Well, growing up as a kid, I had always wanted to be a lawyer.
When I matriculated in 2009, I was so undecided and I had no idea what I wanted to study.
I had always been a fan of theory, and thus I wanted to study theology, philosophy, law, politics well and..,journalism.
So I decided to take a gap year in 2010. So I can think through on what I really wanted.
Towards the end of my gap year, I was still undecided. And this was when I met a Lady who advised me to apply for teaching, and whilst in the profession, I can think through on what I really wanted to study and then study it part-time. Plus education has no age limit! Imfundo ayigugelwa!
So I applied for teaching towards the end of 2010, and I was accepted at the University of Johannesburg.
My first year at Uj was really depressing.
Mainly because I was still getting used to the place, the lecture halls were overcrowded, I had too many modules and as a result I had difficulty managing my workload.
Making friends was easy, but finding friends I had something in common with was really hard.
During orientation classes, we were told that we will have to go for our school experience (practicum) (practice teaching), for a week, somewhere in September.
I thought teaching was only theory, no practicals.
I had always hated practicals, from in school, during biology, technology and science classes.
University made my hate for practicals to grow even more.
During my first year of school experience, my friend and I went to a primary school in Mofolo, Soweto.
The teachers there were not accommodating, they never even bothered to converse with us, they looked at us as if we were there to steal their jobs. The whole week I learned nothing, but a few teaching and classroom strategies from some of the teachers. We were not allowed to teach, but observe.
During my second year of school experience, I was to complete 5 scattered days of practice teaching in April.
Since my friend had dropped out, I decided to go alone this time, to a nearest school in Eldorado Park.
The name of the school is Eldorado Park Secondary school. It is one of the best performing schools in Eldos.
I was placed under my mentor teacher who is Mr Hendricks.
Mr Hendricks taught grade eight and nine social science.
He was very welcoming and accommodating.
He was really friendly and energetic.
His energy didn't allow me to be an observer in his classroom.
He wanted me to do something, he allowed me to teach, sign the learners books and facilitate group work.
Mr Hendricks' classroom was no ordinary classroom.
The minute I walked into his class, I realised that it was a social science class.
There were history and geography posters all over the walls.
There were flags of different countries around the globe and handcrafts e.g solar system crafts and volcano crafts made from dough and food colouring.
All these crafts were made by himself and his learners.
Mr Hendricks took three or two classes a day, whilst I took the rest of the remaining classes.
He was creative in his lessons and didn't struck me as a traditional teacher.
He had effective classroom management strategies and he managed to engage all learners in his lessons.
He didn't dominate the classroom, his lessons were learner centered and he enabled learners to explore answers by themselves, he wasn't the sole provider of knowledge.
I loved his classes, when I stood up to teach, his learners paid attention. Seemed eager to learn, and they didn't look at me as a student teacher, rather as a teacher.
It was my first time teaching, and as I was teaching, learners answered my questions, asked questions, and this shows that they are listening and want to know more.
It was really challenging but at the same time fun.
It was through this school and Mr Hendricks and his learners that my love for teaching developed.
Through this school that teaching had become a true passion for me.
Mr Hendricks enabled me to take over his classes, and I was able to employ Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences and learning styles into practice rather than learning about them.
Learners seemed interested in my lessons and they completed my classroom activities and homework.
I couldn't wait waking up each morning to teach them and learn from them.
It really was a blessing being in that school.
Then in September, for another one week, I had decided to go to a primary school in Eldorado park again.
The school is Eldridge primary school.
I received a warm welcome from the school principal and the teachers as well.
I was to teach grade 7 social sciences.
I can't remember my mentor teacher's name, but she was a nice lady, who also allowed me to take over her classes.
It was through this school that I was able to deal with diversity and inclusion.
Like the previous school, the learners came from different backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds, religious beliefs, race etc.
It was a mixed school of coloureds, Indians and blacks.
During my practice teaching there, I was notified that most of the learners come from an orphanage.
During lunch breaks while conversing with learners, some of the learners came forward as the ones who were living in orphanages and how they too wanted to be teachers.
I really had difficulties teaching these learners, because most kids who come from poverty stricken families tend to zone out during lessons because of hunger.
But I managed to make my lessons interesting for them, so that they can also be engaged in the lesson.
They always loved the round robing teaching strategy as well as the jigsaw method and debates.
This enabled them to be part of the classroom, to voice out their opinions and to respect one another's views and ideas.
I also had a great experience teaching these young ones and learning from them.
There was a group of boys in one class, who were also from an orphanage.
These boys were so intelligent, a group of gifted learners who get bored in class due to easy classroom activities.
They always wanted to be challenged, and it wasn't easy for me.
I'm just saying I will never forget these boys, their intelligence was breath taking.
They knew things that I had only started learning in varsity.
This shows how I undermined the young ones.
I went to a few schools in Eldorado Park, like Silver Oaks, Kliptown Secondary and Eldomaine.
I had good and bad experiences, and each challenge that was presented my way, I allowed myself to grow from it, to reflect on my teaching as a teacher and to learn from my mistakes.
There was a learner in one of the schools, a girl. A grade nine girl.
Well, most of us student teachers were notified about her when we got to the school.
That she was rude, a bully and normally didn't attend classes.
I was to spend seven weeks in that school, and I was only able to see the girl after two weeks when she finally decided to come to school.
One day, I had an encounter with her while I was teaching.
She didn't have a textbook nor an exercise book in front of her, but she was busy with Math work in my class!
I asked her nicely to stop what she was doing as it was a social sciences classroom and share a seat with someone who had a textbook.
She got annoyed and started to verbally attack me.
For five minutes I was trying to calm her down, but the more irritated she became.
I then decided to ignore her and teach.
Luckily the vice principal was outside and decided to send the learner for detention.
The learner blamed me for getting her into trouble. And she promised to whoop-my-arse.
When I told the other student teachers about the incident, they were convinced that she was going to beat me since she was coloured and reminded me of how dangerous coloured were/are.
This incident reminded me of a teacher who was shot by a pupil, and how we as teachers have no rights in the education system, that no matter how wrong the learner is, in the eyes of the education system in South Africa, the learner is always right.
I wasn't phased, and just because many teachers see her as a bad learner, I was willing to teach her.
I made sure that I included her in my lessons.
For four weeks teaching her, I managed to focus on her strengths , on what she's good at rather than her weaknesses.
And it was through this that I was able to form a good teacher-learner relationship between me and her.
And during my last week of school experience, she was well behaved towards me.
I'm trying to say that it is not easy being a teacher.
You have to be able to deal with learners from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, gifted and slow learners, disruptive and shy learners, at the end of the day, all these learners have needs and they need to be met.
I also had incidents with older boys, who had a problem distinguishing between a teacher and a learner.
Boys who were on drugs and came to school high.
These are just some of the challenges that we the young and new teachers in the profession have to deal with.
And I believe that we will grow from these incidents and challenges.
And I believe that we too, as our former mentor teachers and teachers we will be able to create a safe and conducive learning environment for both our learners and ourselves.
None the less, I think I'm ready to become a teacher now.
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