Onnie Blog

Hi everyone Good experiences, can be good lessons, funny moments and secret moments shared between a teacher and a student. Good lessons to me are when learners stop me and tell me, please go back or your are too fast. It makes me feel like I am doing something right. Because they care, listen and are self-regulating. These are the things we want to teach our learners, we want them to become the best people that they could be.  Funny moments can be when I make a lame joke and the class laughs for me with me. Something that also happens every day, is when I make a mistake. It can be using the wrong term or calculation errors. I handle this in two ways, I either say oops I was testing to see if you were paying attention (assessing if the class understands and pay attention) or I just say I was wrong, this shows the class that you are human and you make mistakes too. Secret moments were when a learners is in need of someone to listen them or pick up a pen or pencil from...

Hi everyone After you read the previous post, you must think that the rest of the experience was awful BUT it was not. One of the accounting teachers at school struggle with depression and things got too much for her about 3 weeks into the term. She was quite upset on the Wednesday and I remember my mentor teacher telling her not to worry we will take care of everything. We, meaning the school which includes me. I was asked if I will take care of her classes for the rest of the week. I'm not sure if I received any planning at the start but the next week I had none. The teacher took her laptop and all her textbooks with her, which left me with no resources and no planning. I had the schedule for the grade 10 accounting learners because that's the grade I was teaching for at my mentor teacher's. Other than that, I had nothing and my mentor teacher didn't teach the grade eights. By that Friday, I was told to be prepared to teach full time for the next week. ...

Hi everyone I know I promised you guys a daily reflection, but the teacher practical turned out to be much more demanding and time consuming than I thought it would be. From the start, I had problems connecting to my Accounting mentor teacher. After teaching my very first Accounting class, I broke down in teachers afterwards. I was told that I didn't assess whether learners understood what I was teaching. I didn't cry because of that, but because of what happened. I mean I was there to learn after all. I asked how I can correct that and here's the answer I received: Well I don't know, because I have a understanding with my learners so you will have to figure that out. I was really upset, because I quickly realised that I wasn't going to receive any guidance and advice from this teacher. She is a vice principal, loved by all and mostly friendly. My fellow students at the school received great feedback and I got to listen to all these stories at break every d...

Hi everyone Today was Day 2 of my school observation. I was in the staff room early and made myself a cup of coffee, this is nice not because of the coffee but then you get to greet the teachers and the principal always sees you. We students sit on the right hand side of the podium where the principal addresses the staff. It kind of feels like the naughty corner as we don't have a table yet but only chairs. I went to Accounting classes at Miss S most of the day and to one of Mr ML's classes at the end of the day. I was, and still am, a bit stressed about Accounting as I've never taught or learnt it in English. But the teacher is very relaxed, answers all of my questions and she's an amazing teacher. She has been teaching for several years now and the children love her. They enjoy her stories, participate in class and listens to her without her having to discipline them all the time. It was an absolute pleasure to be in her class today and I wish she was my te...

Hi everyone Today was my first day at the school where I do my practical. It is a bit hard to get back into routine. I had to get up at 05:30 to be at school 07:15. The teachers are all very friendly and welcoming. The liason teacher is very relaxed, which makes us all relaxed. We had a very relaxed first period where we had a lovely chat with the liason teacher sorting out some admin. The rest of the day I was in the class my Math Lit mentor teacher (Mr ML). I am very happy with this mentor teacher as I know him from my school observation. He has been teaching for a few years, I like the way he keeps discipline in his class without shouting and I feel I can learn a lot from him.  Mr ML taught all day and didn't treat this first day of school as the first day but as a normal school day. The children were calm and worked. Of course there were classes that talked constantly but never disruptive. The grade 9 Maths class were so quiet I thought something was wrong, as ...

Hi everyone My school practical starts tomorrow and I have no idea how to feel. I don't feel stressed but maybe I'll be more stressed as the time approaches for me to go to school. Today I thought I would share what I have packed in the bag that I will take to school with me every day. Any other suggestions are welcome, please leave a comment. Hand sanitiser  Wet wipes Examination pad Note book Flip file  Booklets for my mentor teachers Pencil bag Plastic water bottle that is BPA free (the school doesn't allow glass bottles) Some cash, no cards USB drive Tissues Lip ice Pocket mirror and lipstick Nail file I will try to post a daily blog of every school day from tomorrow and onwards. Please subscribe to this blog. Have a great day 

Hi everyone In  yesterday's blog I shared my own school going experience, it will help you to understand the things I will write about now. In our course this year it was a requirement to do school observation for two weeks before university starts. We had to arrange with a school ourselves and it was suggested to go to a school different from the one we attended.  When I was grade 10 we moved from Town 1 to Town 2 which is within driving distance from my high school and university. Reading the requirements, I decided I would try to go do my school observation at a school close to my house. These is a school very close to my house that is very different from the one I attended. The school has about 1260 learners, where I am used to 650. The school was both English and Afrikaans. The learners are coloured and black and travel to school, either by taxis or train. The school doesn't have a hostel like the school I attended, but has different sports that I'm not fami...

Hi everyone Knowing what my own school experience has been is important for this blog as it has shaped me into who I am today as well as the experiences I've had in life. From several of our class discussions during this year it was easy to see that in South Africa, not only is this country very diverse but we've all had different opportunities and experiences in life. Our country has been through Apartheid that has affected many of us in ways some of us might not even be aware of, me included. I was born in 1995 post Apartheid. Let's not get into that too much for now, here is my own school going experience. Some background I attended primary school and high school in Town 1 full of people with wealth that are mostly white. I'm not from a wealthy family at all and we struggled for years to make ends meet. We didn't live close to the school as the neighbourhood surrounding the school was where all the rich people lived in there huge houses. Instead, ...