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Teachers- how do they do it?
Teaching comes with its highs and lows. Teachers- with ‘Open Learning Group’ there is one sure way to stay ahead amidst the chaos of high school. If you’d like to improve your teaching skills and stay up to scratch, keep reading.
Teaching is an art. There’s no doubt about it. I’m of the opinion that teachers are not given enough credit for the work that they do. I worked in a school for 10 months. That’s all it took to put me off any desire of becoming a teacher. Nonetheless, despite my experience, I highly respect all teachers. Especially high school teachers.
Despite the chaos that can be high school, it is important to be grounded in your education theory. Our country needs more passionate teachers who are sure of the curriculum and teaching practices to offer our scholars the best education that they can get. It’s important that despite getting frustrated and frazzled amidst the daily routines of high schoolers, you’re so secure in your education theory that you are still able to offer top-notch education.
After listening to friends humorously share their teaching experiences over a glass of wine, I’ve noticed a few frustrations all teachers seem to share:
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– It’s always your fault. Always.
35 out of your 36 students may be passing maths, but the parent of that one student who isn’t – blames you. Of course you can control how much time and effort they put in. You can definitely control their attention span and listening skills. Might as well just write their exam for them while you’re at it.
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– Starvation is a norm.
To the minds of students – teachers are not humans. You do not need to eat, drink or go to the bathroom. If they need you during break, you better be there or all hell will break loose. And don’t even think about snacking during class while your students are working by themselves, they will moan and stare at you until you feel uncomfortable.
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– Endless supply of ridiculous questions.
As hard as you try to be clear and simple in your explanations – there will always be that one student who asks a question you literally answered 30 seconds ago.
Teacher: Go to page 132 and read the second and third paragraph. All of the answers will be found there.
Student: Sorry, Ma’am. What page again?
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-When people who aren’t teachers give you teaching advice
During catch ups with friends or discussions with acquaintances, you may find yourself discussing something that happened in class or a particularly difficult student. Which you instantly regret when your chat buddy starts giving you advice on how to handle the situation.
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-Aaaaaaannnndddd… The curriculum has changed. Again.
Just as you start becoming familiar and comfortable with the current curriculum, you get a notification that changes have been made. Goodbye social life.
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Luckily there are a few things that stay the same when it comes to teaching. Like the teaching practices, methodology and the education theory. It’s always a good idea to have really in-depth knowledge of these so that when the curriculum is changed again, you can easily slot it into your way of teaching.
Open Learning Group (OLG)
OLG offers a great course to help you ensure deep roots into classroom practices and education theory. They offer an Advanced Diploma in Teaching (ADT) to teachers who are looking to further their education, improve on their current skills and to up their CV a bit.
Requirements:
- A recognised qualification with a minimum of 360 credits at NQF level 6 that includes two recognised school subjects
- You must be able to take two methodology subjects
The course is structured as follows:
(A recognised school subject is included in the Department of Basic Education’s official list of school subjects.)
These are recognised school subjects completed in a qualification obtained:
- a recognised school subject at level 3 +
- a recognised school subject at level 2 (depending on subject specific requirements).
This course can take you anywhere from one year to three years to complete. Since OLG is a distance learning institution, you can study this while still working. For more information, take a look at their details regarding their ADT course.
Relevance is Important
I don’t mean relevance in terms of staying in touch with the youth of today, I mean staying up-to-date in your industry. This applies to all professions. It’s important to stay in tune with developments in your industry and it’s important to be skilled to the point of being highly confident in your capabilities. Especially when it comes to educating the future leaders of our country.
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FundiConnect 2Cents
Every day is different when it comes to teaching. You would think that you’ve seen it all with the different antics students come up with, but somehow they always manage to surprise you. No matter how much they infuriate you and how many sleepless nights you have, teaching is rewarding. The smile on a students face when they finally understand something makes it all worth it in the end.
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