The new group of educators at Weltevreden Park Primary School is not only preparing themselves for the new academic year, but they are looking forward to getting to know their new learners.
“I teach foundation phase so I like to incorporate interactive activities such as games,” Jessica Williams began. “I am looking forward to implementing a lot of those activities and not just doing worksheets. I believe hands-on learning is a lot easier to do, especially with the foundation phase learners because they are still learning the basics.”
Learners and teachers have been back at school for a few weeks now and Renier Voigt admitted that so far teaching has been fun’. ”It’s not too difficult, and its primary school so you can’t give them too much information; but admin is just something else,” he admitted.
Milasakhe Qabaka, who teaches physical education said his favourite part of the job is watching the kids grow and showing them the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Loago Pilane started coaching at the school when she was 19, and said it is always beautiful seeing that ‘light-bulb moment’ in her learners. “When a kid gets that ‘aha’ moment that’s the beautiful part that I love about teaching so far. It is amazing seeing a kid growing from a six-year-old to an eight-year-old. It is seeing kids grow in every aspect, they are like our own babies.”
Many teachers will tell you that even with the most well-prepared lesson plan, anything can spring up and happen in a classroom, which means you always have to think on your feet. Bianca Ley said she takes this in her stride and as an opportunity to show her learners that mistakes are a part of life. “They will also realise that it’s okay to make mistakes and that you can’t have perfection all the time. It’s a learning curve because they can see that we are also human and we make mistakes, but how do we deal with them?”
