A Busy Time

Since returning to Grahamstown, things have been very busy for me. The substitute job I mentioned last post went off without a hitch, and has lead to further jobs in the last few months: Grade 5 (1 day and then 2 further days, Grade 7 (3 days), and Grade 3 (1 day). These substitute teaching jobs, though they are only for a day or two at a time, have really given me some confidence that I am, in fact, qualified to do this. Sometimes I feel that I'm actually quite good! When I'm in the classroom teaching, it's a great feeling. Though I've been working nearly exclusively at one school, this week I had a substitute job at another school for the first time- business is picking up!

Since substitute teaching doesn't keep me busy on a regular basis, I have also been volunteering twice a week at Queenspark School, a local private school that I had my teaching practice at last year. I had a meeting with their Head of Foundation Phase, where we decided that I would be most useful to them working with Language Enrichment and also helping out with Creative Writing. Doing this has given me lots of time with students one-on-one, in small groups and also the unique experience of working with one or a few students while the class teacher continues the lesson to the whole class. I've also been helping a local optometrist with the eye screenings they have been doing at the schools. Honestly, it's been great fun, and already being familiar with many of the schools makes the process go smoothly.

Though I haven't given up on finding a full-time post, I appreciate the time I have to build up my CV with these varied jobs. Currently I have my eyes on a part-time position that has recently opened up, but time will tell if I manage to grab it. A two PGCE friends are teaching at the school I have been spending the most time at, and a third has just joined as a part-time isiXhosa teacher. Another former classmates is working at Sandlot School, it was a delight to see her in action when I came by to do the eye-screenings there recently. Seeing these talented ladies get positions is encouraging, and gives me something to motivate me to keep on searching.

My First Clip Chart

I had a chance to visit Sandlot School today. My old class are coming along well, I'm so proud of them! They are really growing up into fine little people. While I was there, I was able to take some photos of the Clip Chart that I made in June. Here's how it looks!

As explained in this amazing post at Clutter-Free Classroom, each student in the class has a peg with their name on it. For behaviour, they are told to clip up (good) or down (bad). It's a great, visual, way for younger students to understand how they are doing. What I loved about it is that it really worked with my class. I introduced it and, within two days, students who were normally troublesome were hovering around the top of the chart. When I left Sandlot School, my host teacher asked to keep the Clip Chart. To my happiness, they are still using it over two months later.

"We like the colours" - student, age 7, when talking about the clip chart this morning.

Each student goes back to Ready to Learn at the end of every day, showing that being ready to learn is the goal of this operation.

• Here is a link to the free Clip Chart ebook, which details exactly how to use the chart and how to make it. 
• Some cute Clip Chart record sheets over at Frogs and Fairytales, for noting down all of that good/bad behaviour.
• A spotty Clip Chart design from Teaming Up To Teach, just print on white paper!
• Interesting portable 'Clip Stick' from First Grade Wizards
• Queen of the First Grade Jungle has a jungle-themed Clip Chart
• Babbling Abby at The Inspired Apple made a rockin' Clip Chart

I don't have a .pdf to share with you all- my own Clip Chart was just made from labels I made in OpenOffice Writer, stuck to coloured card/paper. The coloured paper was then stuck together and the whole thing was laminated. I punched two holes in the top and threaded a shoelace through it, to make the hanging height adjustable. My cutting of the labels wasn't exactly straight, if I use this method again I'll use a guillotine to do the cutting!

In general, I'm pleased with how my first Clip Chart turned out- and especially thrilled that my host teacher wants to keep using it with her students. Now that I know how well they can work, I'm looking forward to creating the next one!

My Month at Sandlot

So, tomorrow is my last day at Sandlot School. I've bought a lollypop for each of my kids and some cake for the staffroom to mark the occasion. Various teachers have been bringing all sorts of yummy treats for break to share with us because of their birthdays, so I felt like I should participate in some way.

I'm going to miss it terribly. I have my moments why I wonder why I picked such an exhausting career option, but it also feels good to be good at something. My host teacher was ill for two days this week so I had the students all to myself- it was rather hectic but good to get a picture of what goes on when you're on your own. 

Some of the things I loved about my placement at Sandlot School:

• Bonding with the students, being able to help them when they were upset and celebrate with them when they were happy. Listening to their crazy, funny and heart-breaking stories of their lives (real and imagined).
• Teaching! Explaining interesting things to my class. Encouraging them to work better. So much that they do in Grade 1 is fun, and I feel so happy when a student understands something new.
• Having the privilege of working with such wonderful teachers and staff. They really made me feel included in the faculty, which meant more than they may have realised.
• Being able to watch my host teacher and share her classroom. She's such an amazing teacher, the students respect her and she uses that opportunity to teach them valuable things.
• The camaraderie with my two fellow student teachers, sharing the many gripes about the PGCE and school experiences with them. 
• Introducing the behaviour clip chart and seeing the students actually respond to it. 

The kids are what really fascinate me about teaching at the moment. They also exhaust me! It's worth it, though, to hear about what they dreamed about last night or helping them build a superhero costume out of paper (I had an Iron Man and Dragonfly in my class, to name but two).

I've got a file due at the Education Department tomorrow afternoon, detailing my experiences. I'm not asked to write a reflective piece or anything though, so my many anecdotes will have to wait for Monday when I can share them with my other PGCE-ers.

Week 2 at Sandlot School

Since May 7th, I've been working as a student teacher at Sandlot School (not it's real name). I'm assigned there for four weeks, in a Grade 1 class. My host teacher is really great, she's been teaching for many years and I'm learning lots from her. During this time, I don't attend regular lectures or seminars on campus, I follow normal 'teacher hours' at Sandlot and follow their lead about how I spend my time there. 99% of the time, I'm in the class, either teaching or assisting. The rest of the time, I'm making photocopies: this is really not a lot of time, but photocopying is an important job as grade 1's go through so many handouts!

The school I'm at is quite small, it reminds me of the school I was at for matric/grade 12. It only takes a certain number of grades and there is no uniform. I have 23 in my class, with a slightly higher number of girls than boys. There is a very large isiXhosa home-language group in the class, but all of them speak very good English (it's an English-medium school) and I can make myself understood to all of them. I find classroom management the hardest thing to crack, but try to remind myself that it is not my class. My teacher has trained them well, they listen to her requests (most of the time!) but my voice will often be ignored. The class doesn't have a set behaviour system, my HT prefers not to use one- she just praises/discourages as she feels. This makes it more difficult to step into her shoes, but she has presented me so well to the students and for the most part they try their best.

Right now, my only main complaint is that I feel that I'm constantly juggling. I have lesson prep to do for teaching every day, assignments and essays for my PGCE work, and resources to create for my PGCE coursework. On top of that, I'm supposed to keep a special record of everything I do on teaching practice, keep track of 4 students in my class specifically, save all the work I teach, etc. I get overwhelmed a lot, and when I get home from school I am sometimes so exhausted that I can't do anything except nap and zone out for a while- I then feel guilty for this later. Every time I relax or have fun (or do something that isn't work), I feel bad because I feel that I should be working instead.

I feel that I can't be as good as a student teacher as I can be because of this heavy load of work constantly weighing on me. Many of our essays I feel are unnecessary and just busy-work to prove we've been to lectures, which I have been. The teaching practice file is not too much work, but the fact that it's being checked twice during this 1-month period is stressful and I find that I'm having to make time just to make printouts of things and put them into this file, so that they can be checked on.

Something they never mentioned about this course is how much money you will spend on printing, building resources, and laminating. There is so much printing I've had to do so far, and so much more to come. All of my resources need laminated, which isn't cheap. I also have no printer at home and no colour-printer at school, so it is a mission to get this done. Trekking 25 minutes on foot to print something does not make me feel more fondly towards it having to exist in the first place.

/rant

On the upside, I love being in a class with students. I find them generally delightful, and I'm going to miss them terribly at the end of my month at their school. I've (nearly) learned all of their names after the first week, and they've been drawing me pictures and wanting to know more about me. Generally, they are a sweet bunch. Due to the teaching practice portfolio, I have to track four of them, but I'm interested to see how they all develop over this month.