Since I'm over here teaching English, you might be wondering why none of my blog posts talk about teaching English. Part of the reason may be because it seems like such a small part of my life here. I am only in class 16 hours a week. Actually it's less, since I have 16 classes and the classes are 45 minutes long. Out of those 45 minutes, I'm probably only leading the activity for about 15 minutes. So they're not exactly working me to death here.
I assist with 1st through 6th grades and work with 2 different co-teachers. The 1st-7th graders took English last year, and for the 8th-12th graders, this is their first year, so everyone is at a beginner level, unless they've been taking private lessons. My job is to help out with the speaking and listening for the most part. I try to come up with fun activities and exercises for the kids that pertain to the lesson.
So far it's going quite well. The classes are good sizes (6th grade has only about 7 students, while the others average somewhere around 15). Discipline is not really a problem. There are a couple trouble-makers in a few of my classes, but it's extremely low-stress compared to the class behavior of my 4th graders in Peru. Because of some issues I've been having with one of my coteachers, I've stopped going to the 5th and 6th grade classes and have started helping out with the 9th and 10th grades with my other teacher instead. This is only my 1st week of that, but I can tell it's going to be difficult because it's a class of mixed levels (like I said, some have had private tutoring and some are starting fresh) and they are working out of a book that is too advanced for a 1st year class. However, the teacher makes it work, and I am excited to start helping out with these grades.
In addition to teaching, we're encouraged to start or participate in some kind of after-school club. My first thought was a film club, but after trying to show "Matilda" after school one day and encountering numerous technological difficulties, which resulted in not being able to watch the film at all, I've decided to just try to do some different activities that the kids might like to take part in. My current project is to have a cooking week. The plan is to cook pancakes after school with the different grades, giving them some food vocabulary, and also giving them a taste of an American staple (although they unfortunately do not have maple syrup here). I'll let you know how it goes....if it ever goes. It's been in the planning stage for about 2 weeks, and I haven't been able to get a definite answer about when we're actually going to do it.
I also have lessons with my host family for 3 hours a week. These are the most fun for me, because it's much easier to teach 2 people than it is a whole class, and we can do a lot of games and activities that don't work well in a large group. Much to my disappointment, though, my host brother seems to be picking up German a lot faster. He's in his first year, and a lot of times he'll say something to me in German, and when I ask him to say it in English, he says he doesn't know, even if it's something I've taught him. So I'm pretty much Teacher of the Year is what I'm saying.
I have found that teaching is growing on me. Which brings me to my next topic. The rest of my life. As of now, the plan is to go to South Korea (if I'm accepted) next year and make some actual money, and then hop around the globe some more with teaching English as the means to do it. I don't want to do that for the rest of my life, although when I think about all the places I want to go (Italy, Vietnam, Germany, Russia, Japan, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, the list goes on...) it would pretty much take a lifetime to do it all. So for now I'll just take it one step at a time. There's no point in planning anyways, because in the end, plans always change. I mean really, if you'd have asked me a year ago, Georgia would have been one of the last places I would've pictured myself being, yet here I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment