GetAhead Educational Software

This month we deviate from our normal format and discuss a few topics in answer to the question, “Does your child …?”. Some of these questions are adapted from a first term Life Skills assessment that we set for our Grade 2s. Older children should definitely be able to do the following …

This month we focus on what skills our children are learning at the start of this new year, and we re-visit our theme of “There’s always one” who is swimming upstream. Each year it takes a number of weeks to get the ‘feel’ of a new class. As a teacher one forms such strong attachments to a class that it takes a while to switch allegiance to the little strangers who now inhabit your class. It also takes more than a week or two to really get to know each child’s individual strengths and weaknesses, so when parents ask us after the first week “how is he doing?” it really is too soon to tell! You might rather ask “how is he settling in?”.

Last month we were checking whether you are the parent who is likely to get things right or likely to forget or be disorganised, either way influencing how your child’s school day will go. We continue with our checklist, this time focusing on food. As with last month, my main point here is that the one or two times that you will do this in your child’s school career is not only understandable, but is to be expected. I even forget my own carefully-prepared lunch sometimes. It is only a problem if this is a frequent occurrence.

We have a reading book in Grade 2 about a class going on an outing to the museum on a bus. As each unfortunate incident happens, the wise old driver chimes, “There’s always one”, because he has had the (mis)fortune of driving many classes on outings. One child is late, one child eats his lunch on the bus and then gets sick in someone’s hat, one child needs the loo as soon as the trip starts even though they all had a chance to go before they left. My question to you: “Is your child always the one?”.

One of the demands of OBE is that teaching should be ‘learner-centred’ rather than ‘teacher-/educator-centred’. This is probably one of the main reasons for the failure of OBE. Before elaborating on the particular problem here, let me say that it is part of a bigger problem – the tendency to operate in terms of a simplistic ‘either-or’ mentality. This approach ignores the fact that real truth is most often found in a ‘both-and’ approach (except in the case of universal values) – what I like to call ‘the power of paradox’.

Learners are required to do ‘orals’ (mini-speeches) on a fairly regular basis at school, particularly from Grade 4 onwards. We assess their presentation in terms of audibility, eye contact, confidence, interest level and content. My little Grade 2’s did their first oral the other day. The great assignment required them to relate 5 facts about a place in South Africa that they had been to visit. Overall they did very well and I could tell that moms and dads had helped them to prepare and rehearse.