REFLECTION ON MY STAY AT TEC FROM 28 JAN 2014 UP TO NOW

REFLECTION ON MY EXPERIENCE AT 

                                                 TEACHERS EDUCATION CAMPUS UMP

Upon arrival at TEC on the 28th January 2014, I was shocked, is was not what I expected. I expected a grand university with wonderful buildings and all the works that I have seen in my previous years only to find the total opposite. It looked like an old rundown boarding school. The SRC was supportive in all aspects where we needed their help e.g. finding our rooms and other necessary buildings.

Lectures and lecturers

The way in which lectures handle students and their attitude towards us was not what I expected as they treated us like kids than responsible adults. They beg us to submit our work and they are willing to hear whatever excuse we can come up with. Late coming to lectures was supposed to be penalized but no action was taken to it thus it is still happening.

The lectures also were very descriptive meaning that we get more information from lectures than we find out on our own and yet at tertiary level we are supposed to find most of the information on our own.

The module that I enjoyed the most is Education studies because the information there is facts and never changing. What I like the most about Mr Rademeyer is that he gives us information we will need then challenges us to find the extra information on our own (you must study). I was also impressed by the English lecturer (Mrs Rademeyer), the only thing that was a problem for her is that the students did not respect her with the respect she deserves.

We did not have a learning guide in Siswati and I found this to be a blow on my side because I am not that good in the language and I need to study for it. This meant that I did not know what to study and how much of it I should study but later on we were provided with notes. This was better but still at tertiary level I was disappointed as I expect them to be prepared and up to speed but this was not the case in this module. The Methodology module is the one that I battled the most with because the lecturer did not follow the learning guide we were given at the beginning of the year. This often meant that I did not have a clue on what to study and where to find that information.

The library was poorly furnished in terms of books but now it is getting better by the day. The only thing they need to change with it is open till late as some of us love spending time in the library. Overall, the staff is professional and up to standards expected for university lecturers.

STUDENT LIFE

Student life took decisions on our behalf and did not bother asking our views on issues that affect us directly e.g. not being allowed to have alcohol on campus. In my opinion this is bad because were supposed to make those decisions on our own so that when we graduate they have the correct idea on our behaviour and not feed SACE incorrect information and we turn out to be disastrous as we do not know how to handle ourselves because we were never exposed to freedom.

The other thing which I was not impressed about is the security system. It was too poor and anyone could get access into the campus if they wanted to meaning that it would have been easier for criminals to attack us. I am glad nothing bad happened even though the community threatened us when they were striking for employment and they are in the process of upgrading it. The food in the cafeteria is terrible and wish I could cook for myself. 

MY FINAL SCHOOL YEAR AT BANTFWABETHU HIGH SCHOOL, MPUMALANGA PROVINCE

The place I come from is called Elukwatini. Situated next to Nhlazatshe, many people mistaken it into being the same thing but it is not. Nhlazatshe was founded in 1976 when they forcefully moved people from Kromkrans. Elukwatini was found later on as a suburb to Nhlazatshe and is controlled solely by the municipality where as Nhlazatshe by the chief. People who live here are in the middle class of the economy and is dominated by teachers and nurses in terms of profession.
https://goo.gl/maps/MXlm2

The school I matriculated in was deemed as a low performer for years but in 2007 things changed and the pass rate went up. All due to hardworking stuff and determination of the learners to make the school a better place and break records. In matric, I was in the sciences class and did the following subjects: English FAL, Siswati HL, Life Orientation, Life sciences, Physical sciences, Mathematics and Agricultural sciences.

This is a picture of my school, you can follow the link to see it on Google maps
https://goo.gl/maps/phZXj

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  Me in my school uniform.

I was the black sheep of the class because I had the meanest attitude towards my classmates and teachers. The only teachers I got along with in the whole school was the Principal, HOD for mathematics, HOD for Accounting and my Physical sciences/Mathematics teacher. The reason for this I do not know but I can basically say it was the year of my life as a lot of good things happened after putting in a lot of hard work into my studies. Even though I had a bad attitude I managed to make friends who I thank God for. 

It is only in Physical sciences where the teacher used any technology in class. this he did by showing us videos on topics that we were dealing with to make them easier to understand. he connected to the internet using a modem and his own data bundles because the school was too poor to support him so he sacrificed for the education of his learners.

Chrome extention for Grade R: numbers

link: chrome-extension://ngjnnhglbehfciediimclocnhiokogdb/www/index.html

The Google chrome extensions library offers a lot of applications that can be used for teaching and learning. Most of them are in the form of games which make it intriguing for young kids making it fun to learn. The apps for mathematics range from kindergarten (preschool) up to higher grades (grade 12 and basic tertiary mathematics). The apps for mathematics cover counting, colours/patterns and shapes but at this point in time I was only interested in finding one that is suitable to help Grade R learners with counting.

 The app that I found most suitable is called ‘Writing Numbers Lite’. It helps learners with counting because it has a voice/ audio clip in which you can hear the name of that number. The number is also given in bold and you have to trace over it using the mouse. Also it will give you objects to count which are equivalent to the number in question. 

MY PERSONAL TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

My name is Sibongokuhle Gladness Masango from the rural areas of Elukwatini in Mpumalanga Province. I am currently enrolled for B Ed foundation phase at the University of Mpumalanga, teacher’s education campus in Siyabuswa and I am doing my first year of the four year course.

My goal as a teacher is to give the learners the correct and appropriate foundation education that will ensure that they develop fully so that they may find the rest of their lives to be a little bit easier. With the experience that I have had in the past, I have noticed that many learners struggle not only academically but also in their personal lives due to insufficient development in the foundation phase. A lot especially in the black community end up hating school and not succeeding in life because they were never given the chance to develop as a normal child is supposed to. This can be due to a lot of things and the foundation phase teacher is the key to all this changing because they are the ones who determine how or to what a child will grow up to be like.

The work of a foundation phase teacher is very delicate and fragile. They have to make sure that they care for the child properly in all aspects and be protectors of the child. Nowadays, most of the parents are teenagers and do not really know how to raise a child properly since they also are kids themselves so the work is usually pushed to the grandmothers. The grandmothers too are also tired of this because they have their own lives to live and have played their part in raising their kids. When they are given these small children, they see them as burdens. At the end of the day the child is left alone and feels deserted thus they tend to be unruly and development is slowed. The world has changed from what it was before because there used to be a saying that goes like; ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, but these days it is not like that, u raise your own child and the village (community) will corrupt it for you.

My aim for doing this degree is to change the perception and the way of life in the communities that we live in today. I believe that before we can even try to change the child we have to change the environment in which the child lives. The surroundings under which a child lives or grows up has a huge role to play as the early childhood theories have said for example the Bio-ecological, contextualist, behaviourists, constructivists theories and etc. if we as the older generation lack values and morals, then what are we going to be teaching our kids. These days it is all about what is cool and expensive than what is right. If we could change the mind-set of the whole society then our kids will sure be better developed.

As a foundation phase teacher, I have to ensure that my learners are safe and secure meaning that I have to know what goes on in their lives after school so that if there is something wrong I can try and help the child. I see all foundation phase learners as innocent little souls who are products of dysfunctional societies and just need proper care, be given the correct directions to life and also given the chance to develop fully in all aspects so that they can find their true talents not the ones that will quickly give them money. 

I personally aim at changing the future of South Africa through the foundation phase learners by giving them what they need and not what I want.  If learners were allowed to develop to their full potential and their development be understood by foundation phase teachers then we would not be having these problems. We as foundation phase teachers will have to teach the parents and community how to treat and behave in front of their children so that the learner can be allowed to process things on their own and at the end of the day not blame their parents. We cannot expect to raise good and perfect children if we as adults still have the bad habits that turned us to be the kind of society we are now. We have to stop praising money and work on ethics, morals and values.