Tips for RLECTIVE JOURNALING by Janna De Gouveia

Educational biographies and Tips for success at Lebone

DI ROBERTS

Fell in love with school  as a young child, and still loves it. Driven by the question what makes a person thrive, when they have learning challenges.

Never take everything for granted. Why is this child behaving this way? Why does my colleague do this? German nun under a tree learning poetry. Really loved the experience of school. Found myself critting teachers whose classes I sat in.

Teachers College in Graaf Reniet. Longed for my own class with own children and own things.

Learned not to judge my parents, who are simply trying to do the best they know how. Lesson plan for the day was done by 10am each day, despite my efforts to be so organised. 

Relationships: with children. You are the significant adult in their lives. You are not their friend. Same with parents. Make sure you are surrounded by a supportive group of colleagues. Friends at school. At times you may work with someone you cannot relate to. The answer is to respect the position and leave the person out of it. Work smart and not harder. Never complain as a first year teacher - comply and (complain afterwards). Headmaster asked, "Are you a professional?". Doctors don't stay up at night fretting. Your family needs your emotional support. Keep balance and humour.

Be fit - physically, spiritually, mentally. Must FIT in terms of your person and the expectations we have. External locus of control. We don't overdo affirmation. We don't sit back, take initiative. Trust yourself to make a difference here. Trust your team. The leadership to guide, mentor, monitor and stretch.

Don't take anything for granted. Test assumptions. Plan, ACTION/DO and reflect.

The expert in anything was once a beginner….

I knew that I was faced with an enormous challenge when I accepted the position at Lebone II College, but I also appreciated the fact that this is an amazing opportunity – the opportunity to touch lives. 

“Work fills a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work and the only way to do great work is to love what you do” – Steve Jobs

 The first few days at Lebone II were, to put it mildly, overwhelming.  Survival mode kicked in.  One thing was very clear – this school demands excellence.  It touched my heart deeply to observe the great deal of mutual respect the Lebone family exhibited.  

During the first session of the New Teacher Café, I was confronted with the question “What were your first impressions of the school?”   One thing was indisputable – expectations are high.  The expectations imposed on learners and teachers are not verbalized, but it lives in the soul and culture of the entire Bafokeng family.  Trying to live up to these expectations came with a degree of internal conflict.  You become own worst enemy.     

Crucial to survival is to come to the realization that everybody was a beginner at some stage in their career.  One tends to become subjective when confronted with such high levels of excellence.  The more I engaged in conversation with fellow teachers, I came to realize the importance of reflection.  Without reflection, growth is impossible.  What an eye-opening experience to listen to the personal roads that experienced teachers have traveled throughout their teaching careers.  They made mistakes, went through some tough times, felt uncomfortable and tried to be perfect.  In spite of these stumbling blocks, they all learned a valuable lesson – trust your instincts.  Your instincts might not always be spot on, but as with all great inventions, mistakes can create vital tools.  Growth and discovery is essential because if we teach today’s students like we did yesterday, we rob them of tomorrow.  It is an impossible task to try and perfect everything all at once – it is going to take years.

Reflecting on my own experiences and the experiences of other teachers I can conclude that:

• I am strong, because I’ve been weak.
• I am fearless, because I’ve been afraid.
• I am wise, because I’ve made mistakes.
• If you’re not willing to learn, no one can help you.  If you’re determined to learn, no one can stop you.

The Image of Lebone

When I left Lebone in 2010 to begin university studies at Wits, I never thought I would actually come back to be part of Lebone again and especially in the teaching field. Nevertheless, to my own disbelief I was appointed to be among the science interns at Lebone.  Lebone produced an amazing person who I am today. To begin  with I never thought I would be able to meet the university of Watersrand standard  when I was looking at the back ground of  my late school before I would be part of 13^th Year here at Lebone in 2010.

Lebone is more than just an ordinary school; I would personally say is much like a university in the way it is structured and the way learning and students development is taken so seriously. The Faculty of Science here is fully equipped and students have an opportunity to learn and to perform some practical experiments related to what they have learnt in theory. I strongly support the idea of practicals because true learning is proven scientifically by its results. I was observing one of the Grade 11 classes where they were differentiating between animal and plant cells under the microscope, and the response from the learners were absolutely phenomenal as they were building up on what they had  already learnt in theory in relation to what they were seeing practically.

The school has a unique way of doing things. I was really moved by how Mrs Rachel du Toit was getting involved with parents of Grade One on how they can also help to groom the future of their kids by showing them how to read and pronounce difficult words. That made me realize how education and students development is taken so seriously right from the Foundation Phase.

Through the support I got from Lebone staff, I really don’t feel so bad about the decision I took about considering teaching as a career. Teachers here are open and so courageous hence it didn’t take me so long to get along with them and to freely to discuss how I feel about teaching.

New Teachers Café plays a major role to shape better teachers of tomorrow, and is one of the greatest weapons that keeps me pushing and striving for the best.