My first day in the classroom...

Hello Everyone!

The last four days have been packed with fun things, so I’m going to split it into two entries… this one will be about my two days at Lynedoch Primary and the next will be about my weekend adventure to the Cederburg Mountains.

So on Friday we went to Lynedoch for our first ‘lecture’ day, but it became more of a catch-up day because we had some loose ends that needed to be tied up. We finished our needs assessment and skills audit, then met with the principal to gain some information for our organizational profile. We each have to submit an organizational profile in two weeks that includes information about the students in the school, the most common difficulties that they face, the families that they go home to, the surrounding community, the organization's stakeholders, and the decision making body for the school.

Grant, our professor, is very good at reading the thoughts and feelings of our class so he’s able to keep us energized and positive for the entire six hours that we’re with him. He also loves music, dancing, singing, and children, so he finds ways to incorporate all those things into our class. We began Friday by watching two clips of young children singing on the show Britain’s Got Talent. Grant doesn’t really like the show, but the message he wanted to get across to us was that each child has a talent and a passion within them, and that the children of Lynedoch simply want to be given a stage to show that they possess something special. Most importantly, he wanted us to realize that we have the opportunity to give them that stage and to allow their voices to be heard. Later in the day he played a couple Whitney Houston songs which sparked two dance parties, and we listened to Michael Jackson’s ‘Heal the World’ because he thinks the lyrics are inspiring. Grant also worked out a deal with his mother so she will be feeding us every Monday and Friday while we’re at the school. For R30 (~$4) per day she’s going to make us a meal for our break at 10:30, another one for our lunch at 12:50, and we’ll have water, juice, and tea available for us all day. Sweet, right?

So today, Monday, was our first day in the classroom! Me, Andie, and Jeff introduced ourselves to the class then took them outside for our physical activity. We taught them how to play dizzy bat and I think they enjoyed it very much. Then we gathered them in a circle and taught them about the process of becoming dizzy. We filled a glass half way with water, spun it around, and showed them how the water keeps spinning even after you stop moving it. We then explained how that’s similar to what happens to the fluid in your inner ear when you spin your body around. After that we did a quick relay race then played the ‘move you butt’ game. For those of you who don’t know the game, you put everyone in a circle with one person in the middle. The person in the center says something about themselves (i.e. ‘I like basketball’) then everyone else who shares that characteristic or interest runs into the middle and has to find a new place to stand in the circle. The person left in the center then shares something and the process starts again. After a while we went inside and the students wrote a few sentences in their workbook about what they learned.

Later in the day, during our enrichment period, we had each student make a collage using magazine clippings and markers. The purpose of this exercise is to help us learn their names and for them to discover some similarities and differences that exist among their classmates. Jeff, Andie, and I each made a collage too and next week we’re going to have each student share theirs with the class before hanging it on the wall because they need to practice public speaking. Many of the students seem to be excited that we’re interested in learning about them and their interests.

All in all I think it was a very successful first day. I was really impressed with the students’ English abilities, and it turns out their teacher wasn’t even aware of how well they comprehend and speak the language. Since coming to South Africa I’ve become more ashamed at the fact that I can only speak one language so I’m hoping that by working with these kids and by taking a course at the university I can build up at least a basic vocabulary in Afrikaans.

Alright, that’s all for now… thanks for reading!

Oh and here are a couple pictures of the kids at Lynedoch... they love being photographed!