Back in the Classroom – Grade One Assembly and Farewell to a Legendary Colleague

2014-05-31 | puppy1952

My friend and Colleague whom I have known since High School retired on Friday. She has been at my school for almost 30 years and been in Education for 40. It’s a long time to invest in the youth of your community. She taught my grandson in both Grade 4 and 5. For both those years I had the privilege of being her room parent and relieved her for a few months in the classroom when she had surgery that required some recuperation time.

I knew I had to come prepared with plenty of tissues because she was going to have one amazing send off. But I did not anticipate that it would start first thing on Friday morning when, while sipping my obligatory caffeine fix, she came into the staff room, sat down to chat and we both had a little weep! A younger colleague was with us too and she just hugged her mentor.

Before the whole school assembled for the farewell ceremony our little Grade Ones had to do their assembly – “I am Special”. We’ve been practising for weeks and they did their teachers proud! I did not get a chance to take photographs but I know a lot of our parents were there. There is just one little story I’d like to share. A shy little girl in my class had to say a special line – My name is …….. and I speak Persian. I tried to coax her to speak her line loudly and clearly but during practice she was the quietest of all. On Friday, as instructed, she came dressed in an outfit a typical Iranian child would wear. We made a huge fuss about how pretty she looked. Her beautiful outfit must have given her confidence because when it came to her turn to speak she uttered her lines as clearly as a bell!

Our Precious Little Persian Princess with her Friends

After our little ones performed superbly in their Assembly we had a brief time to regroup while the intermediate phase came to join us in the hall. As “Little old Lady of Pasadena” rang out, Miss C was ushered through a guard of honour with two fairies in attendance. She then sat upon a throne and was later presented with her wings so she could fly to wonderful far flung places in this next season of her life.

Listening to stories of her life at SVPS

Both the Junior and Senior Choirs sang for her and it was all I could do to stop the tears from flowing even though I’d heard my girls practising the songs for weeks in advance. Two teachers also sang the powerful song, “You raise me up” which was my late mother’s favourite song so it was double reason to have me in floods of tears! And they sang it so very beautifully!

Some of the girls from my class who sang with the Junior Choir

I was so proud of the girls from my class who sang with the Junior Choir

Saying a few words of her own

There was a farewell tea later in the staffroom and tributes were paid to a teacher who is truly a legend in this valley. I was undone specially by what a number of they younger staff members said. She has been an amazing mentor and they all aspire to being just like her – a caring teacher, a wise teacher, a fun teacher and a very human teacher who has given her all to this profession and has absolutely no regrets for doing it!

Marilyn – I know our paths will cross many more times. Thank you for what you have meant to me so far in my life and to Jay in his. In his words – You’re the best!

Back in the classroom – Speaker Reader and Grade 1 Assembly

2014-03-14 | puppy1952

How often do I begin a blog with, “Oh wow, another exciting week at school is over!” or words to that effect. Yes – there is always something happening at SVPS. There is no time to get into a rut although we do make sure we get into good habits! On Wednesday, four of our Grade Ones competed in the finals of our Foundation Phase Speaker Reader Competition.

The week before that, they all said a poem or told a story to their teachers who chose the most promising to perform before the rest of the Grade Ones and from there we chose four to compete against the best in Grade 2 and 3. You have to have a special kind of confidence to stand up on a stage in a big hall and say your piece before so many children, teachers and parents. Your voice needed to be loud too as no microphones were used. Our little Grade Ones made us so proud but I was the proudest of all when one of my girls came in Second Place when she recited the poem about a castle that needed painting!

My little star saying he piece

Receiving her Certificate

The Four Winners

The standard was high and we were all wonderfully entertained by these talented young people. But of course sitting still for so long gets us fidgety and so we had to have a break for a movement song.

The Robot Song

Today the girls arrived at school in a high state of excitement. They were all dressed in their clean white shirts ready to present their very first assembly! Everything in Grade One is new and we have been learning routines and habits this was the theme of our presentation. Congratulations girls, you made me proud. You recited your poem beautifully, moved wonderfully well to the Healthy Habits song and said your words loudly and clearly. I know your moms and dads were thrilled to see you up on the stage this morning.

Our First Assembly for 2014 – Routine and Habits

Take Positive Risks

Our teacher are helping us on this journey

Moving is important – The Healthy Habit Song

Believe it or not Moms and Dads, in spite of all the practising for assembly we still managed to fit in a lot of work this week. Our reading is improving by leaps and bounds, we are getting to grips with doubling and halving and having fun learning big numbers with dot to dot and other counting activities.

We are also playing hard on the sports field and some of us went to an athletics meeting in Kommetjie this week. We have some very talented runners in our class!

Remember our Foundation Phase Athletics Day on Tuesday. The fun race requires mom or dad’s shoes! We are having a hilarious head day – so I am looking forward to seeing some funky hairstyles and hats.

Back in the Classroom – Grade One on Show

2013-11-09 | puppy1952

Teaching very young children has both its challenges and rewards. They arrive on the first day of school, brand new, excited, full of enthusiasm and raring to learn. Each child wants the teacher’s attention immediately, as she is still egocentric and the centre of her own world. Teaching thirty little girls to follow a classroom routine, sit still, wait their turn and consider their peers has to be done along with the 3 RS. It is at this time of year that we see the results, and it always amazes us.

Learning to Read

Each grade at our school has a turn to demonstrate what they have been doing in class, at an Assembly. As our turn came around each term, we chose the more confident children to take the leading parts, making sure as many as possible got a turn. This term we were blown away as many of the less confident children got their chance to shine. Just a few months ago they would not have managed it, but all our children have grown so much in maturity and confidence, that even the shyest were able to learn a few lines, stand up confidently, and say them.

We, the teachers, breathed a sigh of relief when at the performance went off without a hitch. But when the principal complemented our little ones with the words, “You were beyond phenomenal,” we could have burst with pride.

Back in the Classroom – Grade Ones on show.

2012-05-01 | puppy1952

Each grade has a to present an assembly two or three times a year at my school. Our little Grade Ones have watched the older children performing on stage and now it was their turn. Last year we relied on a wonderfully musical and dramatically talented colleague to come up with creative ideas when it was our turn – but this year we had to do it ourselves. We decided to make our theme – Blast off to Big School and my grade head came up with a wonderful script. Each teacher wrote a rhyme about her name and taught her class to recite it. The children were interviewed on video – What do you like about school and a power point presentation of what they are learning was presented. They recited a poem about starting school and quite a few of them had to learn a line or two to say alone. We (the kids and the teachers) were pretty nervous about how it would go down but our first practice went off well – but the last one was disastrous. The kids were restless and noisy and forgot their lines. The video froze in the middle which our sound man said had never happened before.

It’s going to be a disaster, I whined to my grade head.

No it won’t, she said. Bad rehearsal – good performance! But she wasn’t looking too convinced and It don’t think one teacher slept well the night before. But – wow – our little angels came through in the end and did not let us down. The parents laughed in all the right places and from where I was sitting in the sound box – they looked so precious doing their thing on the stage. The power point and video went in sync with the children’s presentation and there were no technical hitches at all – PHEW!

In the very same week Grade 1 was once again the centre of focus along with Grade 7 and Grade 4 for the Open Day where we all had to be involved in some sort of science lesson. The children were taught, with the help of a power point presentation, all about 3D shapes. They were shown famous architectural buildings of different shapes around the world E.g. Pyramids and then set the task of designing a 3D construction on paper and then building it with toothpicks and jelly tots. What fun we had. And our children showed us just how creative they could be. Some of the girls, at first, were stuck in 2D and wanted to make pretty flowers but the boys went all out which just goes to show that there is definitely a difference between boy and girls brains!. The girls, did, however, catch on quite quickly and adjusted their constructions to achieve the task set. It was wonderful to see the kids having so much fun while learning and nobody wanted to eat their constructions afterwards!

Well after this exciting week of activity it was great to get a five day weekend. And yes I did relax and have fun but I also had time to sit down and create some fresh teaching material and work sheets. I am looking forward to a three day week ending with some more fun – a pajama party on Friday night.