Student introduces themselves and explains to learner what she expect to learn from their workshops.

Preparing the speech and practicing how to present.

The student’s biggest concern is that they only get three meetings with the learners, and they wish they could get more interactions as they see the benefit that this has for the learners and also the effect it has on them as students. Below is a reflection from one of the students, Mamello Masilo.

Reflection of Day 3: The last visit

We began by looking for a place (a spot) outside to settle in nicely and we asked her about her holiday and whether she missed us or not. As soon as we were all calm and comfortable, she started presenting the speech for us. The shyness was gone from her, she presented with confidence and we were really proud of the work we have accomplished. We taught her hand gestures that she should do while presenting to gain credibility from the audience as well as to appear as if she knows her story. We practiced more to make her get the different changes that we taught her.

We took a break by taking pictures before we did the final presentation. On the last presentation, we took a video because we thought that it would be nice to show our lecturer the outcome of our hard work by including it in our profile. We also awarded her with a certificate and, on top of that, we surprised her with the small “thank you” gift that we bought for her. She was very happy and teary, that was an emotional moment for me because I don’t like saying goodbye to the people I like, but we had no choice. We wished her well with her studies and her future. We also said encouraging words to her and handed a guidebook that we made to help her with future speeches. We hugged and she left. We made sure that we didn’t make any promises that we can’t keep.

It was really lovely to realise that we are not only developing a Grade 6 learner, but we personally are growing too. I know that through these three visits and working with the learner, I have changed a lot; I have gained confidence, patience and surprisingly love for teaching. This outreach told me that I prefer working with a team. My teamwork skills, time management and communication skills have enhanced. Having a partner that I had was a blessing, our creativity levels was always high, we had a good relationship throughout the process and we worked hard every time. If I had another opportunity to choose a partner to work with, I would choose her again. I had a wonderful time in this module.