WINNER
Francois Naude
Hoerskool Florida
Gauteng
Naude is a qualified zoologist who should be rubbing shoulders with eminent professors at a university laboratory. Instead, he opted for a profession he finds fulfilling: teaching.
A grade eight to 12 life sciences teacher, Naude realised he would make a good teacher when he was teaching first-year students during his fourth year at the University of Johannesburg.
“The students and some of my friends told me how good I was at explaining things and I decided to give it a try. I’ve never looked back.”
Naude believes the school environment encompasses all elements of his character, namely his love of working with children and his interest in sport, culture and community service. “It is the only place where all these spheres come together,” he says.
His preferred teaching method makes use of the latest technology such as YouTube, music, movies and games, as well as a good dose of humour. He also likes to do experiments because they give learners practical experience.
“Life sciences is the best subject because in a sense kids learn about themselves,” he says.
“I use my learners’ knowledge to light up a bonfire of passion to learn and therefore help themselves, the community and the country,” says Naude.
He believes that learners’ ignorance of the negative impact of HIV/Aids is a serious challenge: “Most of them think’ it would never happen to me’.”
Gender stereotypes are another challenge — female learners still associate science with white males. Naudé does his best to encourage them to work hard and believe in themselves.
SECOND PLACE
Silindile Patricia Nxumalo
Ngali Secondary School
KwaZul-Natal
Silindile Patricia Nxumalo chose to be a teacher because she enjoys working with children and seeing the difference that her contribution makes in their lives.
This English teacher of grades nine and 11 is also a librarian by training and has made a difference with an initiative that develops and enriches learners’ literacy skills.
In 2006, she founded a library at her school to encourage a culture of reading — something that has spread to neighbouring schools.
“Reading is an important foundation for anyone to be able to communicate and also develop intellectually.
The learners were struggling with doing their research projects because there was no public library in the area.” Nxumalo’s initiative has made a huge impact on developing literacy skills in the learners, most of whom had never even seen a library before. Nxumalo enjoyed the support of her principal.
She was given two adjacent classrooms to use after the department of education endorsed the initiative with a donation of books in 2010.
The library was officially launched the same year by the director-general of education. Not so long after this, five computers with Encarta software — used for research purposes — were donated to the library.
To increase the culture of reading even more, Nxumalo develops a new strategy every year.
This includes reading competitions and extends to marketing in other areas of the community. At one point even the circuit inspector was invited to come and speak. Today, children in the remote village of Ngali have access to a well-equipped library and have Nxumalo’s initiative to thank for it.
THIRD PLACE
Bonakele Maria Nyandeni
Umzimvelo Agricultural School
Mpumalanga
“Teaching allows you to spread your wings further than a class,” says Bonakele Maria Nyandeni.
The dynamics of being located in a poor area, coupled with her love of children, have placed her in a position where she not only takes care of grades 10 to 12 at the further education and training phase, but also led her to adopting five children in addition to her two biological children.
Nyandeni describes her teaching style as interactive and demonstrative, to stimulate interest in the learners.
“I use more than one teaching method. This involves using visuals such as DVDs if necessary,” she says.
“Dramatise your instructions by talking to your Swiss roll, for instance, to make the lesson interesting to the learners.”
This unique method of teaching has earned her a track record of a 100% pass rate in consumer studies. When she started teaching the subject at her school, there was no teaching structure and no proper equipment until 2009.
Nyandeni had to adapt her methods along with the help of donations from a nearby church.
Her passion for community work has led her to initiate projects that uplift the needy. She organised an RDP house for a learner and landed him a job at a restaurant to train him as a chef.
Nyandeni also provides community members with vegetables from the vegetable garden she started at her school.