Yesterday was our first day meeting with staff members. It was interesting to say the least. I am still trying to reflect on it all and I do not think writing this will be the end to the reflections. It was an interesting dynamic between the educators in the room. Some dominating and some very passive, some veterans, some in their 1st year of teaching. It was….interesting…to say the least.
A quote that John brought up in the meeting which he completely stole for Confucius said: “Tell me and I forget, Show me and I remember, Involve me and I understand.” We were all reflecting as a staff at how amazing the holiday program was that Sara put together. About half of the school staff was there to observe bits and pieces and about one eighth of the staff was there and fully involved. All the staff members there or there for a bit kept commenting on how amazed they were at the work the kids produced in a 4 day period. They loved that the kids worked with their hands and created, constructed, wrote and performed a variety of things….kind of like how we feel about our kids at school. Many teachers even said (surprisingly too) that they “wanted to incorporate something like this in their classes this term.” I loved that the teachers were open to this…but honestly, it’s all talk now.
Anyways, John jumped in with this quote to tie it together saying that when he is planning his lessons that he always things of this quote, dresses up in Native American garb, and does a ceremonial dance to create a good lesson…ok not all that, just thinking of the quite. It makes him focus on how his lesson is involving the kids in the learning process as much as possible. Honestly, it’s been great working with John and Pam because I am learning so much from them. I hope the staff took to heart what John was trying to do because it was great advice.
The teachers seem passionate about their job. They seem to LOVE the students, which is the most important teacher can do before the teaching actually happens. They also seem like to want to progress their teaching styles and become better educators. There is an air of improvement that needs to be made, not only in LEAP, but in South African education in general. The main issue is that teachers are afraid of the Matriculation Exam. It is so comprehensive and so demanding on the students and teachers that I can see why they feel this way. The 2 weeks before the month long vacation, the kids took tests for each class for about 7 hours a day for two weeks. That’s a portion of the yearly exam they have to take. It’s entirely too much, but the kids see the importance (of the importance they are told of) and they study harder than I have ever seen for them. The kids are also scared of the tests. This is something that we are still trying to figure out, and working on how to implement project based learning and making them successful on these exams. More to come on this….
We will be celebrating 67 Minutes for Mandela on the 16th (it's really on Sunday the 18th) …a portion from his website (www.mandeladay.com) :
andela has spent 67 years making the world a better place. We're asking you for 67 minutes." Nelson Mandela turns 91 on 18 July, and the call has gone out for people everywhere to celebrate his birthday – and the global launch of Mandela Day – by acting on the idea that each person has the power to change the world. 
The celebration of Mandela Day aims to serve as a global call to action for people to "recognize their individual power to make an imprint and help change the world around them for the better", the Nelson Mandela Foundation said at the launch of the campaign in April.
"Nelson Mandela has been making an imprint on the world for 67 years, beginning in 1942 when he first started to campaign for the human rights of every South African. His life has been an inspiration to the world."
Now, the Mandela Day campaign is calling on people around the world to commit 67 minutes of their time "to make an imprint and help change the world around them."
Finally, Trevor, the Life Orientation (amazing class I’ll tell you about later) teacher spoke up and commented on his observations during staff meetings. He noticed that the black staff were not talking in meeting and the white staff were dominating the meetings. He is not sure why but he said that maybe the blacks feel inferior or the whites feel dominant. This was a fascinating topic to bring up because Sara commented on this before. When Trevor said this, no one really spoke up except Mapuleng (the black principal) who said, “This is a good topic to discuss, we will get back to it later.” Hmmm…am I missing something or is it something that should have been addressed more in-depth then rather than breaking for lunch?
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