Gap Year Students
Anna, Emma, Fiona, Isaac
Today and yesterday were the beginning of our gardening project in the Umlazi High Schools.
On Tuesday we went into Dloko High School. We started off the session with a name game, everyone had to say their name and something about themselves. We got treated to a traditional Zulu dance from two of the more confident boys. We went on to play a game where two groups had to try to get themselves in order of height/shoe size/birthday without speaking. They didn't quite get the silent bit but they loved it when their team won. We then played splat which they absolutely loved, everyone got extremely into it and had a good laugh.
Isaac arrived fashionably late due to his helping out Alex with technical support for his meeting with the Principals of Durban high schools in the morning. He rolled up just in time to be part of the session at the beginning of the main section.
We split the group of 27 in half. The plan was for one group to take part in the practical part of the session whilst the other took part in the theory and then the two would swap over. Isaac and Anna took charge of the practical side.
The theme for the session was composting so the practical team's task was to choose a site for the compost bin inside the school grounds. The first group went out and were themselves split into two teams. Each team presented their case for a specific site. After a small discussion/ debate between the two groups, a blind vote was taken and it was clear the group were happy with one site. They very much enjoyed presenting their points and the interactivity of the session.
The other half of the class stayed in the classroom and got taught the theory of the compost. None of them seemed to know about compost - they said they didn't grow things at home. They weren't very switched on but we managed to get the basics across and drill into them what you could use to make compost so hopefully the compost heap will get off to a good start.
We had a short recap and summary at the end of the session and the group went off very motivated from a hard but rewarding hour's work. The teachers gave us great feedback.
Today the plan was to go into Zewlibanzi High School and then on to Mangosutu University where we would be taking a class. We were joined by Nathaniel for the day as he would later be involved in the university.
Our session in Zwelibanzi was meant to run in the same format as the session of the previous day and was supposed to start at half 2 but it was getting on for quarter to 3 and no one had arrived yet. The 29 members of the Global Committee of Zwelibanzi had been designated at the gardening group. We managed to get hold of a couple of members in hope that they could round up the rest but in this we stumbled upon some real internal tension within the committee. The lack of commitment to the gardening project was low down on their list of troubles.
The committee was rounded up and we helped chair a meeting between all the members. Alex, who was only meant to be joining us as an observer, had to say some blunt words to the committee as he was the one who suggested it be founded in the first place. They had a dialogue to try and sort out a few of the internal problems but it was clear these were not going to be fixed in one sitting. So we focussed the conversation back onto the gardening and everybody seemed happy with the clear arrangements we set out for it.
We had planned to split the group, as we had done in Dloko, however due to the time constraints we took all 29 to an area we thought best fitting for a compost site. Fiona and Emma did a small theory lesson at the site, explaining simply what compost was and why it would be beneficial to start up a composting site. We then discussed what could and couldn't be put in the compost pile and who would organise taking waste products from the soup kitchen. We also discussed who would be in charge of watering the plants twice a day and decided on having two different people per day.
We left Zwelibanzi with a slightly easier feeling than there was at the start but there is still a lot more work to be done.
Our class at the University was one of the extra classes offered the the Grade 12s. It was an English class and we were teaching them how to write a CV, an invaluable asset here as in Scotland. The large class was split into three, as were the teachers. Isaac and Anna had a class of around 120, Emma and Fiona had around 100 and Nathaniel bravely led a class by himself of 30-40 pupils.
Emma and Fiona were quite nervous to being with but the students were mostly very attentive and eager to learn so once we got into it, it was relatively easy. It was our first experience of proper teaching but we had come well prepared with notes and activities for the learners to do. We guided them step by step through the process of writing a CV and they all ended with a first draft which they could take home and work on. We asked them to bring finished versions for next week's lesson which we would then take in and read over. We were pleased with how well the class had gone and were really proud of ourselves for taking on such a challenge.
Isaac and Anna were together teaching a class. We were both nervous due to the fact that neither of us were teaching our own type of CV writing. We decided to do a combined CV with more aspects of the South African style of CV. It was fairly slow to begin with, however it picked up towards the end and we received some brilliant examples and questions from the group. We did also manage to get a good bit of audience participation in the end even though they were apprehensive at the start.
The day can go down as a successful one. We challenged ourselves and it paid off.
Anna, Emma, Fiona, Isaac
Today and yesterday were the beginning of our gardening project in the Umlazi High Schools.
On Tuesday we went into Dloko High School. We started off the session with a name game, everyone had to say their name and something about themselves. We got treated to a traditional Zulu dance from two of the more confident boys. We went on to play a game where two groups had to try to get themselves in order of height/shoe size/birthday without speaking. They didn't quite get the silent bit but they loved it when their team won. We then played splat which they absolutely loved, everyone got extremely into it and had a good laugh.
Isaac arrived fashionably late due to his helping out Alex with technical support for his meeting with the Principals of Durban high schools in the morning. He rolled up just in time to be part of the session at the beginning of the main section.
We split the group of 27 in half. The plan was for one group to take part in the practical part of the session whilst the other took part in the theory and then the two would swap over. Isaac and Anna took charge of the practical side.
The theme for the session was composting so the practical team's task was to choose a site for the compost bin inside the school grounds. The first group went out and were themselves split into two teams. Each team presented their case for a specific site. After a small discussion/ debate between the two groups, a blind vote was taken and it was clear the group were happy with one site. They very much enjoyed presenting their points and the interactivity of the session.
The other half of the class stayed in the classroom and got taught the theory of the compost. None of them seemed to know about compost - they said they didn't grow things at home. They weren't very switched on but we managed to get the basics across and drill into them what you could use to make compost so hopefully the compost heap will get off to a good start.
We had a short recap and summary at the end of the session and the group went off very motivated from a hard but rewarding hour's work. The teachers gave us great feedback.
Today the plan was to go into Zewlibanzi High School and then on to Mangosutu University where we would be taking a class. We were joined by Nathaniel for the day as he would later be involved in the university.
Our session in Zwelibanzi was meant to run in the same format as the session of the previous day and was supposed to start at half 2 but it was getting on for quarter to 3 and no one had arrived yet. The 29 members of the Global Committee of Zwelibanzi had been designated at the gardening group. We managed to get hold of a couple of members in hope that they could round up the rest but in this we stumbled upon some real internal tension within the committee. The lack of commitment to the gardening project was low down on their list of troubles.
The committee was rounded up and we helped chair a meeting between all the members. Alex, who was only meant to be joining us as an observer, had to say some blunt words to the committee as he was the one who suggested it be founded in the first place. They had a dialogue to try and sort out a few of the internal problems but it was clear these were not going to be fixed in one sitting. So we focussed the conversation back onto the gardening and everybody seemed happy with the clear arrangements we set out for it.
We had planned to split the group, as we had done in Dloko, however due to the time constraints we took all 29 to an area we thought best fitting for a compost site. Fiona and Emma did a small theory lesson at the site, explaining simply what compost was and why it would be beneficial to start up a composting site. We then discussed what could and couldn't be put in the compost pile and who would organise taking waste products from the soup kitchen. We also discussed who would be in charge of watering the plants twice a day and decided on having two different people per day.
We left Zwelibanzi with a slightly easier feeling than there was at the start but there is still a lot more work to be done.
Our class at the University was one of the extra classes offered the the Grade 12s. It was an English class and we were teaching them how to write a CV, an invaluable asset here as in Scotland. The large class was split into three, as were the teachers. Isaac and Anna had a class of around 120, Emma and Fiona had around 100 and Nathaniel bravely led a class by himself of 30-40 pupils.
Emma and Fiona were quite nervous to being with but the students were mostly very attentive and eager to learn so once we got into it, it was relatively easy. It was our first experience of proper teaching but we had come well prepared with notes and activities for the learners to do. We guided them step by step through the process of writing a CV and they all ended with a first draft which they could take home and work on. We asked them to bring finished versions for next week's lesson which we would then take in and read over. We were pleased with how well the class had gone and were really proud of ourselves for taking on such a challenge.
Isaac and Anna were together teaching a class. We were both nervous due to the fact that neither of us were teaching our own type of CV writing. We decided to do a combined CV with more aspects of the South African style of CV. It was fairly slow to begin with, however it picked up towards the end and we received some brilliant examples and questions from the group. We did also manage to get a good bit of audience participation in the end even though they were apprehensive at the start.
The day can go down as a successful one. We challenged ourselves and it paid off.
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| Zwelibanzi High School garden |
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