Me and 40 Learners

Now that you have some depressing insight on what learners have to deal with in the South African school system, I want to cheer everyone up a little by talking about my experience as a teacher so far. First off, for those of you who don't know I just graduated college with degrees that have nothing to do with teaching. So the idea of walking into a classroom with 40 learners who had never seen a white person and having to teach for an hour actually made me wish I had the "runny tummy" so that I had an excuss to not go in. I'm pretty sure kids can smell fear and I was convinved that they would be ready to attack the minute that I set foot in the door. Although I am still sure that they knew I was scared out of my mind, no one attacked me on my first day, or any day for that matter.

Overall, my teaching experiences have been pretty amazing. For as bad as the school system and school facilities are, the students here really want to learn, or maybe it's just because I'm new. Either way, the minute I walked into the room I had the full attention of the class, and the learners never got out of hand. My teacher told me multiple times that she was so shocked with how well behaved the class was when I was teaching. I doubt that will convince her to stop walking around with a stick, but I am hoping that maybe someday she will realize that fear is not the only motivator.

So day one; for my first lesson plan I was asked to teach prepositions. The learners all have English workbooks, but they are not allowed to write in them, so they are basically worthless. However, that doesnt stop teachers from using them as a way to get kids to "read" and "answer questions", and by those two things I really mean the teach will read it to them and write the answers to the questions on the board. I was assigned a story about a fair ( which none of my learners have ever been to) that had prepositions in the story. Fortunately for my learners I dont really have a problem not following directions. So I scrapped that story before I really even looked at it because I'm pretty sure that I owuld never be able to explain to them what a clown was or why a seal would try to balance a ball on it's nose. Instead I went for the basics. I picked five common prepositions: in, on, under, in front of, and next to. I decided that in order to get kids to participate I would make them act out the terms by moving themselves around their desk. I thought it was such a great idea and that the learners would totally love it and it would be a great lesson. Unfortunately it took me about two minutes to realize these learners were just not having it. After going over the terms, and showing the learners different examples by moving myself around a chair I thought they were ready to start participating. I asked one volunteer to come to the front of the class and show me how to stand in front of the chair. That part went well, but then I asked all of the learners to stand in front of their chairs and I was met with total blank stares. After some encouragement they finally all got up and did what I asked, so I figured they just didnt understand when I asked. However, once I got to the part where I asked them to get under their desks I realized all of the learners were looking at me like I totally lost my mind. I'm pretty sure they were all thinking "hell no white lady, I am not getting under my desk right now", and they didnt. At that point I had a minor panick attack, I still had 45 mintues left and my whole lesson plan just went out the window. Fortunately, rather than just walking out, which I totally considered, I decided we were just gonna try again but with out getting the learners out of their seats. I had them all take out their books, hold them high in the air, and then use their books to show me the prepositions. They loved it (thank god)!!!! After a few trial runs it became a speed game that they couldn't get enough of. I would call at a preposition and they would basically throw their books under the desk to be the first one. It saved my whole lesson, and made me realize that if you make something a compition these learners will do anything to win, including stealing the book of the learner next to them.

As scared as I was to go into that classroom, it was an amazing experience to have 40 learners look at you like you are the greatest thing they have ever seen. Now when I walk down the street in my village I can hear kids yelling out "hello Ms. Kelsey" even from learners who weren't in my class. It is heart warming to know that just by showing up I am giving these kids something they may never have had before, a teacher that cares.