Life of a Teacher

HOW DID YOU COPE/ MANAGE COMPLETING THE THREE DAYS OF "LIFE OF A TEACHER"?

The three days following my mentor teacher's timetable was very eventful, disruptive and i had a lot to learn from it. During these three days, I had to follow my teacher's duties, daily activities and teach her lessons. I had to adapt t teaching any subject, any grade and also see to last-minute duties, for example, I had to attend a meeting related to planning for the school's movie night. I did not have time to plan for the lessons as my teacher decided on the day that she would want me to take over her timetable. I was left to improvise and maybe have about 10 minutes to plan for the next lesson while learners were completing activities. Two out of the three days, were full days with lessons one after the other and duty during break. This taught me that there are times when the teacher will not have time to him/herself to even eat or use the bathroom as well.

HOW DID YOU FEEL TAKING ON ALL THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF A TEACHER IN BLOCK 1 COMPARED TO BLOCK 2?

Taking the teacher's responsibility in block 1 was more difficult as compared to block 2. During Block 1, the teachers were pushing to complete syllabus as exams were coming closer and I experienced issues trying to fit myself and my work into their busy schedule. However, in Block 2, I had more time to space out everything. The second day of Life of a Teacher was done during the 5th week when syllabus was completed and I had to do revision with the learners. Block 3 was administering the assessment to the learners and I chose the Grade 7 Market Day as it was part of their EMS assessment. I handled the groups, checked on them throughout their day, I also handled the program for the day, and collected the monies of each group at the end.

WHICH ACTIVITIES DID YOU FIND MOST CHALLENGING? HOW DID YOU OVERCOME THESE CHALLENGES?

The most challenging activity was break and after school duty. The learners would not listen to line up when break was over, and what made this more difficult is that there is no bell to provide order to the school. During the break, the learners would scream, fight, hit each other and I had to monitor this behavior and take necessary action. After school, the same would occur when fights break out. The learners also run across the road, play in the middle of the road as well when cars and taxi's speed by. It was very difficult to control the learners in such a situation.

ANALYSE YOUR RESULTS OF YOUR SELF-EVALUATION SURVEY WHERE WOULD YOU RATE YOURSELF HIGHER?

I would rate myself higher on the subject knowledge and classroom control. I was able to control my class extremely well and other students would ask me for help to control their class, even from other grades besides Grade 7.