"Boys and Girls"

Every Tuesday and Friday the students line up and march in the auditorium for assembly. The agenda remains unchanged: scripture is read, interpreted and the student body is prayed for by one of the teachers, announcements are made, awards for athletics are announced, then Prinicipal Van Staden delivers his own personal analyses of the schools' activities, students' behavior, and miscellaneous issues.


Mr. Van Staden is usually seen at the top. In the staff room, he stands in front and leads the daily meetings at 7:45 sharp. In the auditorium, he is seen at the podium on stage with his tall stature and trying demeanor. This morning he began,"Boys and girls, you are a fool if you can sit in the hall and make noise in a crowd. Only a smart man would make noise when there is no crowd. You are cowardly because you have to hide among your peers.." and he continued to warn the students that the next time the school assembles for awards, harsher punishments will be rewarded to those uncooperative learners.


May seem harsh, but the man knows what he is saying. He is very logical in his approach towards the students and understands that "Pearson is not just a school. It is a bigger organization." Bearing that in mind, I was very shocked on Wednesday when the secretary informed me that the principal wanted to meet me as well as the other student teachers on Friday during first period. Although I had a lesson planned for that period, my concern shifted to the reason for this "meeting". Why would Mr. Van Staden want to meet with us? We must have done something wrong to make this man take out precious minutes of his life...


"I have organized this meeting today to hear from you all. Do you have questions you would like to ask me?" Mr. Van Staden outstretched his arm towards us before leaning back into his chair and surveying the seven student teachers, including me. That very moment I realized how compassionate this stern, not-to-bothered looking man was. At that very moment I began to translate the demanding words in his previous speeches. He truly does say what he means and means what he says and he does this not to harden the children but help them be more thoughtful towards their studies and dedicated in sports.


During our meeting he explained the importance of school athletics, the recent developments at Pearson High School, and the lack of technology, administration, and funding. He was and is very passionate about his perspectives. He realizes that more money and energy is put towards athletic facilities but defends South African's education and social system which approves of such efforts. He stated, "Parents look for schools like Pearson. Our athletics is very attractive in Port Elizabeth that even students who live from Summerstrand find ways to get to school... We currently have 954 students enrolled at Pearson and I am finding it very very hard to refuse learners' admission." Pearson has gone from 480 students to 950 students in the past 4 years. However, the increase in enrollment has not affected the number of teachers who already undertake the daily responsibilities of school administrators.


Afterwards, the students went to their respective classrooms and I stayed behind to thank Mr. Van Staden for taking out time from his busy schedule to meet with the student teachers. He expressed his pleasure in having student teachers at Pearson, "most especially the American students" because they "bring different perspective into the classrooms." I requested a recorded interview with him in the future which will give me the opportunity to sit down and discuss the role of administrators and teachers in a South African school such as Pearson. His point of view will be appreciated immensely.


I hope the boys and girls will also realize for themselves how much their principal cares about their education and their roles as citizens of their communities here in South Africa.

"Ma’am, how can you 'love' him, he’s White ma'am?"

The unavoidable is impending. Racism. Not only "racism" in the classroom and the need to address it. I have been ducking and dodging writing about this subject since I arrived in South Africa but I am afraid this issue warrants close examination for the students and research on my part.


While recounting a situation that occurred in a grade eight classroom awhile back, close friend responded, "I couldn't be a teacher. I would have cursed them out. I swear. I'm too angry to be a teacher." First off, any and every good teacher knows that "cursing" is not an option, let alone something you think or talk about ever doing. Swearing is forbidden and, personally I believe, using profane language should not be tolerated from neither student nor teacher. Out of "anger" is presumably not the way to handle any type of situation that deals with sensitive matters either. You cannot be angry. You can only compose your speech and talk to your student(s). I have had to do this, even as a student teacher. Everyday is a story. The students are beautiful, in their own individual ways; however, many of them just need the knowledge that my close friend and I were privileged to have growing up. The knowledge developed from recognition and acceptance towards other people.


At Pearson, the students do recognize difference. "Recognize" is an understatement. They recoginize each other's differences to a point that becomes borderline, if not completely, racist. I do not believe "everyone is racist" as one of my Ohio University colleagues put it. I do believe that we are all race conscious. We think about our  individual races but not in a way that undermines or demoralizes a different race.


Now a student was misbehaving in class. To be exact, he was producing noise at a level that was inappropriate, so I moved his seat after warning him two times. As he walked to the new seat I  assigned, I smiled at him and said, "You know I still love you [name]". He smiled back as I reassured him that he could regain his favored seat if he composed himself for a period of time. A student on the other side of the classroom exclaimed, "Ma'am! How can you 'love' him. He's White ma'am..." The class was not loud before this comment was made, but the undertones silenced quickly as I studied this child's face. Grade eight. He should be 12 or 13. His own light skin reddened in the cheeks as he began to realize his misjudgment.


Now, if someone would like to argue that the statement above was merely a remark made by a child who is "race conscious", enlighten me, please. Until then, I am afraid, his remark classifies as "racist". Time for research... We all, grade eight and me, are not going to get away with this. No more running. No more hiding. I need to accept the reality and share real knowledge with these children even if it takes 5-10 minutes of the class period. I believe it will be worth it and better than a lifetime of ignorance...

"21 Questions"

1. Ma’am, how do you find South Africa ma’am?
2. Do you like P.E. ma’am?
3.  Do you think we have an accent?
4. What kind of music do you listen to ma’am?
5. Are you having a good day ma’am?
6. Ma’am, do you speak Afrikaans?
7. Is this your real hair?
8. Ma’am, how do you pronounce your surname?
9. Could you please be our teacher?
10. Ma’am, what sport did you play?
11. Have you met Oprah?
12. Have you been to Steers ma’am?
13. Do you watch Africa Magic?
14. Ma’am, how can you ‘love’ him, he’s White?
15. Is this for marks ma’am?
16. Do we have to finish this today?
17. What does [insert word] mean?
18. When are you leaving us ma’am?
19. Have you met Obama?
20. Ma’am, where do you come from?
21. Can you say, ‘I want popcorn’?

New Week, Old News

My first few weeks at Pearson High School have quickly flown by. I am getting to know the staff members and know the names of the students in three of my four classes. Now, without an alarm, I wake up every morning at exactly 6:57 a.m. and get ready for an amazing day with the Pearsonites (Pearson High School students). I am usually out of the house by 7:30 and “pick up” Claudea, two apartment buildings down the road. Claudea is a fellow student teacher and South African who attends Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. She has been very helpful and kind to me. Our staff meetings begin at 7:55 and they are led by the principal Mr. Van Staden and vice principal Mrs. Roux. During the first week at Pearson, Mr. Bubb gave me an informal but detailed tour of the school. There are six class periods in a day and two "tea" breaks. I worked out my schedule before the Easter holidays and now that we are back in session I feel more comfortable with the timetable. I almost have it memorized! It is confusing compared to our block schedule in the States where the classes do not vary depending on the whether it is “Week 1” or “Week 2”. I observed Mrs. Gibbens, Mr. Jacobs, Mrs. Baxter, Mrs. De Klerk, and Mrs. Bucynski during “Week 2”  here. As I observed in their classes, I noticed how attentive most of the students were, even with a lack of technology and learning resources. It seemed as if they had enough, the teacher. Nonetheless, no teacher is the same and I took note of different strategies and techniques used by each one.

Unlike field experience back home in Ohio where one can easily find themselves checking and grading papers on their first day of observation, here it is taking some time to get to that point. In fact, the marking system here is different. Every assignment the students complete is “for marks” and some of the teachers constantly reiterate that circumstance. With that being said, marking the students' work would perhaps interrupt the teacher’s assessment flow. The way the teacher’s mark is quite tedious if you ask me. Reminds me of marks back at Federal Government Girls’ Owerri. Oh, the good old days...

Back to now. I arrived in Port Elizabeth at an awkward time. I started at Pearson High School that Monday and the school holidays began the following week. We are in Term 2 now and I have been planning and teaching lessons to Grade 9, 10 and 12. The two texts I am teaching from are Beverley Naidoo’s The Other Side of Truth and E.R. Braithwaite To Sir With Love. I am very biased towards these two novels because I have read both and have respect for both authors and stories. I want the students to appreciate Sade’s fictional narrative based on true incidents that occurred in Nigeria and Mr. Braithwaite’s autobiographical narrative about his experience teaching in East London. I want them to appreciate the novels just as much as I did and still do. I enjoy reading the novels out loud in class and discussing comprehension-based questions with the assistance of my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Baxter (Pipa).

I have narrowed my main cooperating teacher to Mrs. Baxter but I am also working with Mrs. De Klerk and Mrs. Gibbens, head of the English Department. An incident recently occurred which implored Mrs. Gibbens consultation. We had our Parent Evening on the 10^th and 11^th of this month. One of the evenings, a parent harassed Mrs. Baxter for “allowing a student teacher to take over her lessons”, accused Mrs. Baxter for not teaching her daughter and suspected Mrs. Baxter's lack of teaching as a result of her daughter's academic "failure". Mind you, this child was not failing her English class, but obviously failing the high expectations of her overambitious mother. This incident caused my cooperating teacher to reevaluate my teaching, instruction and ultimately my presence in that particular class. She wanted to consider only having me "observe". I, too, was frustrated at this point because student teaching is not the time for "observing" anymore. Student teaching is for teaching. However, I kept my peace that Friday Mrs. Baxter asked me not to read with the students. I requested a meeting with Mrs. Gibbens because it was not my intention to interfere with anyone’s profession and it worked out that the three of us were able to discuss alternative options. She would announce to the class that I was only at Pearson and in their classroom to help bring a different perspectives to their learning and teach them using To Sir With Love. 

I am more content at this point and satisfied with the way the situation was handled. Honestly, it could have been worse.

TODAY

Today I did PLASMA for Mrs. Buczynski (Jenny) and Mrs. Norden’s mathematics class. PLASMA is an Afrikaans and English (combined) term for substitution. I will also complete PLASMA for all of Jenny’s classes this Wednesday. After I am finished blogging, I will start planning my lessons for Grade 8, 9 and 10 and an extensive lesson for Active and Passive Voice for all Grade Nines to teach on Wednesday and Thursday. Jenny suggested I teach her Grade Nines as well so that she can watch me carry out the lesson and implement for her own instruction.

Tomorrow is the school’s award assembly and I plan on bringing my camera to take pictures. I will not take pictures for long considering the assembly is only ONE HOUR LONG! Let’s just say… Mr. Van Staden is a good talker J He has a way of preaching about what seems like anything that comes this his dear mind. He has preached about everything from academics and uniforms to telling the students to reschedule their doctor’s appointments for athletics; “Your world should revolve around the sport”! At first, my reaction was, ‘What type of absurdity is this?’ and then Mr. Van Staden explained that mandatory athletics is a way of teaching kids about commitment and dedication. From that standpoint, the school code stating “All learners are expected to take part in at least one sport each term” makes  more sense to me. I thought to myself every day for the first week that I was never going to fit in at Pearson, seeing that I was quite unathletic and never played a sport in my own high school experience. How could I motivate the students to take part in something I had never taken part of?

Easy. I was honest with the students and have been honest with them since day one. “No, I never played a sport but I do look back now and wish I had been more physically active during my high school career.” I appreciate their sincerity in return and am growing fond of these young adults each and every day. It is sad to think that I am going to be leaving them in less than two months.

There is so much to be said about this school. I will try hard to break it down in the weeks to come…