Last Weekend, Awarenet hosted a maths tutors training at Rhodes University Faculty of Education in cooperation with Thabiso, a OLICO maths trainer and coordinator from the OLICO maths education foundation in Johannesburg.
The OLICO training started on Saturday with the more theoretical aspects of teaching. First we revised the basic structure of a lesson, as well as what the specifics in the structure would contain, such as an energiser. These energizers are meant to get the kids motivated after a long day of school so that they can effectively participate in class.
We got to experience these energisers for ourselves to get us energised as the training started in the morning hours and not everyone was fully awake. After everyone was fully motivated we began with some more complex topics, such as presenting learning material to a class as well as other important aspects of a lesson, designed to keep the students engaged and to keep the tutors in the know about what students are struggling with what aspects of the material they are supposed to be learning.
Later in the day, after a lunch break we also formed 3 groups. In those groups we each presented a different topic to the other tutors, while the tutors that were being presented to ask questions they thought potential learners might ask.
All in all the first day was very successful and set the groundwork for the following day, where we split into two groups, each of those groups preparing a lesson in which we’d present some of the content of a grade assigned to us. The other tutors would meanwhile be responsible for causing some of the problems one might have in a normal class, such as learners not understanding everything or not paying attention and talking to the other learners.
The second day was also a great success because it really provided us with some valuable experience hosting a lesson, even under imperfect conditions.
10 new students studying towards their Post Graduate Certificate in Education at Rhodes University were trained together with returning Olico maths tutors from Awarenet and Inkululeko. We all had had a very productive yet fun time together and we are looking forward to our time as tutors.
