As we turned the bend and saw the school in sight, Libby and I suddenly saw a parade of school children charging for us. "Oh my God, are they running to us?" Sure enough, 10 seconds later we were bombarded by what seemed like a million smiling faces, eager to hold our hands and lead us to school. One little girl tugged on my hand and said, "Teacher, Teacher... Will you really be back every day to teach us?"
We were lead to the main school yard, where all the children meet every morning to sing and march. The principal had Libby and I stand in front of the entire school, and the children sang a welcome song for us ("Welcome! Welcome! How are you today? Nice to see you, Happy to meet you. Welcome! Welcome! How are you today?").The teachers were all so grateful that we would be here for 6 weeks. Some of them even kissed my hands as they thanked me. It almost brought tears to my eyes.
We worked with some teachers to set up a schedule, and will be teaching English lessons to standard 1 and 2 every day. I've never really taught before, so I was a bit nervous, but I followed some good advice - Confidence leads to Competence, not the other way around. This proved to be true. Our lessons today were very successful. All of the children are SO eager to learn. At one point, we split the class into groups and were going around to each group to have conversations with them in English. I noticed one little boy who was especially eager - after I came to his group, he jumped over his bench to join the next group that I was going to.
Oh, and in the beginning and end of each lesson, we always sing a song. I'll admit, this might be my favorite part of the lesson :). Grade 1 didn't know the hokey pokey, so Libby and I taught it to them, and they loved it. The teacher participated with us and kept saying, "Please, mama ... can you sing it again?" After class, and without our involvement, the entire class formed into a circle in the playground and then called us over to sing it with them again. It was so sweet.
Well I need to make some copies of lessons for tomorrow before dinner, so I better get going. I hope you are all doing well, and I will write again soon!!
Love, Allison
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
we are so proud of you baby :-)
You're the best! I'm so happy you're pushing your limits, it'll totally pay off. I look forward to your next post!
Sweeti,
WOW!!!! What you are doing sounds so fantastic. I am so proud of you. Have a fantastic time with all of those precious children! You will remember their smiles forever, and they will remember yours! Take care!
Love,
Rachel
Post a Comment