Celeste Coetzee

I am a highly qualified teacher with exceptional teaching skills. With 13 years of teaching, and another 14 years of business experience, I have extensive knowledge and skills as teacher to educate and uplift children of all ages. I have the ability to bring out the best in children and inspire them in a fun and creative way. My classes are never mundane, and children respond well to learning in this warm, caring, creative way.

One of my specialities are teaching children with learning disabilities. I reach out to those children by intuitively meeting them at their own level, using visual material (ie films), music, rhythm, body movement and lots of fun for them to learn in a new effective way. Children respond extremely well to my teaching methods as I always connect at the level they’re at, and work from there to where we need to get. I go out of my way to create a safe, fun, effective environment so they can learn easily. Years of teaching taught me that fear inhibits learning, so I prefer a humorous approach where children can relax and learn effectively at the same time. I am also a firm believer in structure and discipline as children feel safe with boundaries they understand.

Whilst teaching children from violent, disadvantaged communities, I discovered meditation as a means to calm them down and get them focused. I used this very successfully to make a drastic change in their school results. I successfully created and implemented the school’s annual program for all lessons in art & craft. This was noticed by the Department of Education who then asked me to be Head of Art in school and to guide other teachers. The Department of Education also asked me to consider teaching other teachers on provincial level.

EDUCATION

I completed my Bachelor Honors Degree in Visual Arts in 2012 and received the following destinctions and awards while studying through University of South Africa (UNISA):

2001: Art History (204) 2002: Art History (301/303) 2004: Conceptualization (301) Visual Arts (7 & 8. Third Year Level) 2011: Professional Art Practice (2) Visual Arts (5 & 6. Fourth Year Level)

*Ekurhuleni Fine Arts Award 2005, 2nd Prize *SasolNew Signatures Art Competition 2005, Top 10 Merits Award *Unisa: Visual Arts 4th Level Student 2011, Top Student Merits Award

I completed my Senior Teaching Diploma in 1979 and received the following destinctions at Nelson Man