First week of teaching at Pearson High School

Monday
Our first day of teaching started on Monday morning. We had to be there at 7:45 so we left from our apartment at 7:30am. Waking up wasn't hard at all because the sun rises here at 5am sharp so I got to get ready when the sun was out which I'm not used to back at home. We arrived at school and walked into the staff room where all the teachers were sitting around drinking tea. None of us were given a set schedule or teacher to follow because they want us to follow different teachers and teach in different classrooms. So without being told or guided what to do we quickly began looking around for our content area teachers. I found a Science teacher and observed in his grade 9 classes in the beginning. The next class I went into observe was a different Science class and I learned quickly that it was an Afrikaans (the native language) speaking class rather than English. The day was a little overwhelming and hectic but it wasn't bad for our first day in a different country, we made the best of it and everyone is so friendly to us and eager to help. :)

Nicole and I on the first day of school

Monday was also Emily's birthday and the teachers at Pearson invited us to go to a restaurant called Spur with all of them to celebrate. The teachers at Pearson are really young and friendly and even met us outside our flat to walk with us there. The place we went to was on the boardwalk and had buy one get one free burgers that night which was a great deal since there were 12 of us hungry girls. They don't split checks here at all so when the bill comes everyone just splits the bill however many ways and throws in rand.

all of us girls at the boardwalk for Emily's birthday!

Tuesday
When Tuesday came around I was nervous to go to school because I hadn't finished a schedule yet in order to follow multiple teachers around so I felt clueless for part of the day. In a way I hate how nobody gives you a schedule and you literally have to hunt down Science teachers and ask to see their schedule but I also understand why they do it that way. It allows us student teachers to be responsible for finding the teachers in our contents, introducing ourselves, asking to copy their schedules out of their planners, and observe their class. Oh and by the way did I mention that their bell to change classes sounds like a tornado alarm and freaks me out every single time it goes off. Also everyone in school has two tea breaks where literally everyone drinks tea to up their caffeine and make it through the rest of the day.

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 Tuesday night our professor Jill and associate dean of the education program at NKU came to visit us! They got a wonderful tour of Pearson High School earlier in the day and joined all of us five girls out for dinner on the beach getting to watch the sunset. She was really impressed and happy with us.

Dinner with our professors from NKU

Wednesday
Today I finally fixed my schedule of classes from all of the Science teachers I can choose to be my Cooperating Teacher and observe my lessons. The students here are so respectful its amazing. They walk into the classroom and are not allowed to sit at their desks until they have all entered and gotten to their seat and say hello to the teacher all at once before they can sit down at their desks. Then as I was observing today a class was working on something where the students had to make a small graph. Almost all students pulled out rulers to use to keep their lines straight. This really made me realize how much students in America take their classes, technology, and education for granted. Emily and I volunteered to help out with synchronized swimming team tomorrow and didn't realize that their practice is from 6:10-7am tomorrow morning. So we decided to take it easy tonight and go to the beach for an hour or so, then laundry (which turned out to be a dry cleaner that will wash, dry, and fold our clothes for R49 which is $5 for all of it), then short dinner on the beach on the other side of the laundry place.

eating at Charley Superstar pizza

 Thursday
Today went a whole lot smoother! It started out with Emily and I volunteering our time to help coach synchronized swimming workouts in the water polo pool. We basically just read drills from a paper for an hour from 7:10am-8:00am. It was really intense and we were surprised how none of the girls gave up even if they were weaker swimmers. All the students are so dedicated here, its a great thing to see. I finally fixed my schedule so that I have a class to go to every period! Instead of just observing today I walked around the classroom a lot helping kids one-on-one with their work they were doing in their books. My last class which is a grade 8 Science class they are learning about Scientific Method and presentation of data so I thought of a lesson I have previously seen at Nagel and shared the idea with my teacher and she wants me to start it tomorrow! Whew time to start planning!

Tonight we went to the beach for a little over and hour, Liz and I ran a couple blocks around to pick-n-pay then down the beach boardwalk then did lunges and wall sits in our parking lot. Tonight was the first night we haven't eaten out on the beach. We cooked spaghetti, bread, and salads and hung out in the apartment for the evening. We also had to pack and get ready for our Cultural Adventure Weekend with the Freewalkers ! We're pretty excited about that! They're picking us up right after school then we're having drinks at sunset, going to the townships and the oldest town in South Africa Saturday, then a cheetah farm Sunday to play with baby cheetahs before we head home. We have a busy weekend ahead of us but hopefully I will have lots to blog about Sunday evening if I'm up for it! :)