy1952

Forgive me if I enthuse about everything that happens in Grade 1 but really it is the most exciting and rewarding grade to teach. The little ones have been at school for less than five weeks and yet already they have come so far. Yesterday they used their Reading words to build and write their very own sentences. Many of them made up completely new sentences using the words from the vocabulary learnt so far while those learning at a slower rate reconstructed the sentences they know from the story they are learning. This is all part of the process of learning to read. I still get excited when I see the children getting to grips with the written word; there is nothing more thrilling.

Valentine’s Day – what does that mean to a six or seven year old. Well its all about Love isn’t it. And at my school we believe that children learn well when they feel safe and when they feel loved. So celebrating Love is important and fun. Children and staff came to school dressed in red and white, we made Valentine cards for our friends and family and the whole atmosphere of love just seeped into us. The was an atmosphere of joy throughout the whole school.

My girls looking cute in red and white

Late yesterday afternoon the staff all received a text message – Meet in the Staffroom at 7:30 a.m. Prizes for the best dressed teachers! Oh my – what shall I wear? I guessed the idea would be to go fun and funky – so on my way to gym I dropped in at the local super market and bought rose clips for my hair and in the morning put on my best red dress and raided my jewellery box for something red! Sure enough on arrival I was in fits of laughter at what some of my colleagues turned up in. The young men cross-dressed and one even donned fairy wings. The principal wore a jester’s hat and the deputy had hearts on her cheeks. The staffroom was decorated with bright red hearts which read – Your are Loved. It seems a small thing but it really did build morale and made one feel appreciated. Photographs were taken and senior staff announced that Chocolate Cake and Cream would be served at break when the winners would be announced. At break I joked that I only taught at this school because the food was good! My principal said – there aren’t many perks but this at least was one of them! While we indulged the prizes were announced. We cheered for our funky, fun loving colleagues and then my name was called – for the most beautifully dressed staff member! I actually blushed. My prize wrapped in red tissue paper in a red carrier bag – a bottle of win and a PS chocolate! And wow – it made me feel good. Thank you Leadership – it was a really fun day.

My girls just loved the roses in my hair

In Grade 1 – ME is very important. Today the girls did their very first school project which was all about who they are, why their parents chose their names and why they were special to Mom and Dad. They brought photographs of their lives thus far, information that Mom and Dad had prepared with them and bits and pieces to decorate their presentations. What fun they had putting it all together and what fun I had finding out all about them. Well done parents for your special involvement in the preparation and well done girls for your beautiful presentations.

Hard at work with a little help from our GAP

Altogether it was a very successful Valentine’s Day but it was not yet over. When I got home there were a dozen red roses from my Romantic Husband and to end a wonderful day he took me to my favourite Restaurant, Just Sushi, where we were treated to a free glass of Bubbly and a starter platter of Salmon Roses. And Dessert was rather special too.

A perfect end to a lovely day – sushi followed by chocolate coated strawberries

* A GAP is a full time learner teacher. (Guided Approach to Pedagogy)

Back in the Classroom – Get with the Programme

2013-02-10 | puppy1952

Get with the programme is an expression that I am often heard to utter. My children and grandchildren raise their eyes to the ceiling and I know what they’re thinking. But I don’t say it lightly – it is something I have in my life I have learned to do! In my chequered teaching career of 30+ years I have had to get with a new programme so often that I’ve lost count. It was group teaching versus chalk and talk, look and say versus phonics, the old maths, the new maths and the even newer maths. Then there was Outcome Based Education and now it something called CAPS. And when I was young I would grouse and complain or rant and rave against those in their Crystal Towers who had lost the plot and exclaim things like fix it when it isn’t broken – and don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. And then in the end knuckle down of follow the programme! Now I believe that if you don’t want to follow a certain programme then don’t teach at the school that offers it. And if you have doubts about what a school offers your child – don’t send your child there either! You see I believe that every ‘programme’ has its merits and if it is followed correctly it will work and the children will learn. If, however, a teacher has no faith in it, there is no doubt that it will not work.

At my school we certainly do things differently. The thing these days that we have to understand is that we are dealing with a fast growing technological world. Our children are into it and we as teachers cannot afford to lag behind. So a teacher who is still relying on the good old tried and tested programmes of old is going to have trouble getting the 21st century child get interested. Sorry – but what worked even 10 years ago is not going to cut it now! I started off saying that I have learned to get with the programme and I want to get with it even more with an interactive board in the classroom – but as yet my school can’t afford it. So I have made a plan and compromised with a flat screen HD Television and laptop computer. It’s not perfect but it does make an enormous difference.

Another programme that was brand new to me when I started teaching how was the THRASS. Teaching Handwriting, Reading and Spelling Skills. Well! Literacy is my thing. I have a special diploma in speech, hearing and language difficulties. At my previous school I followed a programme of teaching phonics and reading that I was well trained in by the principal and I believed in it. It was hugely successful too. So changing to THRASS was a challenge. Horrors of horrors even the font was different! But if I wanted to teach at this school – I HAD TO GET WITH THE PROGRAMME. Now that I’ve got to grips with it and made it work for me I am loving it. This year we are using a set of stunning work books that have been developed to fit in with the CAPS requirements; we have a set of tracing boards for the new font and I have created some PowerPoint presentation to teach the phonemes and graphemes and the kids too, are getting with the programme, having fun and learning at a rate that makes their teacher proud!

Practising the correct letter formation

Working hard in our THRASS workbooks

Now we know c cat, k kitten and q queen and ck duck and ch school will follow later

Now we know c cat, k kitten and q queen and ck duck and ch school have that phoneme too.

Back in the Classroom – Learning to Read

2013-02-02 | puppy1952

What I just love about Grade 1 is the way they learn to read. How do they learn to read? Each child has a different way – for some it’s visual – for others auditory then again it may be a combination of both – tactile comes into it too. They use picture cues, contextual cues and a dozen other cues. Some children learn easily for others it takes longer and some might even need specialised help. The good news is that almost every child does learn in the end. I try to make each reading lesson fun and so far the girls seem to be enjoying it.

But before a child learns to read she should have had many many stories read to her. Parents and other adults in the child’s life should not stop reading to the child when she begins to learn to read to herself either. She will be gaining so much from having books with richer vocabulary read to her; books she can not yet read to herself. Hearing language builds language. I cannot emphasise enough how important this is. Then when it comes to helping your child at home the key is – no pressure. Do not ask her to sound out a word – or say things like – you know that word – you’ve just read it. It takes time for the new words to sink in. Make the reading session fun – read with your child – tell her the words she gets stuck on then come back to that word later.

Many parents say to me – my child doesn’t really know the words – she is reading the book off by heart. Or If I cover the pictures she can’t read the story. Please, parents – all of this is part of the learning process. Do not cover the pictures – they give important clues as to what is happening in the story. Learning by heart is also part of learning to read – eventually those words will be recognised. Let her read off by heart and then point to random words and see how many she eventually learns to read! Let her work out the word by its position in the sentence. Referencing is also a way that gets that word embedded into her head.

Over the past few weeks we have had fun doing lots of different activities.

We learned a new word – Symmetry – and filled in details on a face.

Trying to get the symmetry right

Aren’t they lovely – the girls and their work of course

Such creative girls

We know our colours and had fun colouring octopuses orange, cutting them out ( a good fine motor skill) and puffing them out to look 3D on our own.

Orange Ollie Octopus

We are learning positional words (prepositions)

She is standing on the chair.

After our work is done we can do puzzles, play games or read on the mat.

Fun with a puzzle

Enjoying a good read

Back in the Classroom – Welcome 2013

2013-01-18 | puppy1952

In the South Africa, most children who were born in 2006 started the first year of their formal education on Wednesday. There must have been great excitement and enormous anticipation for this big day. At my school they arrived at 9:00 a.m. They’d been up since 6, fully dressed in their crisp new uniforms and right from my house I am sure I heard them nagging – When are we going? Please Mom and Dad, I want to go to school!

Of course their parents had prepared them for this big occasion and of course they couldn’t wait to get there and for most the whole rah rah welcome was fun and there was no problem separating from their parents. But for one or two, the reality was daunting. Suddenly they found themselves in an unfamiliar environment, noisy parents, teachers and children surrounded them and the butterflies in their tummies took over and there was great reluctance to let go of Mom or Dad’s hand. The hardest thing for a parent to do is leave a screaming, terrified child. I had one who clung so tightly I had to prize open her fingers and unwind her from her mom. I saw the despair in Mommy’s eyes but I had to insist – “Go quickly – I promise she will be okay.” Reluctantly she left and my heart went more out to her than to her little girl.

When a child is in a complete state like this, you cannot reason with them. They are not listening. They are functioning in survival mode and need to be made to feel safe and loved. I hugged the little girl tightly and said, Mommy loves you and she will come back. I love you and I am going to look after you till then. We are going to have fun and do lovely things at school. I am going to leave you here on the mat now and you can tell me when you’re ready to go to your place. I then assigned my GAP student to keep an eye on her. It took a while and a few more hugs and reassurance about what time school would end, and that the first few days were going to be short and she would have time to settle in. Once she knew the facts and had her reassurance she stopped crying. I told her that it was now up to her to decide to enjoy the rest of the day. When she was ready, she went to her place, put a big smile on her face and settled down to enjoy all the activities with the other girls. Today she came into class and I asked, “Where’s Mommy?” “Gone,” she told me with a big grin.

It takes me a while to learn 30 new names. I put labels on my girls on Day 1 and asked them to cover them with their hands to see how many I could remember. Some were quite patient with their old teacher and gave her clues or helped her guess. Others said, No – you must try again till you get it right! With such strict pupils I learned fast and am proud to say that today I got them all right!

Me leading my excited girls to their new classroom

The girls experimenting with red

Do you like our work?

Look what we can do

Back in the Classroom – End of Year Function

2012-12-10 | puppy1952

Something I have learnt teaching at my school is this. ‘Don’t expect anything to be the same as it was before – there is always change and there are always surprises’ This applies to the curriculum as well as the end of year treat! This year we were simply told – the buses will be here at 11 – be ready! Now some people just don’t like surprises and had to be reassured that we would not be doing anything strenuous, uncomfortable or dangerous. Others had to know ‘what to wear’ while others were concerned about the expected time of return. But I was just thrilled that I didn’t have to think about it, didn’t have to pay for it and didn’t even have to drive myself there! I was just delighted to be getting a treat at all!

The secret almost slipped out of the organiser’s mouth this morning at our Keep in Touch meeting – but still I was in the dark until the bus turned toward the Waterfront and with a little thrill of Oh Boy – I realised it was to The One and Only – Cape Town we were going.

As we disembarked from the bus, one of our staff said, “If anyone asks, tell them we’re from ……..”and she mentioned the name of a neighbouring school. – Let them get the bad reputation for bad behaviour! Ha ha – no of course we didn’t misbehave!

We felt so special being welcomed by staff in smart livery, and shown to a lounge with comfortable chairs and couches arranged around coffee tables set with cups, saucers and cutlery. A waitress appeared and invited us to help ourselves to the delicious savoury and sweet confectionery on a buffet table. We needed no second invitation. We tucked in to the delicate sandwiches, quiches, savoury tarts and pies and returned for the tiny iced cup cakes, cheese cakes, scones and the like and drank excellent coffees and teas. A pianist played and sang beautiful music that was not intrusive on the conversation but added to the ambience of the luxurious setting. The view out to the harbour added to the perfection of the afternoon.

I seldom leave home without my camera but today I forgot and so had to rely on my new BlackBerry to take some snaps. I do not blame the phone – only my lack of experience in using its camera function – for the poor quality of the photos below.

A lovely spread

What a treat

After we’d all enjoyed our tea/coffee and delectable goodies, some of us went for a walk and some enjoyed cocktails on the stoep – or both.

A lifestyle we could get used to

Couldn’t wish for a nicer setting

The One and Only Spa has springbuck drinking at the fountain

How about a leisure cruise

This is The One and Only – Cape Town

Enjoying the view

A wonderful place to chill

All too soon it was time to say a few sad farewells to colleagues who for various reasons will not be returning next year. And then it was back onto the buses and a return to our normal plebeian lives. But we bonded with colleagues and morale was up – a lovely way to end the school year! Thanks to Leadership for surprising us with a fun way to end a busy but rewarding year!

Back in the Classroom – Ending the year with a Teddy Bear’s Picnic

2012-12-07 | puppy1952

Wow – what a year! I have always loved my job. I know there are some people who drag themselves to work every morning but I always wake up quite happy that I am going to have a day that will be different to the one before. I may sometimes get frustrated, tear my hear out when I don’t get the response I want from certain children, cry tears and sweat blood to get through the work that needs to be done – but I still love every minute and wouldn’t change what I do for anything. I have taught all the grades from pre-school to grade 7, either full time or in a temporary capacity. When people ask – “What is your favourite grade?’ I always reply with – the one that I’m in.

I am in Grade 1 now and it’s awesome. And it has really been one of the best years of my long and chequered career. I have had an amazing group of little girls and the most wonderful parental support.

On Wednesday morning, I celebrated each of my little ones at our Awards Ceremony. Before the certificates were presented we had a few musical items. I being the sentimental old teacher that I am had tears in my eyes when the only two Grade 1 musicians were from my class. When my pianist played “The Russian Dance” I nudged my colleagues and said, “She’s one of mine!” And boy did she play beautifully. I did the same when my violinist was in the centre of her trio playing “Twinkle Twinkle” She looked straight at me when she came down from the stage and I just wanted to jump up and hug her in front of all those people but had to contain myself with a thumbs up.

After the principal’s wonderful speech on Irresistible Schooling for 2013 it was time for the Grade 1 teachers to go up onto the stage to present the certificates to their classes. I was so proud of their beautiful behaviour as they filed onto the stage, shook my hand and stood proudly in neat rows on the benches displaying their certificates for all to see. Each child in our school is celebrated and receives a pack of at least 2 certificates highlighting their special achievements. The high achievers are singled out briefly for academic achievement, academic progress, neatness and emotional intelligence. These children each receive a badge as well as their certificates.

Because today was our last day of the year we celebrated in a different way – We had a Teddy Bear’s Picnic.

Paddington Bear is an old friend of my daughter who followed me an many occasions to the various schools at which I’ve taught. Today was no exception.

But before we started I was presented with a myriad of gifts and had to open every one before we could start our party. I was spoilt with Christmas cakes and chocolates, beautiful jewellery, shower gels, perfumes and creams, a plant in a cute little pot guarded by a Christmas clad animal and a lovely wild life calendar. The cards were full of precious little messages and the opening of them caused great excitement and joy.

The girls were supposed to bring just one little treat each but some kind moms sent delicious eats to share too. So off to the Lapas in the quad we went with blankets and teddies and what a fun time we had. (Thanks Aunty Carol (my neighbour and volunteer rooom mom although she has no kids at the school) for running home for my memory card which I foolishly forgot to put back in the camera after downloading pics to the computer!

Not only did it look stunning – it was delicious too.

Carol cutting and serving the delicious chocolate cake

Come join us on the jungle gym

Don’t even think of separating us from our bears

A teddy bears’ picnic is fun with Paddington

Paddington – please come and play – I’m lonely

Aren’t our bears just the best! And they just loved the party!

010 Paddington and friends eating pop cakes

Sorry Paddington – no marmalade sandwiches – Have a Pop Cake

011 Having a good time with our bears and friends

Hey Paddington – Isn’t this a fun party!

And a lovely time was had by all

The classroom was not a great place to be today as it was being prepared for a fresh coat of paint and everything was off the walls and stacked where space could be found. So we played for ages before finally going back to clean up and pack up.

I gathered all the girls on the mat and just for ‘ou-laas’, we rapped the alphabet. When we got to zed zed zed, I said, “and that is the end of the alphabet and the end of your Grade 1 year! A couple of the room moms had just walked in and one said, Please may we interrupt – we have a surprise for you.

I couldn’t imagine what it could be as I’d already opened so many little gifts. She presented me with a box. I dipped inside and found a some Ferrero Rocher chocolates, a very generous gift voucher for our local mall and the dearest little wire bound book. On the cover was 1F 2012 – Inside on the first page a photo of me and then each child had a page with their photograph and a message and drawing done by themselves. There were also pages of photographs of the class events of 2012. How these two moms managed to get this all done without my knowledge I have no idea. Grade 1 girls are not good at keeping secrets – but they kept this one! Well it was hard to keep the tears in check. My girls were already emotional but seeing the teacher teary really set them off – so we parted with many hugs and I love yous and I’m going to miss you and I don’t want to go to Grade 2!

I have never been given such a lovely farewell gift from a class before. It has been a very special year and I feel so rewarded.

Thank you to all my special little princesses – and a very big thank you to your wonderfully supportive parents.

Back in the Classroom – Pet Day at School

2012-12-05 | puppy1952

There was great excitement in Grade 1 on Friday. The children were allowed to bring their pets to school – as long as they were in a cage or basket with a lid! If they did not have caged pets they could bring a photograph.

My class have been looking forward to this promised day all term. I have to confess that I was a little anxious about it. My tiny classroom struggles to contain 32 active, chatty little girls – so I could not imagine sharing our space with a menagerie of creatures too – what if they escaped? would I be able to contain the girls excitement? What if in their enthusiasm they hurt someone’ beloved pet?

Well I need not have worried because it turned out to be one of the nicest days we’ve had this year. The girls were considerate and did not make sudden loud noises and were careful not to frighten the pets. They were gentle when they handled them and the delight on their faces was worth all the fuss.

We did have tears. One young lass forgot to bring her pet and begged to be allowed to bring it on Monday – but unfortunately that is just not possible as we have an impossible week planned for next week. She had to make do with telling us about her hamster in his absence.

A special moment was when the quietest, shyest little girl in my class was called up to pet the bunny. She broke into an enormous smile and was clearly awed by the experience. Some children don’t get to keep pets so having pet day at school gave them the opportunity to cuddle a fluffy creature, feel its tickly claws on their skin and share in their unconditional love.

Children who have pets learn caring skills and to know what it is like to have another creature depend on you. They also experience that unconditional love a pet has for you and learn to love in return.

Each little girl got to tell us about her pet – what it was – how she took care of it and how much pleasure they got from sharing their lives with an animal. Our visitors included a whistling cockatiel, a soft, cuddly bunny, several hamsters and twin rats belonging to twin sisters.

After discussing each pet and looking at photographs of the ones left at home, the children took their animals to their tables and drew and wrote all about them.

Cuddling a bunny

Twin Rats for Twin sisters

My kitty sleeps in this basket

Introducing a pet to a friend

Telling all about the much loved cats

My kitty in the Christmas Tree

My dog spreads out his ears and tries to fly

That wolf whistling must stop!

014 Getting ready to write about Ramster

Don’t let him escape

Now where did he go?

Phew – found him!

What a fun day it was. I loved reading what the girls wrote about their pets. They clearly are a class of animal lovers and having to be responsible for the care of their pets is teaching them good life skills for the future.

My Naughty Dog

A Name is very important

My cats have some interesting habits

My dog the trampoline champion

Caring for a pet requires hard work and love

Enough already!

Back in the Classroom – Mind Moves Course

2012-11-04 | puppy1952

I consider myself privileged to have been in and out of the classroom all my adult life. During my long and varied career I have taught in different schools and different grades. When people ask – What grade have you enjoyed the most – I almost always reply with the one I am presently teaching! So of course right now my answer to that question is “Grade 1” I don’t ever want to teach any other grade! The privilege has been to have experience in all the primary school grades.

The great at thing about teaching is that you never stop learning. At this school I am getting my head around ‘brain-based’ teaching and this weekend I attended a “Mind Moves” course, facilitated by Melodie De Jager which equipped me with simple exercises to wake up the brain before beginning a new lesson because movement is so important to get the brain working. Of course, I had already been doing some of these exercises with my girls but not enough, as relatively new to the school I had not done the course and had only picked up tips from my colleagues. I now feel more equipped and ready to have fun doing ‘mind moves’ with my girls.

It was a really fun, inspiring and informative course. Not only did I find new ways to help my pupils learn, I learned a lot about myself too. I knew I was right hand, right foot and right ear dominant. I knew too that I was left eye dominant. And this is the reason I was slow to learn to read – my natural tendency being that I wanted to read from right to left instead of the other way round. It also explains why I make mistakes doing admin work! I have an excuse!

There is a left side and a right side to the brain. I am not artistic so I thought I must be left brain dominant then. Not so – after doing a simple test I discover that I am in fact right brain dominant! I didn’t believe it so did a more comprehensive test on the net – and yes, there is no doubt – I am right brained. It’s just that the left brained people are the ones who achieve better in the current school system. My previous perception was that I was not a very bright left brained person. Now I discover that I am a not very creative right-brained person. I am going to do those mind moves to see what develops next!

Back in the Classroom – Plunging into the Fourth Term

2012-10-27 | puppy1952

I can barely believe that the final term of 2012 is already upon us. What a busy year it has been including a fantastic musical under the belt. My little girls excelled themselves at cuteness when they did their “Your feet are too big,”dance in the foundation phase production of Cinderella and Rockefeller. Yes there were some tiny mistakes with the bossy ones instructing the others what to do but oh boy it was adorable with the princesses dressed in their ever so cut blue and white checked parlour maid pinafores over red puff sleeved blouses and bright red ribbons in their hair. The Grade 7 girls expertly did their makeup –their little lips in red heart-shapes, cheeks all rosy and bright eyes shadowed beautifully. While waiting in the classroom I had constantly to reassure them that nothing had smudged and that they all looked gorgeous (which of course they did!)

The show was only over by 10:00 p.m. and each cast had to perform two evening and one matinée show. They were exhausted, and indeed with all the rehearsals and performances I wondered if we would ever get back to normal again – but we did, I was worn out so you can just imagine how they felt!

That all ended on Tuesday 16^th and we have just completed a regular school week! And wow – am I delighted with my girls. Looking back over the year I am freshly amazed at how much they have grown from that first, fresh new day of Blasting Off to Big School. Thirty-two nervous, excited, brand new learners unable to read, write or do arithmetic have become competent, confident readers, writers and calculators and I swear I don’t know how! Did I really teach them so much in such a short time? I asked them, “”How did you learn to read all these words?” These are some of the replies – “I just know them!“ “I taught myself” “I’m clever!”

I cannot explain how rewarding it is to teach the first year of school to fresh, eager young children so ready to absorb whatever you throw at them. It is a challenge, a responsibility, a privilege to be entrusted with these young minds. I don’t have to fill them – I have to create an environment in which they discover for themselves – and when I hear their answers to how they got there I know I have succeeded. Nobody responded with “You taught me Ma’m” And that makes me proud – they have learnt simply by being in my class and they’re as mystified as me as to how it all just happened,

I am excited and thrilled that my girls are doing what they’re doing. It blows my mind and I am humbled. No two have the same learning style – each has her own individual way of getting there Each has her own individual problem, talent and drive and I am proud that each one is making progress at her own pace – in spite of me.

If I have provided a learning environment in which they feel confident enough to strive for their own perfection then I have succeeded as a teacher and that is what it is all about – that is the reward and right now I am feeling so fulfilled.

Back in the Classroom – Funscapes

2012-08-24 | puppy1952

24 August 2012

Those of you who follow and read my Blog regularly will know that at my school there is always something exciting happening. Each term we offer the learners a mini-break from regular school activities. The teachers (and a few kind friends of the school) have to come up with a fun club which the learners can apply for a small fee to participate in. The fee covers the costs involved plus a percentage which goes into school funds. We call these clubs, Funscapes. I cannot even begin to tell you how much effort, organisation and creativity goes into organising these events. In the first two terms we have ‘mini’ one day clubs which involves just the grade but in the third term two day Funscapes are offered and the children have to apply to join the one of their choice. Many wonderful things are on offer – cake decorating, fabric painting, ceramic painting, ice-skating, surfing, horse-riding, hiking, mini Olympics, Prince and Princess tea parties, amazing race and computer gaming, young scientist – the list goes on. How to compete with all these amazing clubs is something of a challenge. My passion as most of my readers know is Bird Watching. I have offered this as a Funscape before, but that was when I was a parent/grandparent. Then I took just 6 children in my own vehicle to visit a venue where water birds abound. Now that I am back in the classroom, I am expected to have at least 20 in my club. This means having to persuade parents to help with lifts – and on two days in a row this could be a challenge. Also if I don’t get the number of subscribers I desire I could be relegated to help with another over-subscribed Funscape. This is what happened to me last year when only 6 applied. But luck was on my side this year – I worded my advert differently, opened it to a wider age range and it worked. I had 21 young enthusiasts and 5 parents willingly offered to help with transport.

On Day 1 – I gathered my birders together in the classroom and gave them a super quick lesson on water birds and presented a slide show on what they were likely to see. After weeks of cold and wet weather, I prayed for a sunny, windless day as the wind can keen through those hides and I did not want my beginners to be put off for life. My prayers were answered when Thursday dawned crisp and clear and by the time we arrived at 11:00 a.m. the chill had turned to warm. We were the only school there and met up with just one other adult. My charges were extremely well-behaved and although I apologised to the gentleman for invading his peaceful morning he smile indulgently and said, “It’s great to see the young ones being introduced to birding – they’re no trouble at all.”

There were not too many birds but it was a good introduction and the kids were not confused by having to find the different species among a mixed flock.

Hippo frequent to waters of Rondevlei and the children were fascinated when I showed them evidence of where they emerged to graze at night. Maybe we will see one, they declared. No, I explained – they only come out at night and we won’t see them from the hides because they are further out in deep water during the day. (I have only once seen Hippo at Rondevlei)

We ended the excursion with a visit to the museum where they could study the stuffed models and get to see up close what the different birds and animals looked like in terms of colour and size.

First Hide at Rondevlei

Reed cormorant

Southern Pochard and White-breasted Cormorant

Today, (Friday 24.8.12) we headed for Strandfontein Important Bird Area. Each child was given a Chart with the birds they were likely to see and a tick list. The settling ponds were alive with bird activity and there was lots to see. Each car had a walkie talkie and I kept up a constant commentary on what we were seeing, where to find the bird on their charts and now and then we stopped and got out of the vehicles to get a better view of the birds – but this was only when I was sure the movement of the children would not frighten our feathered friends away.

Recently in the news there has been reports of a hippo escaping from Rondevlei and wandering around the Zeekoevlei area. Residents of the suburb had been warned that this animal might wander around at night and could graze on their lawns. My young charges knew the story and knew too that we were going to a place right next door to Zeekoevlei. My colleagues at school were a tad nervous that we were going to escaped hippo territory and warned me to be careful – You might run into the hippo – please be careful. (The media really gets to people) I laughed and said, We should be so lucky!

The birding was great – we saw flamingos, red knobbed coots, yellow-billed ducks and Cape Teal. Hadedas, sacred and glossy ibis drew squeals of delight and this all before we very far into the sanctuary.

As we drove past one of the ponds – S7, I saw what looked like a block of wood floating in the distance. I ignored it as such until my walkie talkie crackled and an excited parent called – We see a Hippo. I thought I’d better check out my piece of wood with my binoculars and sure enough there it was – the stray from Rondevlei right under our noses! I hopped out the car and instructed the children to keep calm and gather at on the bank for a better look. Of course they were excited but they managed to contain themselves sufficient and did not yell and scream. The hippo cooperated beautifully and swam closer and closer to the bank. I guess he was just as curious about the children as they were about him. We spent a good half hour enjoying this unusual visitor to the old settling ponds of Strandfontein and then reluctantly moved on to enjoy some more feathered creatures.

Looking at the hippo

There he is

Hi Kids – Welcome to Strandfontein Important Bird Area

This was not the last exciting sighting of the day. Two porcupine made a brief appearance and quite a few of the children saw them well – my vehicle, unfortunately “dipped” on that one.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at the tern roost and watched the flamingos flying in and settling right in the pond right in front of us.

The children were thrilled to get a list of over 35 bird species and all declared that they had had an awesome outing. I hope this introduction to bird watching remains a hobby that they can do for the rest of their lives.

Flamingos

Back in the Classroom – Expo Day

2012-08-08 | puppy1952

Wow – we’re no sooner back into the swing of the term when we’re all on show with an Expo Day. This time we all had to do creative writing lessons with the Grade Ones highlighting the THRASS method of teaching. Visitors to the school are free to wonder in and out of the classrooms to see how our lessons are presented and what the children are capable of doing.

My colleagues and I decided to present different aspects of the THRASS programme and then have the children use the THRASS chart to help them write their sentences. My brief was to take my class to the I.T. room, do my lesson and have them play the THRASS song book games on the computers. Great idea – I prepared a Power Point presentation of the new graphemes and phonemes they were learning and it all worked perfectly when I tried it on on my computer at home – the words and pictures floated up perfectly at the click of the mouse but when I tried it at school – the letters stuck to together and refused to unstick – Fortunately no visitors had yet appeared so I quickly switched to plan B! We rapped the chart, sang some songs then went straight to the computers and started the fun part! And it all went down very well. The visitors popped in and out and looked reasonable impressed that the Grade Ones were having fun while learning. PHEW! No explanation of why the programme didn’t work – but it has taught me to try it out first before presenting it on an unfamiliar computer! Technology is great till it goes wrong! One up for the Fearful Freds. Stress point for the Ambitious Alices.

I consider myself to be fit and healthy. I eat well, exercise regularly and take my Vitamins. Before the school holidays I had a bout of laryngitis – but that is pretty normal for a teacher in the winter time. So when after feeling perfectly well on Sunday night I suddenly had an attack of the shivers followed by vomiting I thought, this should be over in 24 hours. I took the day off on Monday confident that a GAP student would take good care of the princesses, But my temperature did not come down and I had a dreadful pain in my right breast and round to my back. Tuesday saw me a the doctor’s office – maybe it’s a bug that needs an antibiotic, I thought. The doctor was mystified. My lungs sounded clear, it wasn’t a bladder infection so she thought it was viral. She sent me for a blood test the results of which revealed a bacterial infection – but where? The chest pain was the only clue – so off I was sent for chest x-rays which believe it or revealed that I had — Pneumonia! How did that happen? So this old teacher is man down and fretting over her poor princesses. Luckily its a long weekend – Thursday to Sunday. Hopefully the antibiotic will have done its job by Monday and I will be Back in the Classroom!

Back in the Classroom – Good start to Term 3

2012-07-31 | puppy1952

Winter is not a good time for rising early. Once back from our holiday I had a week at home and it was lovely to enjoy the cosiness of my bed for an extra hour or so instead of leaping up in the dark to get ready for school. I thought after all this spoiling it would be difficult to get back into routine again. But I was looking forward to seeing my girls again and I was keen to try out the new teaching materials I’d worked on in the holidays too. I need not have worried – it’s really just a mindset isn’t it. On the first day back I felt as if I’d never been away! The girls were full of excitement and rushed to hug me and it was all I could do to get them to contain themselves before we could settle on the mat to tell our news. Then it was back to work.

I love the third term – in spite of the cold – because suddenly after that mid-year winter holidays, they’re not babies any more. A growth spurt takes place, physically, emotionally and intellectually. Reading takes off, writing becomes neater and suddenly all that prep work in the first six months pays off as they ‘get’ what counting and calculating is all about.

But of course there are also the fresh challenges. This term we will be presenting a pantomime. All the children in the Foundation Phase will take part in “Cinderella and Rockefeller” at the end of September so rehearsals are in full swing. I just happen to have a class of little drama queens and several of them have special parts where they have to speak, sing or recite. So they are frequently called from class to practise their parts. The others have to perform a special dance and the practice for this takes place every Friday morning. So with all the disruption I have to be very creative in the management of teaching time. Happily we are coping and my little girls are coming on so well.

Twice a week after school I am involved in helping with rehearsals which I just love. You see a different side to the kids when they get out there act sing and dance. We have such incredible talent in our school. The parents too are amazing with their support of the children. They are there to drill lines, teach dance, make costumes and build sets. It doesn’t matter how little or much they do, it all goes to making the production a success. What we do in the classroom is certainly important but it is these extra things that enrich the school experience for the children. Drama, music, dance – its all part of the child’s education and I believe they will benefit so much more from it than just what we teach them in the classroom.

Although I am approaching my silver years, I am very much into the didgi-age. I have a laptop, Kindle, I-pod and BlackBerry. I’m into Facebook, Twitter, email and Blogging. So teaching at my school is extra special because our theme this year is Make a Digital Difference. Some of our classrooms already have interactive white boards. Today my principal told me that everybody will have one next year. That is such good news! It means the school will be paying them off for a while – but what a privilege to be able to do that! We are already able to connect to the Internet anywhere in the building and I am already using my laptop and a flat-screen TV to present digital lessons to my kids but having an interactive board is going to be too amazing for words. Most of the staff are thrilled but we do have one or two “Fearful Freds” who dread having to change their trusted teaching methods. My Grade 1 colleagues and I are known as “Ambitious Allices” as we just want to get out there into cyberspace and use it to enhance our teaching. I am so privileged to be with such a fabulous team of innovative teachers. We work so well together, share our talents and support each other. I couldn’t wish to be in a better place right now. How lucky I am to be back in the classroom in a go ahead school where things are happening just the way I like it. Some say I’m nuts to return to work when I’m nearly 60 – but the way I’m feeling now, I might just stay till I’m 90!