“Mam” the blog has been really quiet since October 2020. The reason for this silence was the process of turning “Mam” the blog into “Mam” the book! It all finally came together on the 3rd of February when my book “Mam” – Teaching from the Heart was published. I can not describe the feeling of elation when holding your own book in your hands! If you would like to order, here is the publisher’s website : https://www.malherbe-uitgewers.co.za/brands/product/%E2%80%9Cmam%E2%80%9D-teaching-from-the-heart-sanet-odendaal or Read the free preview here and buy from Amazon: Thank you to friends and fami ..read more

This is Tuesday, Week 9 of teaching in Term 3, 2020 in South Africa. Lockdown Level 1. We are allowed to travel across provincial borders, smokers can buy their smokes, drinkers can buy their drinks, we are allowed in restaurants and may eat with our masks off. Nobody is fighting over toilet paper in supermarkets anymore. We may not enter any room/ shop/ mall/ place-where-people-are without sanitizing our hands. We have our temperatures measured at the school gate every morning. We teach with masks on, we don’t touch anything at work except our bags, we wash our hands 25 times a day. We saniti ..read more

We are in Week 8 of the nine week term that is now known as “Term 3 2020” in South Africa. It’s time for the 9th period of the day , 13h50 – 14h30. It’s also the period after lunch break which stretched from 13h10 until 13h50. I’m supposed to have a Gr 9 class of 30 learners returning after lunch for the last period. I have 8. The top 8 if I’m not mistaken. “Where are your classmates?” “Mam, they’re not coming back after lunch. It’s too hot. And we’re tired. And food makes us sleepy…” Having prepared an important poetry lesson, I fight the familiar feeling of defeat. Do I go to the hostel / ru ..read more

One of the biggest ironies of studying towards a Teacher’s Diploma or Degree is that NOT ONE SINGLE LECTURE ever speaks about the biggest challenge of the modern day classroom : How to control and manage a diverse group of children in such a way that learning can actually take place and nobody gets hurt nobody is insulted, thrown out or driven to old age quicker than God intended. A class full of kids is a reflection or “slice” of society. Every time a teacher stands in front of a group, he or she is faced with many different abilities, personalities, personal histories and an array of learnin ..read more

So. Wednesday. The third week of learners in Gr 9 being back at school after spending 5 months goodness knows where doing goodness knows what. TIME FRAME : 8h40- 10h00 ( 1 hour, 20 minutes ) and also 9hoo- 9h40 + 10hoo-10h40 ( another 1 hour and 20 minutes) CLASS : GR 9 ENGLISH Home Language  ( except it’s not their Home Language, most being Xhosa speakers who have chosen to attend an English Home Language School because “the discipline is better (!) OR the teaching is better because it is actually happening on most days and so on). AGE GROUP: 14-17 YEAR olds,  depending on previous ..read more

  “South Africans are reeling today after the tragic death of  six children and four adults in what was meant to be a happy family get-away near Kgalagadi Trans-Frontier Park. The ten people – including one entire family – perished in a devastating fire at luxurious Blinkwater Lodge in the Northern Cape. All the deceased were members of three families from Ceres in the Western Cape – the Carstens, Bauer and Davin families. According to local police, the Witdraai station received a call at around 01h20 on Sunday morning that the lodge (which was reportedly made of wood) was burning. T ..read more

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away a huge pooping disaster took place. You see, at this place, animals were stacked in cages, one on top of the other, waiting for someone to come and pick them for slaughter. And so, on this specific day, the bats in the top cage pooped on the rabbits in the cage below theirs, and the rabbits pooped on the ducks in the cage below theirs, and finally , the ducks pooped on the pigs in the bottom cage. Four kinds of poop mixed together in the bottom cage. A huge pooping explosion mixed with all kinds of other juices in the bottom cage and this mixing would ..read more

( featured image from https://fineartamerica.com/art/prayer) I drove to school this morning listening to  a Rachmaninoff piano concerto while taking in a breathtaking orange-red sunrise over the Eastern Cape veld. As always, the 35 minute drive allowed my thoughts to wander. I was thinking about gifts. Blessings. Questions with no answers. Faith. The “WHY’S” we so often ask. A friend is going through something similar to what I went through in my mid 30’s, wanting to settle down with the “right” guy, wanting to start a family, maybe feeling a bit desperate because the “right guy” is nowhe ..read more

It is Day 103 since the start of Lockdown in South Africa. We are caught up in a crazy STOP-START-GO-ALL-THE-WAY-BACK-TO-SQUARE-1 cycle affecting our lives emotionally, educationally and financially. Coronavirus  positive cases in the country is at an all time high of 205 721. Recoveries stand at  97 848 . Deaths : 3310 Our province of the Eastern Cape’s worst fear is becoming a reality . Hospitals are nearing full capacity with around 1500 new cases reported at health care facilities daily. The Eastern Cape is the worst province in the country when it comes to planning, spending of ..read more

First, lets create an ear worm in your head. Here we go… ABBA is singing : Knowing me, knowing you ahhhhhaaaaa There is nothing we can do  Knowing me, knowing you  We just have to face it this time We’re through! Breaking up is never easy I know, but I have to go  Knowing me, knowing you It’s the best I can do…. I own lipstick in basically every shade ever made on earth. Pink shades,  purple shades. Red Pepper,  brownish red, orange red.  Raisin brown, gold, silver, glittery, matte, semi-matte, glossy, matte gloss. I even have black for darkening each of the shad ..read more