July 12, 2011 – Day one teaching
Today. God, what to say. It was exhausting and almost awful, but amazing at the same time! Breakfast was the same as it has been since we got here – I will have to resort to Cocoa puffs soon! (and yes, those are an option!) I came back to the room, packed my stuff into my backpack and we took off (in the rain, still) to our morning meeting. Didn’t learn much at the meeting at all, so we headed off to our classes as prepared as we were going to be! As I mentioned last night, I didn’t have much of a plan since it’s hard to plan when people have hours to arrive! I had one student there when I got there (the national teachers are in the room 40 minutes before I am). Most of our parents came into the room, signed their child in and then went with the child to set up the dorm room. It was well after 9 when I had a couple of students hanging out in the room. I decided that we were going to play catch for a bit, and as there became a couple more, we added names into the game. I don’t know about the kids, but I learned a lot of names in this time! Turns out I have 21 kids, and in grade three, they average 10 years old. They have huge variations in their abilities. I have a couple of kids who have clear pronunciation and the nicest printing ever, and I have children who essentially cannot speak (or write) in English. It will be a good challenge! When 18 of the kids were in the room, we started making their name tags. I stood at the front of the room and demonstrated how to fold it without saying a word. I wrote my name on it in big letters and most of them copied that as well. Perfect! However, I still had an hour before lunch, so I was thinking of games we could play. We decorated our flag, and it looks beautiful. I drew an Inuksuk on it and a maple leaf which Sophie drew another that is better. That is all that is on there to represent Canada. No one told me I had to be artistic to be a teacher! Finally, it was lunch time, and off we went to eat. Lunch was pretty much the same as yesterday as well – the potatoes and pork are delicious, the rice I mix with the potatoes and I don’t touch the rest! LOL. I think it was boiled duck in one of the slots, and something green with a noodle in the other slot. At any rate, I ate enough. After lunch I came back and had a nap instead of lesson planning…. kicked me in the bum for sure! I thought I had about 2 hours’ worth of stuff planned for the afternoon, but it took less than an hour. I looked at the clock and cursed. Luckily, Sophie told me that we were going swimming at 4 pm. We played games which seemed somehow useful to me (I haven’t got on a printer yet…. I need a printer!), and we got really hot and sweaty (or I did anyways). We played a version of musical chairs – maybe tomorrow we will play a new version again – but where they threw a ball at the wall and we had to move that many spaces and the thrower had to try to get a seat to practice our numbers. We learned our chant, which is really amazing
C-A-N-A-D-A
CANADA!
C-A-N-A-D-A
Beavers, bears and maple trees
Canada is really great!
I’m pretty amazing for thinking that up, eh? (I am also determined to be a stereotypical Canadian, I am using EH everywhere). I actually found a Rafi song which inspired it. Is he Canadian? Because he is seriously the best! The kids learned the chant super quick even though “beaver” is a hard word for them. That took less time than anticipated. I was scrambling for ideas when Sophie sent the kids to get their swim wear. I took the opportunity of them swimming to scramble for a new lesson plan as I would have at least half an hour left afterwards for a lesson. I decided we would do the weather. They all knew the weather words once Sophie prompted them for it. I guess I have to learn to use smaller words, and I need to slow down still too. Sigh. Tomorrow will be better. I have an actual lesson plan, and I know what my kids are able to do, which will really help me judge the rest of the camp. Tomorrow, we have opening ceremonies (in the rain?) and then I have time for a 1 hour 40 minute culture class, which I am doing American money (because it’s required) and my holiday. After lunch and nap-time, we are doing Canada and dodge ball (also in the rain?). Today should be the only complicated day. I have my main lessons (the country/sport/holiday) planned out and the culture lessons shouldn’t be too hard. I will just get used to planning long lessons and I will have 40 minute lessons for the rest of the year!
I was just told where I could print, so I am outta here for now! Print some things and then get my bum to bed! Talk to you tomorrow! Love you!
OH! and I recieved an orange and a Minnie Mouse notebook today! Go Teacher!
