Week SEVEN already!!

This has been my seventh week in Luckhoff Senior Secondary, and like every other week, the time flies by! By now my body wakes me up at the crack of dawn on weekends, and I wish it would do the same during the week, although I must say that waking up at 6:30 isn't the blasted pain it once was. I've been having a good time with the children and I feel myself bonding with them - they're growing on me like weeds in a corn field!

When I think about the fact that I only have 2 more weeks left at the school it fills me with both excitement (I'm being real here) as well as an acute sense of dread for the fact that these faces I have grown to love are no longer going to be before me every single day anymore! I also have anxiety at the idea of my many hours in the day that will be left open like a gaping hole, devoid of much to do but my coursework! I spoke to my mother about this and she told me to calm down and take things as they come. I will get used to the free time in between classes again and learn to love it as I once did. I enjoy the attention I get from the little grade 8s who make me feel very pretty in the way they are always in awe of what I'm wearing each day. I need to remember that whatever I wear I need to consider very carefully because I am being watched like a hawk! They are very endearing, I love the little grade 8s who still have the glow of childhood on their skin. Everybody is so fascinated at me coming to school each day on my poegie and ask me for lifts every day!

I had my crit lesson this week on Wednesday and I must say, it has been a while since I was that nervous. I chose the grade 11s for my lesson and I chose them strategically because of how much easier they are to handle. they are also a small class which made the personally getting to know each child much easier than the lower grades where the classes are much bigger. One huge set-back for my crit lesson was the fact that the grade 11s were so busy practicing their dances that they were doing for life orientation that they did not hear the bell and as a result of this they came 15 minutes late! I almost lost my mind! This however, came in use when the lecturer had to give me a mark for diadatic contingencies! He said that I handled the pressure well. I just calmed myself and jumped into my work. I did a poem with them called "The wild doves at Louis Trichardt" which is a poem that I did in grade 11 too. I had a brilliant teacher who made the lesson very interesting for me and I was hoping to give them the same kind of interesting deliverance. I felt a little bit of pressure because I wanted them to like it as much as I did! They seemed to grasp the poem and many of them presented ideas to me that I was wowed about - these kids are actually so smart! I enjoyed the lesson and my lecturer said it was a very good lesson, too.

We had a feedback session afterwards where he commended me on my ability to use the kids' lifewords in my explanation of the poem. I made sure I used references that they would be familiar with in my execution of the poem and as a result of this, the poem seemed to come alive to them. Although I am doing my PGCE, I really want to teach primary school but my lecturer told me that I could very well do high school too, he thought I was good enough. Huge validation! I was so proud of the grade 11s who made the lesson enjoyable to teach too. I went to them the next morning and thanked them for being such good sports! I had a good week and hope that the last few days will be wonderful (that's ten more school days, FYI - Yes I'm keeping tabs!!!)