Molweni/Uhambe (Hello/Goodbye)

Thursday November 10, 2011 was my last day in grade R. I could not successfully teach the students because of the language barriers. They could not understand anything that I was saying to them. I’m so glad that I did get the opportunity to teach the Days of the Week song to them, along with Lindsay! They really enjoyed it, and they practice it at least 3 times a day. I hope that I can visit their classroom one more time before the end of our trip. 

 

Today was my first day in Mrs. Gladys 2^nd grade class, with Garreth.  I really enjoyed it. There were little to no language barriers. I could tell that the students were understanding by their facial expressions, responses, and involvement. It felt amazing when the children responded to my “good morning class”. I can definitely see myself growing more as a teacher from this class than in grade R. The first thing I did was introduced myself, and in return allowed the students to introduce their selves. After reviewing the days of the week, I taught them the calendar song. I have never seen students so excited to learn. I thought they would refuse to stand up and do the Macarena dance, but surprisingly they all did the dance with no complaints. After that, I called some of the students up by two’s and had them do it in front of the class. They were ecstatic and it turned out well.  Garreth taught a literacy lesson and I assisted him. There are not enough books for the students to take home so we had them copy the words from the book to take home and read over the weekend. The book was very short, but this lesson helped us identify the different leveled groups in the classroom. We plan to use what we learned today, to help us split the class into groups for future lessons. I thoroughly enjoyed my first day in 2^nd grade. I’m certainly excited about this class and opportunity.