My life at Rustenburg

Yesterday was the first day for “Running Club” after school. It’s from 3:15-4:15, but we didn’t get started until about 3:30 or so. Okay, so… the running club has about 75-100 girls and there are two supervisors for it; me being one of them. The other supervisor is another teacher here. But anyway, we set off with all of the girls for a run. It really made me smile to see how many girls were interested in the club. I am definitely taking this idea back to wherever I end up teaching. The running club is made for girls who want to run or run/walk at their own paces. They can run with friends, etc. The after school activities are not mandatory for the girls, but they’re encouraged so the girls will stay active. I really felt great at the end of the run because I finished and then turned around to encourage girls to finish strong by running and not walking. Just call me Coach Daughters. Just kidding. Anyway, I truly enjoyed yesterday with the girls. There’s just something about running here with the mountains all around you and dodging the crazy after-school Cape Town traffic. Yikes… that’s another story.

I thought it would be a good idea to give you an idea of what my days are like here at school. I wake up around 5:15-5:20 AM every morning to shower and get ready for the day. At about 6:45 AM, my ride comes to pick me up. I ride with two ladies, one of which is a Maths teacher and the other is an Afrikaans teacher. We must leave early because the traffic here in Cape Town is terrible. Everyday it is bumper to bumper traffic and the robots (lights) don’t hold for very long. I must also add that there is a big problem with the electricity here. Basically what happens is they have to “load shed” which means shut off the power in parts of Cape Town because it’s using too much and there isn’t enough for all. In the 90s, the government realized we would be suffering for it today, but decided at the time in the 1990s that building houses was more important; therefore, we are dealing with the situation now. So anyway, my point is the robots aren’t working sometimes and then that just adds to the madness.

Once I get to school, I take my stuff upstairs to my locker in the staff computer room and then pull out my laptop to check my e-mail, blogs, etc before the school day starts. Facebook is blocked during the school day because the girls use it way too much so therefore it’s only active before school and then after 4:00. Oy, Emily. So then after that, I must figure out what “Day” it is and by “Day,” I mean that Rustenburg runs on a 2-week cycle. So for example, the 2-week school period has 10 days. So this is what it’s like:

Day 1 – Monday

Day 2 – Tuesday

Day 3 – Wednesday

Day 4 – Thursday

Day 5 – Friday

Day 6 – Monday

Day 7 – Tuesday

Day 8 – Wednesday

Day 9 – Thursday

Day 10 – Friday

Now you think it would be easy right? Oh no, it’s a little bit confusing. I’ll explain in a second. There are normally 8 periods in a day. We start every day off with a staff meeting from 7:50-8:00. Any new information about a student is shared in the meeting, updates from staff members, etc. Basically it’s an opportunity to present things in front of the entire staff which is great. My favorite staff conversation was this morning. Apparently there was a staff member here who passed away a couple of years ago and a bench was put out in the Matric lawn (where the Grade 12s hang out) and someone moved it to the back of the building for smokers. The staff members who enjoyed sitting down on the bench in the Matric lawn can no longer do so because the smokers needed a place to sit in the back of the building. There was mass talking about where to move the bench back to and about how the lady who passed away would feel about her bench being moved. It really made me laugh because someone then pointed out that since the majority of the staff are non-smokers, the decision should be left to the smokers. HA! Anyway, now that I think about it, I think everyone just came to the conclusion that the lady would be happy at wherever the bench is placed.

After the staff meeting, each teacher reports to their Form class (if they have one) and they inform students of particular events, information, etc. The girls then move onto first period. Now each day of the week has a different schedule with the exception of Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So here’s the lay out:

Mondays

07:50-08:00 Staff Meeting/Form

08:00-08:10 Form

08:10-08:55 Period 1 Assembly

08:55-09:40 Period 2

09:40-10:25 Period 3

10:25-10:45 Break

10:45-11:30 Period 4

11:30-12:15 Period 5

12:15-13:00 Period 6

13:00-13:35 Break

13:35-14:20 Period 7

14:20-15:00 Period 8

Tuesdays and Wednesdays

07:50-08:00 Staff Meeting/Form

08:00-08:10 Form

08:10-08:55 Period 1

08:55-09:40 Period 2

09:40-10:25 Period 3

10:25-10:45 Break

10:45-11:30 Period 4

11:30-12:15 Period 5

12:15-13:00 Period 6

13:00-13:35 Break

13:35-14:20 Period 7

14:20-15:00 Period 8

Thursdays

07:50-08:00 Staff Meeting/Form

08:00-08:10 Form

08:10-08:55 Period 1

08:55-09:40 Period 2

09:40-10:25 Period 3 Assembly

10:25-10:45 Break

10:45-11:30 Period 4

11:30-12:15 Period 5

12:15-13:00 Period 6

13:00-13:35 Break

13:35-14:20 Period 7

14:20-15:00 Period 8

Fridays

07:50-08:00 Staff Meeting/Form

08:00-08:10 Form

08:10-08:55 Period 1

08:55-09:40 Period 2

09:40-10:25 Period 3

10:25-11:10 Period 4

11:10-11:45 Break/Staff Meeting

11:45-12:30 Period 5

12:30-13:15 Period 6

13:15-14:00 Period 7

End of academic day for learners (Sport/Music as usual)

14:00-15:00 SMT meeting (bi-weekly)

So here’s what my 2-week timetable looks like. You should be able to click on it: If you’re not confused after looking at it, then I give you credit. I ended up having to fill in my own timetable because I wasn’t assigned to one particular teacher therefore I had to look to see when the other teachers were teaching. It’s a different experience to student teaching because I have like four mentoring teachers. I don’t know if I will be teaching in all of those classes, but definitely in the A3 class (the Grade 8s).

I believe that’s all I have for now. Happy reading!

Love always!

PS. Rhonda, I haven’t forgotten about the boys’ questions. I will find out some of the answers to your questions for you because I don’t even know myself! :-)