Brace yourselves for a long read...

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 29- SUNDAY, MARCH 2

Well, the past week has been interesting to say the least. Last week (Feb 25-Feb 29), I was teaching my Grade 10 and Grade 11 class. With my Grade 10 class, I was finishing up the “Lengths, Areas, and Volume” chapter. With my Grade 11 class, I taught on Wednesday and Thursday teaching parabolas. I must say the week was rather exhausting and it was my first time experiencing just exactly what it feels like to be a teacher. I found myself teaching during the day and then coming home and doing even more lesson planning. The biggest challenge I found during the whole week was that I had to re-learn the Maths material. The last time I really looked into scale factors, areas, volumes, parabolas, and 3D figures was in high school. So every day after school I came home and really looked into the material because I thought it would be quite embarrassing to not understand the material myself and attempt to teach it. I suppose during my first year I’ll find myself doing the same thing; coming home and making sure I really understand what I’m doing. I know it will all start to become more natural and familiar the more experience I get with teaching it, but for the meantime, it’s quite exhausting and time consuming. Plus, there was that extra added pressure that I put on myself to make sure the lesson with my Grade 10 class ran smoothly because the girls are the top set of the grade. So, my last day teaching them was on Thursday because the teacher wanted to have the girls back to prepare them for a term exam that was coming up which was fine by me because I tied up the chapter that day anyway.

Now my Grade 11 class is quite interesting. They are a talkative bunch and often think they don’t understand material when clearly things are spelled out for them. Oh the joys of teaching. So, the first day with them was fine, but the next day they acted as though they were completely lost and confused. I was teaching them about how to find the x and y-intercepts of parabolas and reviewing how to find the turning point of the parabola. I always feel when there is this chaos in my class about not understanding, that they leave feeling that way. Well, the next day they were being tested on labeling the intercepts and the turning point. After the test on Friday, I heard chatter about the class and heard comments like, “the only thing I knew how to do was the parabola.” HMM! Sometimes I find students really shut their brains down when they convince themselves they don’t understand. All they need to do is FOCUS! Again, nothing uncommon to me with teenagers. They have other things on their mind (as I know I did as well when I was in school). Plus, the period was at the very end of the day so maybe I don’t blame them, but what they were saying really didn’t correspond with what happened the day of the test. So, I wasn’t too worried. I’ll be teaching them again next week as my UCT advisor will be coming in for one last visit to observe me teaching.

So, Friday during school was actually pretty boring because I didn’t have any classes to teach which was fine, but I had gone from being EXTREMELY busy during the week to having nothing to do. You know me… I can’t go from one extreme to the other! But, I managed and it turned out to be alright. Friday after school I went out with some of my staff members for drinks. Apparently they get paid at the end of every month so it was like a pay day for them I guess. Bring on the drinks after a busy week at school! I enjoyed myself and had fun chatting with them. I eventually met up with Patrick at Cubana. He was there with some friends and I needed a night out… for a little while anyway. Eventually we headed home and I must say the taxi ride home was quite humorous. We were making friends with the driver and I was telling him all sorts of rubbish (nonsense!) such as that I owned a Lamborghini car and was in South Africa on business. He was asking me where I was from and he thought Los Angeles. I can’t remember if we told him Ohio or not, but anyway… I told him my name was Isabella and Patrick said his was Collin. We established that Patrick was working for me and I am his boss. I convinced him that I was running the Two Oceans ULTRA Marathon (meaning… not the half marathon at 21 km, rather 56 km). I told him I was up to 36 km. HA. I just kept going on and on, it was quite entertaining, but it came to a close when he finally dropped us off home.

The next morning Terrez and I got up bright and early, yet again, to run. We actually didn’t really go too far and we really focused on a tempo run (running at a much faster pace than your used to) to increase our endurance and to work on our paces. The race is fast approaching!

After our morning run, my host parents decided to take me and Terrez to some different wineries in the Stellenbosch area. We stopped at 3 wineries, each tasting is 6 different wines. You do the math with how many different wines I had and that will give you an idea as to how I was feeling! I wish I could remember the names, but I did buy some wine from the last winery we went to. At the last winery, it was cheese and wine tasting. It was quite delicious! Once we got home, Patrick had some of his work friends over for a braai. It was quite a day! By the end of the night, I was pretty tired and after a day of mixing wines and beers (that’s an ultimate no-no!), we’ll just say I learned my lesson during the night.

The next day was pretty relaxing as I had NO LESSON PLANNING! Woo hoo! I was actually able to start reading my Long Walk To Freedom book!

MONDAY, MARCH 3 AND TUESDAY, MARCH 4

So this past week has been quite an interesting and unforgettable week. I did not want to leave Cape Town thinking that the school I have been teaching at is a representation of all the schools in South Africa. With that said, my advisor was able to find different schools to observe this week. On Monday and Tuesday, I spent my day at an ex-coloured school. During the apartheid, every race: Indian, Black, Coloured, and White were in their own schools. I was a bit nervous to attend the school because I wasn’t sure what to expect. Everyone kept telling me it was going to be such a contrast to what I was used to seeing at Rustenburg. I arrived at the school around 8:15. I met with the principal and my corresponding Maths teacher that I would be observing. I asked about the demographics of the school and he said to me there are about 400 coloured, 200 black, and as a direct quote, “I believe, 1 white student.” WOWZERS! I was in for an experience. So I went up to the classroom and my, oh my, along the walk to the room I took a look around the school. There was graffiti all over the walls and trash everywhere. And boy was I starred at. All the students were wondering who I was as I was walking around taking pictures. Not only that, but clearly the color of my skin made me stand out like a sore thumb. Anyway, I arrived to my classroom to find a number of larger tables with plastic lawn chairs for the students’ seats. The walls were completely bare, the floor was dirty, and there was graffiti all over the tables.

The teacher I was with did have a SMARTboard in his classroom. I really enjoyed the teacher I was placed with actually. He was really great about allowing me to have some time to introduce myself to the students which I had to do about 6 times throughout the day. At the start of every class period, the students will wait outside in the hallway and must wait until they are allowed to enter into the classroom. They come in to sit down and immediately he takes role call. Some responded by saying, “Yes, sir” as he called their name. My observation of the teacher is that he is absolutely perfect for that type of school. He knows and understands the kids. He’s very respectful to them, as they are respectful to him in return. He mentioned to me that he’s very up front with that from the beginning. He tells them that the classroom is his space and he is inviting them into his space therefore they must be respectful and listen. I believe he has been teaching at that school for 10 years so he has a pretty good understanding of where they are come from and where he’s supposed to take them. He only teaches Grade 10-12. His classes are all at different levels. For instance, one of his Grade 10 classes was learning about perfect trinomials. His Grade 11 class was learning about the quadratic formula and factorizing and one of his Grade 12 classes was a Maths Literacy class. I can’t remember if I’ve talked about this type of class, but basically what happens is a student is tested in their Maths. Depending upon their score, they will either continue in their Maths or go onto Maths Literacy which is like problem-solving and is supposed to be “easier.” At Rustenburg, the girls also have a choice during Grade 11 to go onto Maths Literacy or to stay in their regular Maths track. I find that some students give up too easily and want to move into the Literacy class. Anyway, the Grade 12 Maths Literacy class at the school I was observing was learning about frequency. This class was actually pretty interesting because it’s a Dual Language class. The teacher has to teach in English AND Afrikaans. I seemed to pick up that a majority of the students at this school speak Afrikaans, but obviously some know English as well. The reason for having to teach in both languages is the mere fact of the education system, according to my teacher. Apparently there aren’t enough Afrikaans speaking Maths teachers. The problem he finds with the system in having to teach in both languages is that it slows down the pace of the class and the students who don’t speak Afrikaans will suddenly become bored and will tune him out. Then, the teacher will have to try and get them to focus again by speaking English. Quite interesting, eh?

Here are some observations I made note of:

*It seems after the apartheid, the blacks then moved into the coloured schools, the coloured people moved into the white schools, and then the whites went onto private schools (and some whites stayed put because there wasn’t much flexibility for them).

*The uniforms at the school weren’t neat and tidy; the students often would just fold their white shirts under because they didn’t want to tuck them in. Some of them would write on their clothes (i.e. some had Martric 2008 on the back of their jackets).

*It’s amazing how just within 1-2 km, there is such a contrast between surrounding schools

*Students from this school come from low-income families

*I was walking around in their courtyard during their lunch and one girl yelled at me, “MISS!... who are you?” So after explaining myself, I began talking to the group of girls who are Matrics and they asked me if I liked the school and I told them I didn’t mind it. I asked the same question to them in return and one stated, “No way. I don’t like it. Too much bullying.” I often seemed to get a negative attitude about the school from others as well

*The school fees are around R990.00 which is equivalent to $141.00 / Rustenburg, according to one of the websites Terrez found, is R14,400.00 (equivalent to $2,057.14) … keep in mind, my school is a public, government school

*Their class bell sounds like a fire alarm

*There was vandalism in their computer room over the weekend (ahh… now I see why teachers don’t put up anything in their classrooms. Why would they if their stuff is just going to get vandalized… sad really)

*Very basic homework is given, if any, because it probably won’t get done anyway (i.e. come up with 3 examples of perfect square trinomials). The students don’t want to spend their time after school doing 25 problems of completing the perfect square trinomial. You’ll find that at any school really!

*When directing the students to work on something, my teacher will ask them, “Are we achieving?”

*Discipline: my teacher was gone an entire class period because he was having to deal with discipline issues. Long story short, one of the boys had to write a 500-word essay about his behavior. If he didn’t complete it by the next day, he would have to write an 1,000-word essay after school with supervision. Direct quote from my teacher, “There are two things the kids hate doing: school work and staying after school.”

*One of the guys in my class looked like Snoop Dogg (sorry… I couldn’t resist)

Overall, WOW… what an experience. My first day there, I was SO intimated. The second day was much better than the first as I had then become a familiar face to them. Some were interested. Some were trying to show off. The boys were extra friendly to me. HA. I now see why Rustenburg really pushes for the girls to present a strong, positive representation of the school. In all honesty, I don’t think I would have minded student teaching at that school – it would have been quite a challenge, but it would have been an interesting one. Not that I don’t like Rustenburg, but this type of school is a step closer to what I would describe as inner city – not exactly on the same level, but close

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5

So today was what I have been waiting for this whole trip. It was the day for me to experience a township school. Kaylene, Dr. Baxen’s assistant, came to pick Terrez and I up around 8:10 and we were off to Xolani Primary School. This school is settled in a township and is in an area called Langha (not sure of the spelling). Let me just say that I enjoyed this school SOO much. It’s a primary school so it’s Grades R-6. From grades R-3, they only speak Xhosa. From Grades 4-6, they learn to speak in English. We were taken around to each of the classrooms and introduced to the students. I have videos and pictures which can describe to you more about the school than I can into words. But, I would like to state that this type of school was much better than the school I was at on Monday and Tuesday. I mean this in the sense that the staff and the vibe of the school is happiness. It was such a warm feeling. I expected the school to be in terrible condition, but it was the exact opposite. There was so much learning going on within the classroom and the walls were decorated with lots of pictures and work of the kids. For some of the classes, we had to have the teacher speak to the kids in Xhosa and then translate what we were saying to them. A lot of the kids knew many of the singers from America and we asked them what some of their favorite singers were. Singers they mentioned are as follows: Rihanna, Beyonce, Eminem (one stated his name as Slim Shady!!), Michael Jackson, Lil’ Mama, and wait for it… wait for it… TUPAC! Not kidding.

Now, the pictures of the area surrounding the schools just don’t do it justice which is why I chose to take a video which I hope to have up very soon. It really brings such a tear to my eye because we asked some of the kids who was going to grow up and go to the university and many of the kids had their hands up and smiles on their faces. I’d be curious to ask that question again to those students in about 6-8 years and see how many chose a different path. An observation I did notice: it seems as though after the apartheid, many people were so reluctant to help out the township schools. Before the apartheid, the white schools were so superior and the focus was on them, and now after, it seems that so many people wanted to help out the township schools that the balance has shifted. Unfortunately for the coloured schools, I’m not sure how much help has come their way as they seem to be in between. The shock of the shacks in the area really didn’t seem to hit me so much … I’m thinking it’s because the first time I saw conditions like such were when I was in St. Lucia last May. The living conditions are the exact same… no jobs for the people so they hang around in the streets waiting for work. They find whatever… cardboard, metal, anything to build a shack. All I can say is thank god for schools. It’s an outlet for some of these kids… keep them in school and off the streets.

THURSDAY, MARCH 6

Please note, the picture below is a picture that I took... and yes... we really were that close to each other.... wowzers!

Back to Rustenburg I go… but only for about 30 minutes. I actually realized how much I missed my school while I was away for the first part of the week. In the staff meeting I was mentioned how much I was missed by everyone and responded to them by letting them know how much I missed them. They really are such a fine staff and what I missed the most was the conversations in the staff room and having that sense of belonging. I didn’t really seem to get that in the coloured school. By the way, I forget to mention… The majority of the staff at the coloured school is also coloured. The majority of the staff at Rustenburg is white. Anyway, I was back at Rustenburg for the Grade 11 geography field trip to Cape Point. Oh no… baboons here we go. We headed out to Cape Point around 8:30, and arrived around 10 or so. Let me just state for the record… the baboons were WORSE than the time before. Let’s just say that if teaching doesn’t work out, I’ll be living in South Africa working as a baboon chaser. As soon as we arrived (on huge air-conditioned tour buses mind you), I saw a baboon run across the parking lot. I noticed there was a car in the middle of the lot and there were two men at the trunk of the car getting stuff out. One of their car doors was opened and what do you think the baboon did? Yep… jumped right into the car. So, all of us on the buses are just like screaming and laughing because this baboon literally helped itself right into the car and the two men were just a-chattin’ to each other in the back, not even noticing. Finally someone pointed out to them that their was a baboon in their car and they scared it away! Oy. People were serious about these baboons helping themselves. Don’t worry. That’s not my only story. So we get the girls (about 50-60 girls) and we gather around on some benches to talk about what we are doing for the day. I swear, as soon as we got off the bus, the baboons came out of the woodworks. They actually came right up to us looking for food (these are not cute animals… in fact, they are quite vicious!) You have to be careful about showing your teeth because they can become defensive. I had to act like I was throwing something them a couple of times to keep them away. So, one of the teachers had to stand on one side and I had to stand on the other as one of the geography teachers was talking about what the girls were supposed to be doing while at Cape Point. About 2 minutes later, I hear… “uh… Miss Daughters….” (pointing at something behind me). CRAP! A BABOON grabbed one of the girls water bottles and was trying to open it. EMILY! PAY ATTENTION! I’m thinking… “sh….what am I going to do? What am I going to do?” Then, the next thing I know, the baboon grabs the girls bag and pulls out her notebook, rips out a piece of paper… and starts writing!!... no just kidding. It didn’t really write, but it did pull out her things and so I really had to be the baboon chaser now. I had to scare it off and thankfully it dropped her bag and skedaddled. These things really are looking for food. AHHH! Thankfully they left us alone as we started moving. Good lord.

It was actually a great day for the field trip although it was quite hot. After walking up about 259 steps, one of the girls became rather dizzy and disillusioned. One of the girls called for a teacher to help her friend and we rushed over to give her some water and to make sure everything was okay. It was actually scary because she was really dehydrated and panicked. She claimed she couldn’t breathe so we had to calm her down. Everything ended up being okay, but thankfully I had my water to give to her and some clothing to pour water on so we could put into onto her neck and face. Overall, it was nice to see Cape Point again and to hike along the trails in spite of the heat and the baboons.

FRIDAY, MARCH 7

Since the whole week was messed up, I thought it would be a good time to go to Terrez’s school. He teaches at an all-boys primary school. He ended up placing me with a 5^th grade teacher for me to observe. Let me just state… it was SOOOO much fun! I loved the 5^th grade boys. I got pretty used to them. As I was sitting in the back of the classroom, the teacher came up to me and asked me if I would be interested in teaching a lesson to the boys. I was quite surprised and was apprehensive about it, but I decided to do it. If I can teach high school kids, I can teach 5^th graders! So I looked over what I was supposed to teach (Polygons) in about 5 minutes, and quickly had to decide what approach I was going to take to teach it. When the teacher informed the boys that I was going to teach their Maths lesson for the day, their response was as follows… “YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!” The boys were very eager to participate and I really had so much fun with them. It wasn’t a lesson that was going to be assessed; rather it was a lesson to introduce them to their next topic in geometry. Quite unexpected that I was going to teach, but it turned out to be a nice lesson.

The boys get out of school at 12:30 on Fridays so Terrez and I hung around his school for a little bit, and then walked over to the girls primary school to see our host mom. We waited for her to finish school and then she took us to the Waterfront so we could be dropped off. We were going on a Robben Island tour at 3:00! Woo hooo! Finally seeing a piece of history! The boat ride over wasn’t too bad. I did get some chills as I was getting off the boat because I just kept thinking about the history behind this island. I was setting foot on a piece of land that Nelson Mandela and many others once had set foot on many years ago. I was under the impression that the tour was a walking tour, but I was wrong. We got onto buses to be taken around the island. They used to do walking tours, but decided after seeing how many visitors they have on a daily basis, a decision was made to have bus tours. So we were on a bus with our tour guide for about 45 minutes and then dropped off at the prison. Along the bus tour, I learned that Robben Island was also used as a place to keep people who suffered from leprosy. People believed that the cure for leprosy was the leprosy itself (aka death). They brought people with leprosy to the island to die. They were given water and very little food. There is a graveyard of the many who died of it. I also learned of Robert Sobukwe, who was isolated from the other prisoners. The reason he was sent to prison was the fact that he was responsible for the burning of all passbooks. Passbooks are what identified you and blacks were required to have them and at any point if they were stopped, they must present the passbook and if not, you were thrown into jail. Nelson Mandela actually mentions the passbook in the “Long Walk to Freedom.” So we continued around the island. We stopped at a particular place and the guide mentioned how Mandela had worked long hours doing hard labor. There was what looks to be like an outhouse where many of the political leaders would meet and discuss issues, etc and what ended up happening is information was shared amongst some of the political leaders and when some of them were free from jail, they would take the information with them and share it with their people. So what ended up happening is the political leaders were helping each other out by providing sorts of information for others to spread out. As for the type of information, this I am unaware. From the island, there is an awesome view of Table Mountain of which I’m pretty sure I now have about 32432 pictures of the mountain. It really is breathtaking. Anyway, after the tour, our bus drops us off at the prison and we are greeted their by an ex-prisoner, which is really neat. Our ex-prisoner took us around inside the prison. I had to stop for a minute and try to think about what the prison looked like about 17 years + ago. The last prisoner left in 1991. The first room we went into was definitely fascinating because the paint was peeling from the walls and you could see where bunk beds used to be nailed into the walls, etc. Unfortunately, as our guide mentioned, a week from now those walls are going to be painted over. It’s actually a pity because that really takes away the effect and impact the prison can provide to people. I saw Nelson Mandela’s cell which was also great to see, but it almost seemed meaningless because everything looked freshly painted. I’m not sure why they chose to paint the prison… maybe it was in a bad condition, but I kept thinking what if Nelson had written on the walls of his cell. We wouldn’t have been able to see it. I’m not saying that seeing the cells didn’t impact me, but by doing such a thing, like painting the walls, takes away from its meaning and value. Fortunately I did get some good pictures of the prison so it is my hope to have those up soon.

Overall, it’s been a pretty hectic week. I enjoyed every minute of it as I felt really high at times and low as well. It’s setting in on me that I have less than 3 weeks to go, and I can’t say that I’m highly disappointed. I’ll be glad to get back home, but know that I’ll be sad to leave such a fun place and the people I’ve met here who I can call family. I have so many South African friends and for this I am grateful. Not that I won’t miss my school, the people, and the country, it will be bittersweet. Ohio is my home for now and I’m ready for it. I didn’t think I would ever come to that while I was here, as I have really enjoyed myself so much, but it’s sadly coming to an end of a great experience. J By the way, I’m not ending this post on a sad note.

TWO OCEANS HALF MARATHON!!! I cannot wait. I actually became rather motivated yesterday morning (Sunday) as I got up at 6:15 AM to go out to watch the Argus Cycle Tour participants. The Argus Cycle is where about 30,000+ cyclists participate in a 109 km race (about 65 miles). It was awesome to see the male professionals this morning racing. Any type of racing is such a thrill for me and I really cannot wait for the marathon race. Terrez and I ran Saturday morning. We ran another 16K (about 10 miles) so I’m feeling rather prepared. My last and final long training run will be next week. I’m hoping to complete about 18 km. I’m ready and cannot wait!

If you got all the way through this post, Congratulations! You’re a true fan. :)

Thanks for reading, loves!