Birthday of Unforgettable Happenings...
It is January 11, 2006: and what a memorable birthday it was for me! I didn't have my camera to capture the faces of those 800+ learners sitting on the floor of the somewhat small auditorium at Norkem Park High School. For me, the "Kodak moment" occured when they clapped furiously upon my introduction by Mr. Welch, the headmaster at Norkem Park. When I bowed, they cheered even louder and threw in a few cat-calls. It was exhilerating! Mr. Welch had just given them an inspirational, beginning-day speech...that included a lengthy quote from Psalms 121. For a public school, the reading was something to behold. The silence in the auditorium was "deafening", speaking to the respect the kids showed for an administrator who I'm told is in his last year as headmaster at Norkem Park.
The teachers at school hold a staff meeting every day at 7:30a.m. They sit in groups of five or six and actually communicate with each other--daily! The administrators do what all administrators do: hand out the marching orders for the "foot soldiers", the "grunts" in the classroom. I was also introduced by Mr. Welch at the first staff meeting. I told my new colleagues how much I was honored to be with them and said, "...I am the real learner here, right along with the eager learners waiting anxiously outside the building. The first day of school is always memorable. I still get an upset stomach and sleep is difficult the night before that first day. It was no different this day at Norkem Park High School, Kempton Park, South Africa.
My job today was to do nothing more than observe how my colleagues did things. Once I entered Marina's empty classroom I was "safe". The goosebumps disappeared and I was ready to address the learners who would fill those desks the following day. Everything in the room was clean and ready to be used by Marina's replacement: me! I'll be teaching 8th-grade HSS (Human/Social Sciences), and 10th-grade History, which includes many chapters on South African history. It will be a real challenge...but I can't wait!
Ending up the day, Izak Cronje, Marina's kind and gentle husband, cooked a "braai" dinner outdoors at "his" home (which actually is our home during the exchange...he lives there too/will move to the upstairs when Svetlana and Ivan arrive in late February). For dessert, we consumed a mound of "linchis", which are a small, golf-size fruit, covered with a rough, green and red exterior (which is peeled off), exposing a green, melon-soft fruit that is dripping with sweetness. The dark brown nut inside is bitter and is to be thrown away with the peelings. The fruit grows in South Africa. Delicious!
The teachers at school hold a staff meeting every day at 7:30a.m. They sit in groups of five or six and actually communicate with each other--daily! The administrators do what all administrators do: hand out the marching orders for the "foot soldiers", the "grunts" in the classroom. I was also introduced by Mr. Welch at the first staff meeting. I told my new colleagues how much I was honored to be with them and said, "...I am the real learner here, right along with the eager learners waiting anxiously outside the building. The first day of school is always memorable. I still get an upset stomach and sleep is difficult the night before that first day. It was no different this day at Norkem Park High School, Kempton Park, South Africa.
My job today was to do nothing more than observe how my colleagues did things. Once I entered Marina's empty classroom I was "safe". The goosebumps disappeared and I was ready to address the learners who would fill those desks the following day. Everything in the room was clean and ready to be used by Marina's replacement: me! I'll be teaching 8th-grade HSS (Human/Social Sciences), and 10th-grade History, which includes many chapters on South African history. It will be a real challenge...but I can't wait!
Ending up the day, Izak Cronje, Marina's kind and gentle husband, cooked a "braai" dinner outdoors at "his" home (which actually is our home during the exchange...he lives there too/will move to the upstairs when Svetlana and Ivan arrive in late February). For dessert, we consumed a mound of "linchis", which are a small, golf-size fruit, covered with a rough, green and red exterior (which is peeled off), exposing a green, melon-soft fruit that is dripping with sweetness. The dark brown nut inside is bitter and is to be thrown away with the peelings. The fruit grows in South Africa. Delicious!
posted by JOBURG JOURNAL at 11:04 AM
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