Overwhelmed

Today was the beginning of the lasts; last Monday morning assembly, last Monday walking to school, last Monday. And tomorrow it will be the same thing. While it is the lasts it is also the beginning of us heading home and taking what we learned with us into our classrooms, that is going to just as powerful.

I got to finish the pen pal letters with my students today. It was a great thing to start the week off. And luckily this time we split the class in half, which at first seemed like a good idea but group one was much better behaved than group two and I was extremely warn out. But all the letters are done and are ready for their 27 hour flight home this weekend.

There is a student in my class that I could tell was struggling from day one. Working with the class as a whole he seemed always eager to please me when he was working on his work, yet for his teacher he really does not have any drive. Today when I was working on letters he and I sat to the side and that’s when I saw that his learning is very much hindered. It was heart breaking for me to see him sit and watch until I went to him and we had some one on one time. It was a something that he does not get at all, and once I am gone he will be lucky enough if he is even noticed in class. Teachers know that he struggles but have no means to really help him while they are helping 39 others, so he gets passed through the system.

My teacher and I actually talked today and I found out a lot about the school system in South Africa. There are two phases in the primary school. The primary school goes from grade K-7, so during grades K-3 is the junior phase and then grades 4-7 is the second phase. During each phase a student is able to fail and be held back twice. Which first what I know about schools in America is that many students get held back because of the support that students can receive on a daily basis in and outside of school, that is not an option in South Africa. Once a student has failed a phase twice there is nothing the school can do to hold the student back again, so they get passed through the system and once they aren’t learning one topic well how can the build the next year? This is the issue that schools here are running into.

So back to my student that I was working with, he is one of those students that has already failed phase 1 twice so they cannot hold him back again. Once he gets to phase 2 next year he will most likely fail twice and then they will pass him though. The bigger issue with this student is that his native language is Khosa, which is not talk in Ida’s Valley or any school. His parents sent him to Ida’s Valley to learn Afrikans and English but the minute he gets home he only speaks Khosa.

Unfortunately he is one of many, and there is a hard divide on what to do when you have 40+ students to work with. 

Robben Island

Located just off the coast in Cape Town there is an island that holds a lot of meaning to the history of South Africa. Many years before the country was created many sailors landed there and started making a life; they think that the oldest civilization can date back to the Egyptians setting there. There was time after that the island was abandoned and used to house people who had leprosy; banned from all other life they died on the island. It is said that over 2,000 people died and were buried on the island. Their graves now sit under buildings that were built years later. But to South Africans the island holds a whole different meaning. To South Africans the island is a sign of the struggle with political indifferences. People who went against what the politics were at the time, rebelled and were sent to jail on this island.

As the group of 18 of us boarded the ferry to the island the weather was casting a dreary sense around us. The clouds and fog were so dense that we could barely see the dolphins that swam right next to the ferry. While we were the only 18 crazy Americans with shorts on, the day was going to be a good one.

Arriving on the Island we boarded a bus to tour the island. While the island has very few inhabitants now, the guides and guards still live on the island with a working post office there is not much else civilization for the people. The history though makes it all worth it.

We bused around the island for about 1 ½ seeing the different areas that people who were jailed worked in. Limestone was mined on the island and for years the protective gear was unavailable for the workers. So many of them suffered from breathing in the harsh chemicals and the light that reflected off the limestone damaged their eyes. Mr. Nelson Mandela was one of those people who were greatly affected by this.

Mandela was jailed on the island for over 10 years. He lived in a very small cell and was only allowed out during the working times. He of course is the sung hero of all of the political developments of the country. After he was released Mandela became President of the country, long before the island even closed.

Today the people who visit the country of course go to see where Mr. Mandela spent so many years of his life, but there are many unsung hero that have a story on the island. This is just one of many areas in Africa that tell so much about the past of what people went through during political indifferences of the country.

For me Robben Island was one of my favorite places we have been to. As a Social Studies major this was right up my alley, but like Sean and I were talking about how can I enjoy something so much that was so wrong and so painful for others. But I told him that it’s all about learning about the past and continuing for a better future. 

Fractions Lesson

Monday my teacher asked me if I could do a fraction lesson with the students Tuesday morning while she worked on some tests to type up. I jumped at the chance, I wanted to be able to work with the students and while I had done a lot of work with them on Monday, Tuesday was going to be a whole new experience.

When she asked me to do a fractions lesson I of course had no idea what they already knew and if they had already talked about fractions so luckily for me my 4^th graders just did fractions before I left so I was already  to go. At home to introduce fractions we worked with making fraction strips so students could compare the sizes, why not do it here. I went home Monday and started cutting; 240 strips! Yeah I know I’m crazy. And I must have forgotten how difficult it was to work with 27 students at home folding, 40 was so bad. They were all on different steps and they wouldn’t listen to what I wanted them to do next. It was mad chaos in my eyes, Sean thought it wasn’t that bad and my students LOVED it!

I taught them a quieting skill, time out, on Friday and it worked really well until today. I had to quiet them every time I went to a new fraction strip and this then wasted their time to finish their pen pal letters today, which they were really upset about but I had warned them that they would lose finishing their letters if they did not get their fractions done. I felt bad giving them a threat but I knew something needed to be done. When I have to raise my voice higher than I need to when I get mad at my friends something is not right. In the setting I felt so off raising my voice to students, that is rarely ever done in schools in America and the worst part was that my students were not responding to it or anything at that. So we are back to square one about the quieting skill and in my next lesson I will go in with a respect talk to make sure we are all on the same page.

I have to remember too how lucky I was in the past 10 weeks in the states to have such a great class. For the most part I never had much of a noise issue to deal with, but how they acted was instilled on day one of school and that is not the case here. Things are very different. It’s frustrating but I need to remember to not let it make me to upset because I cannot change everything in my time here. My friends at Ida’s Valley have been great in helping me when I was really upset and worn out about my morning, they even offered to come help me but I had hoped for better when I came back from break, and I got just that for the most part.

So the lesson while it was good for the students, it was not exactly what I wanted them to know and learn. I wanted them to explore more with comparing fractions and see that some are equal and the fraction strips work so well for that, but once again it’s a step in the right direction to get them engaged in a lesson.

For 20minutes when they were silent today I remembered how golden silence is when all I ever hear is chatter. 

Letters from Home

Monday I got to do my pen pal letters from my 4^th grade class. To say that my Grade 3 students were excited was an understatement.

Fiore Flowers, I cannot wait to get these to you. I got to work with each group individually and read each letter to the student. They took this very seriously and wanted to know so much about all of you. I brought our picture from Lansing along and before I knew it they wanted to know who was who in the picture. They are still working on making them perfect for all of you, which is awesome. None of them have ever done this before, so they are so excited. Before I end of the day I handed out your pictures to all of them knew exactly who you are.  Once again you would have thought it was Christmas, but for these students a picture is amazing to have. They all have placed them in their folders which have a clear cover on them so today when I asked them to get their folders out I saw all your faces and it made me smile so much!

Side story about the photos; One of the boys asked to write to a girl, which was perfect because I had a lot of girl letters left and only 2 boy letters left. Cohen, my student was super excited; the smile on his face was priceless. I won’t say who he wrote to but it is super sweet his excitement to write a letter. He kept telling me I want a lekker (pronounced lecka) girl; which means pretty/good/nice girl. It was super sweet and he for sure showed me how girl crazy he can be at the age of 8.

I have all the letter almost done, and in a special place to travel home with me in less than 10 days. I have pictures of their journey here so far and will make sure to have some  more on the journey home. Just know that I cannot wait to give them to you all and tell you all about my students here.

 It’s sweet to have this connection between my Peach Plains students and Ida’s Valley students.

Pringle Baii

The weekend at the Beach House

The beach house weekend went just like this;

We arrived around 5pm, watched the sunset after we got settled in and took one last final picture with all 19 of us. We said our goodbyes to Sandy and sent her on her way. It was weird to have the leader of our group change but we were all excited for the weekend ahead. Sandy and I got to talk about my first day teaching in my classroom which was good and made me feel better about continuing with what I am doing with those 40 3^rd graders.

Friday night was uneventful; we had a lot of fun hanging out on the balcony deck with all our friends. Sean got to see the more loud side of us, and more crazy side of us which Sandy did not see as much. It was a great first night with Sean. We woke to some sun on Saturday which quickly went away but that did not stop anyone from dancing, singing, reading and hanging out on the beach. There was a lot of reading going on, and right around 2pm the real interesting stuff began.

I was sitting in the living room reading The Hunger Games, and Sean was talking to a group about baboons that we had seen so far, before I knew it there was one climbing in the window. There are no screens on the windows and most of the windows have baboon guards on them except one in the living room that we had open to get air. No one knew what to do; we were all running all over the place. Sean started screaming to make it afraid but that didn’t work as it started to climb into the house. I was screaming so loud and so high pitched that my friends downstairs thought we were in major trouble and hid in their room. Eventually he was sitting right in the furniture and at that point I thought we were doomed. The boys ran into the rooms which left Becca and I in the living room so we started outside. When the boys came back out of the room they had a plan to scare it away, Sean was telling Jeremy to take the mop and run up to it because you know Sean needed to make sure to get this all in pictures. That didn’t work, the garbage bin throwing didn’t work but Kayla came running downstairs with a 2x4, and scared it away and out of the house. Quickly we closed all the windows and we hoped that he would be the only baboon we would have to deal with.

Saturday night came and went, it was chilly out so we all relaxed inside playing a lot of Euchre. Sunday morning we woke up to rain and very high winds. More cards and reading was taking place and everyone just took the weather as it was. Eventually it cleared up and we were able to explore the beach some more. Right after lunch a couple of my friends came running over the dune screaming that there were baboons on the beach. So what do we all do? Run out to check it out of course. The big one that had climbed into the house yesterday was there leading the pack, and as the rest of the group ran up the sand dune they followed; 15 in all! At this point we were all standing at the top of the dune, and Sean was on the balcony watching us. If only he had his camera to video what happened next. All 10 or so of us started down the hill screaming as the baboons followed us. We made it, another baboon encounter but we were good. This had to be the end of it.

Not long after the baboons left, some headed back outside with lunch to the beach and 3 to the deck balcony. Lizzie and I had just laid down for a nap when we heard, “They’re back!” Uh-oh. Looking over the loft I could see all 15 of the coming around the porch. At this point the 3 friends that were on the balcony were screaming, we were trying to get them away from the house but the big one thought going up would be better. Now our 3 friends were stuck on the balcony, with food. They were smart enough to throw the food over the balcony and then some brave souls downstairs went out to scare them off the balcony so our friends could come down. That worked and quickly they went to the roof. Good we’re free. Nope.

They would not leave the porch area. Our friends that were on the beach came over the dune and saw all of this happening. Since they couldn’t come back into the house they took a seat on the dune and watched this all happen. We ended up calling security since they were not leaving, and after 15 minutes of waiting we were done. We just wanted to enjoy our last couple hours at the beach house.

All in all it was a baboon filled weekend. But it was also a very relaxing weekend for everyone. 

When in Africa

When in Africa

*Shoes are optional
*School gets out at 2pm
*You drive on the other side of the road; which is dangerous for us Americans walking because we always look the wrong way for traffic
*People can pick out I'm American before I speak
*I go to bed before 9pm (most nights)
*Cold means that it is 40degrees in the morning
*Winter comes when it starts raining
*Wineries are open on Easter Sunday and students get Easter Monday off

Birthday wish from afar

It may be a day late but that's what happens when I don't have internet every day. Happy Birthday KING!

Happy 21st Birthday love Teacher Kelly and students

Feild trip: South Africa Style

Today I was faced with an interesting task, take 38 students on a field trip by myself. Let's just say it was very different than any field trip I have ever been on. There was no organization to see who was actually going, so when the students at the University asked my how many students I had I couldn't really tell them. We counted 38, and we hoped that we had not lost anyone in the hour since we had been there. The first part of the field trip was all gym games, and mostly unorganized. The program that my students were attended is put on by the University of Stellenbosch every Thursday and a couple classes from the area comes to participate. The students who run the program are all pre-service teachers. Upon seeing the first event I was kind of mad I was missing instructional time to see my students run around doing nothing. But that changed fast when we moved on to the next area which they called lessons. Yet when we first got there the students were watching a movie, Rio. So I was even more mad, but in the end the last 2 hours that I spent at the University I got to observe pre-service teachers teaching small groups of students. It was set up where one student was teaching a group of 8-10 learners and then there was a professor observing. While this was happening in one room I was sitting behind the glass with other pre-service teachers observing. When I saw this happening it all clicked why my classroom here runs like it does, there is never instruction just work that needs to be done and that is exactly what was happening in these observations. I had a great talk with some other pre-service teachers afterward and they broke down their whole education program for me. They spend about 1/2 the amount of time in an actual classroom and there is no classroom management taught, which one of the students said could be really beneficial. Overall it was a great experience. I am still learning a lot about my students, and what they actually know since I am not seeing lessons taught but Friday is my big day of teaching something, anything. 

Where's Kelly?!?!

We've been on Holiday for almost 2 weeks, and boy have we traveled far! We are on the garden route and it is absolutely beautiful.

Last Monday we started in Knaysna and went to Feather Bed Reserve Area. Being the first place we went to we were all in love, and I will say it was still one of my favorite stops. We hiked down the hill and stood at the point above the Indian Ocean and everything just seemed so vast. It was beautiful! Then we had lunch under the milkweed trees it was just like we were in a tree house eating traditional Africa foods.

Tuesday we headed to Addo National Elephant Park, and the weather seemed to be against us or so the tour guides thought. We were more than lucky! Sandy has been calling us a charmed group for everything that seemed to be going wrong changes the minute we start out on it. Sandy and our tour guides, Pierre and Antionette, said that we should not wait on seeing all kinds of animals because the weather was so bad, but our charm came out and we all it all!

One of my students, and you know who you are, wrote in a letter to me before I left that if I saw a lion WATCH OUT!! Well guess what I didn't just see 1, I saw SIX! It was amazing. And we saw them three days in a row which is said to never happen. We also had some close encounters with Elephants, we also saw a Black Rhino on our night safari which is said to be extinct in less than three years. It was an amazing time at Addo.

Next stop was Tsitsikamma, which is another National Park on the Indian Ocean. Our accomadations were less than 50 feet from the shore. And while it did rain every night we were there we made the most of it with Zip Lining, and taking a hike to the Waterfall. The Waterfall was beautiful!! The hike was extreme. It was pretty much like we were climbing the side of the mountain. Pictures will never show how pretty it was.

My Shark Take Drive Friends

Rob, Katie, Andrea, Me and Beth

Fun in Knsyna

Sometime this past weekend we left Tsitsikamma we headed to Mossel Bay which is much more of a surf town. While we were there we had a very relaxing time. Some of my friends jumped off a bridge and others jumped out of a plane and, I well I fell off a rock into the Indian Ocean. Luckily there was very few rocks around and I came up with very few battle scars. I actually only have 2 really bad cuts on my toes. But I wouldn't trade those for the fun I had in the Ocean with Abby.

And where am I now? We made our way to Cape Agullas- the most southern tip of Africa. It is also home to the longest beach in the southern hemisphere. This backpackers place is amazing, very much an entertaining area. Yesterday I jumped into the Ocean with some sharks. Wait let me rephrase that, I jumped into a cage to swim with the sharks. That has to be an amazing experience, I will not forget. And today we went to the point and took some pictures of standing at the two oceans.......
              Fiore Flowers, what two oceans was I standing at?
And then we climbed to the top of the 2nd oldest working lighthouse in Africa. I have a special surprise for my Fiore Flowers about that lighthouse when I get home. Don't let me forget.

We still have 3 days on Holiday, and we're doing a lot of relaxing and some wine tasting. But I am very much ready to get working with my students back in Stellenbosch.

I send my Happy Easter wishes to everyone from all the way in Africa. I'll be back soon-less than 4 weeks to go but so much more to learn.

(Pictures are hard to upload but here are a couple from the weeks)