Hi Jenna,
I am sorry for not getting back to you. I go to school three days a week and I try to substitute when I am not in school, plus I have a 12 year old daughter and a 9 year old son, a 17 year old stepson and a husband, so I have no extra time.
I think it is so neat to be connecting with a teacher all the way in South Africa. I hope you are having a great week. I have to substitute tomorrow at the Jr. High School in my county. I will be in the Special Ed classroom and that is my favorite place to be. The mentalities of the kids in there are not much higher than 2nd or 3rd graders. I love them though.
Second grade is probably my choice of teaching. The children at this age are excited about learning and they want to be loved. I have subbed most of the grades so I think anything k-6th grade will be okay.
Do you feel that the US could better educate children if we had a different Education system? I am not sure if I agree with the No Child Left Behind Act because I see in the higher grades attitudes and kids not concerned about learning. It is hard to make a child interested and motivate them when they just don't care.
I agree with producing critical thinkers. My EDM 310 professor refers to "spoon-feeding" as burping back. I can see a lot of burping back in my kids school. I can also see in some cases how it is the only way some will learn. I guess it has to be used in moderation and the ones who like to be challenged need that form of critical learning to give them a challenge.
Where did you receive your teaching degree? How long have you been a teacher? Do you have a lot of parental influence? Parents make a big difference in the attitudes of the students. Many of the bad attitudes I see in the students come from the parents.
Anyway, I guess you probably have plenty to do so I will let you go for now. Thanks for corresponding with me.
Have a great day!
Sandy Presley
On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 6:30 AM, Jenna Hayes
Hi there Sandy,
I would be delighted to share some news with you. One of your other class students has already spoken to me too...:-)
First a bit of background: I am a second year teacher (graduated end of 2006). I teach at a middle class public school. The school I teach at is in the capital of South Africa, Pretoria, about 30km North of Johannesburg. During the apartheid days, my school was for whites only and was known as a Model C school. Since 1994 it has become free to all races. Today, our school is a mix of all cultures, blacks being predominant. It is an English medium school and mostly all the kids are fluent with some exceptions who come to our school from the rural schools. I teach grade 2's (7-8 year olds).
The technology access we all have here in SA is the same as you mostly. Many of our children have cell phones (my nightmare). They are not allowed to keep them at school, and only incase of emergency, they may bring them but then hand it in to the secerataries. They are very much in the technology era ie a lot of children have more computer skills than the older teachers at school. They always want to show me where to plug the DVD player in, but hello, I'm not an old teacher and keep reminding them that. They mostly all have computers, internet, playstation/xbox/Wii etc at home. At school, the children attend computer classes twice a week where they learn basic computer skills. The older children (Grade 7's) are being introduced to excel. They also play educational games. Last week the grade 2's had to design a sea creature (our theme this term) using the shapes toolbar in MSword.
At the beginning of the year, our school purchased Mimio (like Smartboard). We have begun using these in our classes and the children have responded well to this. Our blackboards have also now been replaced with whiteboards to be able to use the Mimio.
Pros and cons of our education system:
Pros:
The children are taught to critically analyse and solve problems in all areas. We try to generate critical thinkers instead of "spoonfeeding" them. They are taught to question all the time. We follow the OBE system (Outcomes Based Education) and the children do a lot of group work. In the foundation phase (Gr 1 - 3) the children are taught the basic Literary (Main outcomes are Reading, Speaking, Writing, collectin and analysing info) and Numeracy (counting, number patterns, basic operations, data analysing) skills. Our third major subject in foundation phase is Life Skills ie learning about diseases (TB, HIV), how to protect/prevent themselves from these diseases, personal development (using aparatus such as balls, balancing, throwing, catching, using their bodies etc), safety in the home and school, road safety, etc. I agree with all these and feel it is necessary at school.
Cons:
The standard is often too high for the children. There are a lot of second language learners (black children who don't speak home language English) even though they cope on a fluent level in English, they still battle to understand a lot of the language usage. Also there has seemed to be a general decline in the understanding of children overall and the standard of work is far too high. Even from when I was in school, the standard of work has since got higher. Work that I was doing in the beginning of Grade 4 is what they are doing in Grade 2 and Grade 3.
Overall, we are not in the dark ages as many other nations think. We are on the correct path, we just need to channel it correctly. We have come a long way since apartheid days and are slowly on the mend. I'm just thankful that all are given the opportunity to be educated. If a parent cannot afford school fees, they fill out an extensive form and given permission to be excempt of subsidised.
I hope this info is useful. Let me know if there is anything else you need to know.
Regards,
Jenna.
From: spresley73@gmail.com
> To: jehabean@hotmail.com
> Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:55:52 -0500
> Subject: (Miss Hayes and her Grade 2's) : Teaching in Africa
>
>
> Hi, I am an Education Major at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I came across your blog while searching for a teacher to contact for one of my class assignments. I think it is neat that you are a teacher in South Africa. I was hoping to correspond with you some and discuss education and some of the pros and cons. Have you ever been a teacher in the United States? What kind of technology do you have access to in South Africa? I am very excited about discussing topics with you. Hope you have time to email me back.
>
> Thanks and have a great day
>
> Sandy Presley
Sandy, I ended up writing my reply on the blog--just in case any student wants to be impressed by all that we are doing! And, please feel free to check the blog periodically and comment. We'd love that! Good luck with teaching. It's been 27 years and I'm still loving it, although, on any given days, a student can just amaze me with what they do--good or bad!
barb bassette
For more about our classroom:
www.creativityfrom303.blogspot.com
-----"Sandy Presley"
To: "bbassett@groton.cnyric.org"
From: "Sandy Presley"
Date: 10/10/2008 12:08PM
Subject: Researching Teaching Methods
- Hide quoted text -
Hi, I am in Elementary Education at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I was researching information on Burp Back Education and I came across your blog about burping back information and how a student must add to the information. I have a daughter in the 7th grade and I see a lot of burping back in her classes. For tests, we simply study the study guide. The tests are usually multiple choice and they are not asked to elaborate on what they actually learned. I have my pros and cons on multiple choice testing.
Can you tell me a little bit about the teaching tools that you use and how you effectively enable your students to learn?
Thank you for your time!
Sandy Presley
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