When I made up my mind to go to South Africa to teach, I have to admit I didn’t sit and research what it would be like in South Africa. I think the best way to get to know something different from what you know is to experience it without any preconceived notions of what to expect. My two months of teaching at Kingswood College in Grahamstown, South Africa and actually living with Professor Baxen, my field coordinator, who observed me twice, was definitely an experience that I would do again. But knowing what I do now, I would have voiced my thoughts more openly.
After I met everyone I’d be working with at Kingswood, the staff, students, etc, I wanted to feel out what the school was like. I paid close attention to the lingo used, the way the staff communicated with one another, the expectations, behaviors from students and the best practices teachers used with the students. After a few days, I definitely began to pick up on some of these and I used them myself. My cooperating teacher and I were extremely different people, but by the end of my student teaching, we were the best of colleagues. Although we had an age difference, lived in different countries, had different views on many things, we both shared a common ground; our love for teaching. We wanted students to experience academic success, so when she had ideas to bring to the table, I was there to grab them as she was when I came up with ideas for the classroom.
I was able to immerse myself in teaching at Kingswood by volunteering to help with sport, going on swimming event field trips and volunteering after school with students from the township. I wish I could have had more time working with students in the township, but my short 6 week teaching experience didn’t give much leeway for extra time to observe or travel during school hours. The language barrier (I do not speak Xhosa or Afrikaans) was also very frustrating. In retrospect, I would recommend all COST students to observe multiple times at schools for students with special needs in different cities in South Africa as well as different township schools. Also, I realized I had to be vocal and proactive with my visits because you really are on your own in regards to setting up a life for yourself while you’re teaching in a different country. You can give off any impression you want, no one knows you, so you better get in good with people who can make your stay more valuable; people who can help you to understand why things are the way they are. For example, why there aren’t more special education schools or resources in Grahamstown, why there is still so much tension between ethnicities. It all goes back to South Africa and one word; apartheid. To me, this was so critical to understand. It boggles my mind. I learned throughout my teaching experience, however, to listen. Instead of imposing my thoughts upon people that I met, I listened. Listening to people’s views helped me to understand things in a different context. It made issues in the country real to me and understandable.
As I sit back and try to think of what I learned about myself as a teacher through this experience, I think the two most critical things I learned were; to be myself and not try to change my teaching style for someone else and never teach a new strategy with a new concept. When you try to fit yourself into a box to make someone else happy, you are straying away from everything that makes you, you. I’m not saying that if you are teaching rote material that has no meaning or relevance to children, and that’s what makes you comfortable, to keep doing it.
As I sit back and try to think of what I learned about myself as a teacher through this experience, I think the two most critical things I learned were; to be myself and not try to change my teaching style for someone else and never teach a new strategy with a new concept. When you try to fit yourself into a box to make someone else happy, you are straying away from everything that makes you, you. I’m not saying that if you are teaching rote material that has no meaning or relevance to children, and that’s what makes you comfortable, to keep doing it.
The students in the classroom where I taught were used to whole group instruction, sitting in their desks, facing forward. Many worksheets were passed out and students were very comfortable with working independently and being watched by the teacher, everyone coloring in their little pictures perfectly, inside the lines, only one right answer. Creative thinking was new for these students, and this is what I’m used to. Think outside the box….come up with your own ideas….you teach me and I’ll be the facilitator. This was very hard for my students to do. They are used to a different way of thinking. I learned so much about different teaching styles through this experience. There are so many ways to fill a student’s mind with knowledge; we all do it in different ways.
I set high expectations for myself in everything I do. I, also, do not believe in mediocrity. I think I rose to the occasion through this experience. I formed many relationships and grew as an educator. I was able to view a different country without just reading about it, I went and saw things and listened to people who have lived there their entire lives. Now I can piece together the pieces I brought back with me with the information I read in books on politics, education systems and the racial tensions. I am blessed to have had this opportunity and I will greatly miss South Africa.
