Met my South African counterpart today and she is pretty fantastic. Thoko Sethole is a bright, energetic young woman who teaches English and Tourism (I know, right?) at Seshegong High School. And she speaks Sesotho, so I will be able to practice and perhaps revive some of my language skills. Indeed, all of the South African counterparts were very impressive and we had some great discussion during our workshop today around challenges in education in the two nations. Despite differences between countries, the challenges were very similar: lack of/unequally distributed resources, disconnect between decision makers and classroom teachers, implementation of short term responses to long term problems, lack of teacher input in policy changes, etc.
Had time to walk around the area both before and after today's work session, finally seeing the city in daylight. It was cold (it is winter, after all) but we warmed up quickly. In the sunlight I could see just how rapidly Johannesburg is growing -- there is construction going on everywhere in the Sandton part of the city where we are staying.
Had time to walk around the area both before and after today's work session, finally seeing the city in daylight. It was cold (it is winter, after all) but we warmed up quickly. In the sunlight I could see just how rapidly Johannesburg is growing -- there is construction going on everywhere in the Sandton part of the city where we are staying.