22 February 2006
Today we started the day with the Assembly. The learners line up in the assembly place by grade and class, girls first and boys behind them. They sing a religious song or two. Something is then read from the Bible in Afrikaans, and the message is discussed. We follow with the Lord’s Prayer (which I also say each morning during registered (homeroom) period.) The principal will then talk about something- a lesson that relates to work ethic and dedication to school, requests to pay the school fees, something. The Assembly is on the schedule for 6:55am to 7:05am every Wednesday but we have yet to finish before 7:40am…As a result, the first three periods before interval (a 25 minute break from 9:05 to 9:30ish when the learners who live in the hostel eat breakfast, the teachers sit in the staff room and eat sandwiches, and the rest of the learners run around…) will be shortened. I go to first period - Grade 11 Physical Science. Within the first 5 minutes I am interrupted by a learner who is there to tell me that my principal, wants to see me second period. As I continue teaching, I am met with many blank stares as I am teaching a new concept (Lewis structures.) It’s okay. We try it again. My co-teacher interrupts me to ask if she could try to teach them. Keep in mind, being the pessimist that I am, I think to myself- this is new to the syllabus meaning most likely she has not yet taught it and may not have ever seen it before…I try to keep a positive attitude…)

As she attempts to explain, the grade 9 & 10 Physical Science teacher pulls me out of class to help him with a worksheet that he plans to hand-out to his classes. He is a good teacher and quite intelligent so I do not mind helping although I would prefer to do it when I am not in class…To note, this is the same worksheet that I did for my co-teacher the day before so she could also give it to her grade 9 and 10 classes. It is interesting how someone stumbled upon this worksheet and yet, there is no answer key. After about 10 minutes, I return to class but my co-teacher pulls me aside and apologizes for interrupting but felt she could explain the concept, emphasizing the importance of us doing that for each other, and confessing that she is very intimidated and not confident teaching in front of me because she is afraid she is doing something wrong. (Despite the fact that I just graduated from college in May and she is 41 and has been teaching since she graduated from university I can understand where she is coming from but me intimidating?) So after our little chat, I return to class and as I continue, I am again interrupted, this time by a learner who is returning my keys for the computer lab just as the siren sounds. A learner comes to the front to ask me a question while my co-teacher begins explaining that she had not paid attention in class the day before so did not actually know what topic I was teaching and thought that we were doing organic chemistry. LADY- you interrupted my teaching and you were not even 100% positive you knew what was going on? Courtney – 0, RHS – 1.

I go to meet with my principal- he likes to talk, a self-proclaimed chatterbox. We have a good relationship and I am very fortunate to have him as my supervisor. Well, 2 periods later, I leave his office in time for first interval.

During this time, I go to talk with one of the senior staff members and the next thing you know, we are already about 10 minutes into 4th period. Crap, I have Biology with my 11th graders. I lock my classroom door when I am not there because learners like to run around and will take whatever they can- rulers, notebooks, chalk to eat, etc. I am thinking- okay, hopefully as they wait outside they are not being too loud and distracting to other classes. As I walk up the stairs, there are not 25 students standing outside my classroom. My door is locked and no one is inside. I do not panic despite having essentially lost my class but rather wonder where I could find them. For whatever reason, I turn around and in the next block (set of classrooms) I see my class waving and beckoning me to come. It was amusing that they took it upon themselves to find an empty class and wait. I walked over and we discussed the lock and key hypothesis in relation to enzymes.

And the day is not yet done. During my maths class, my Physical Science co-teacher interrupts my class because she wants me to fill-in the dates of when I completed certain topics in physical science (administrative, record-keeping, date-recording type things are of great importance and oftentimes overshadow the whole reason why teachers are here.) I am in the middle of explaining Law 4 of index notation in preparation for a test Friday. I ask her if it could wait until later. She says no so I ask if it could wait until next period when I was free. She allows that and I continue but 5 minutes later, a learner from her class comes in to retrieve the very paper I am supposed to fill-in. He returns with it 10 minutes after that. During those ten minutes, I am interrupted twice, each time by one of my 11th graders looking for the key to the computer lab.

After school I had a HIGCSE class with the grade 12 learners and also was hosting homework detention for 8 of my learners who did not turn in a lab report. Two showed up.

While walking home from school along the beach-like sandy road, under the blue sky and hot sun, I reflected on the events of the day, shook my head and smiled as I walked passed the bah of a sheep.