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Day 5

7/17/2018

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It's just another day...........

Third graders

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While I was shushing down the loud classroom I realized none of the third grade students were talking anymore. But why was there still a white noise of student’s shouts? It is then that I realized the constant stream of voices was coming from the fourth grade classroom. I was tempted to go look and see what they were up to. I thought it might seem rude to whatever teacher was there so I just ignored it. I realized that while the open concept classroom style is really nice in the hot weather, it does little to contain the sounds emitted by each class. So having first, second, third, and fourth graders learning and shouting in the same environment can’t be easy for teachers. That aside, the lesson went great. We finished Fruits in one day. Boom. We are on track again. This is especially amazing because I needed to figure out how to make up for the day we missed yesterday.
Also, a student asked me how much my tablet cost and it made me feel all icky inside. I obviously didn’t tell him. These students are so money-conscious. They would never even waste one piece of paper. They will use pencils until they are at the stub. I bring my iPad for two reasons: a. I have a GoogleDocs app that I pull the lessons up on and b. I want to show students new things they may not see everyday. I don’t want to flash stuff around I want to let them see how my keyboard works and take their picture. Whenever I take a picture I walk around the classroom and let each students look at it. At the same time I am still waving around this fancy thing some of them can’t afford... So should I be taking an iPad to teach? I can see many answers. So far, I think students like looking at it and touching it more than they are wistful of it. I wish I had validation for some of the decisions I make but more often than not, with this project, I have to go with my gut feelings.


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Fourth graders

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We got done with the lesson in this class as well. It was pretty uneventful. There was a teacher in the classroom so I think they were feeling a little...well...scared. I don’t think there was anything else eventful. *shrug*
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Fifth graders

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Remember my rant about how classes can hear each other through the walls? Well. I think I am pulling the same trick because I am pretty sure the sixth grade class can hear me speaking to the fifth grade class. I talk loud - my “teacher voice” comes from a weird shallow part of my voice that is a little deeper than my usual voice and a whole lot louder. I enunciate really well. I hope I am not too loud. I don’t think I am much louder than the usual teacher so it should be okay...?
The dictation went well. I must say it takes a looooong time. We did 12 words for dictation (from Thursday) then I taught ten new phrases and gave five for dictation tomorrow. I am hoping to cover more ground on the material. I just don’t know why the Scholarship exam is so ridiculous. One subsection is - I can’t make this up - words used in farming language. Not like “tractor” but like actual nearly obsolete Sinhalese words that farming communities use. Ahem. wHy? (I am not even going to try google for this one) I am happy I was displaced to America for the sole reason being I never experienced this exam. They choose maybe eight words and phrases to test on the exam out of maybe one hundred. Not fair... Especially when there are not proper study materials for English and teachers are not equipped to prepare students enough.

Sixth and seventh graders

There were fewer students and the class went so much better. We finished up the lesson. I would like to practice more but something has got to give with the missed day yesterday. As interesting as English is - most questions were related to when I would be giving them chocolate. For those who don’t know I do give them chocolate every year. In Sri Lanka, people who go abroad do generally bring something back. It’s a social norm. It’s an insult if you don’t. So there I was dropping some major cash on bags of Costco chocolate.
We played Simon Says and they loved it so much. It was so cute. I love it when I can make learning fun. We also drew a human body to label it (human body is me drawing a stick figure). The students really do take pride in their work — they were so careful about it and wanted my approval all the way. In the end I told everyone to line up and give me their papers or books and I gave them a approved marking and a little star sticker.
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Eighth and ninth graders

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This class went pretty darn well too. There are a few students who are all about the competition. I had never seen Simon Says played in such a cutthroat manner. There were very few students but in all fairness it is sometimes better to just have fewer students so the class stays on track more. The graph of “# of students” vs “time spent on productive I learning” is a negative quadratic. There really isn’t much more to say. We took some nice pics too! There is one slightly sad part I want to talk about but that will be addressed a little later.
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Tenth and eleventh graders

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To trust is delicate balance. One must know when not to trust as well. I thought if I let them have their worksheets and take them home and such, they would bring them back the next week. That obviously didn’t happen. We managed with one book and huddling around it. I mean I am not completely upset because apparently one student gave it to his teacher and they were going to share it with the entire class. I can’t complain. It was a struggle and no one in this class particularly wanted to learn. The were more interested in when the chocolate would be coming. I mean I can’t blame them but still, priorities anyone?
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The students who need a little extra from me

There are a few students who need a lot more than most other students. In third grade there is a possibly dyslexic student. I am no doctor but I find it fishy that he writes everything backwards. I wrote him “Bb” Which he wrote as a Bd (but more wonky than this typed version). He writes at a pace a tenth of other students and his writing is little more than illegible. I decided to give him handwritten alphabet practice worksheets. I basically take one of his pages and write

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee

then I make him rewrite them for practice. He was still have trouble copying cold turkey so I added dotted line versions of the letters for practice too. He loved the dotted lines and requested more. It’s always weird to me when students here beg for work. If I say I am about to leave the classroom they will shout until I agree to give them one or two more vocabulary words. It’s a real trend here — they don’t like to do the work but they will still ask for it.
In the fourth grade classroom I also have a student with different needs. I don’t know what his story is but everyone just says “he is still learning letters”. By that they mean they are still learning Sinhalese letters so I wasn’t sure if he was ready for the English alphabet too. I decided to give him some letters to practice writing anyway.
Finally, I have another special child in the 6th and 7th grade class. She is in 6th grade and had a terrible time keeping up with the rest of the class. At first I thought she was punking me or just not paying attention. With time I realized she was paying attention but it just takes a while for her to register things. I usually have the English on the poster then I go through and translate them so students can write the translation down. Since she needs her own pace, I just put the translations on the posters as well so she can move without the rest of the class. I like it - I wanted to be able to move everyone at the same pace so I had some control over the class but this isn’t that large of a sacrifice and if it helps that girl it is fine with me.
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Day 4: No teaching today...

7/16/2018

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The kids had exams. :(
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Day 3: Onwards we go

7/12/2018

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Whew three days in a row is a bit much... I usually do two days a week because a) my lessons are made for two days b) students can handle two days better than three c) I get too tired to do more than two days. 
I can honestly say today was not great. I think the 6th and 7th graders really drain me. They are insanely antsy and squirrely... by the middle of the lesson I had to sit down. That's a big deal. I never ever sit down I always stand and walk around and engage with the entire classroom. So just the fact that I sat down really tells me how tired I was. 

Third graders

​Another day another set of classes! I went in to the third grade classroom and the teacher was no where to be seen. Not to sound like a broken record but lessons tend to go better for the young ones if the teacher is there. Still, it went pretty well. Once the teacher did come the students really calmed down. My biggest concern is how long the actual lesson took. I am just going to not get too weird about it and calm down and play everything by ear.
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The first row of third graders.
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Second row!
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Last but not least.
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Look - sometimes writing on a chalk board doesn't yield the prettiest handwriting.
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They look focused, right? Key word: "look".

Fourth graders

The fourth graders were much louder in comparison. I think by this time I got a little weary. That's okay though - in my experience I feel tired in the moment but I get over it soon after. We continued with the worksheet that we worked on yesterday. We actually finished it up so yay! I should mention that I personally think the worksheets suck. They sometimes have inaccuracies, they are WAY too hard for these students, and honestly I just don't think they are very well done. I think this is a pattern - where Sinhala-English workbooks are just really bad. Even the ninth grade and O/L English papers are really disappointing. We just have to work with what we have. I hope I don't have to say that in the future too. That's all I really have to say about that. 
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We were wrapping up this worksheet. This student was taking so much care with his writing that he was the last to finish his essay <3

Fifth graders

The dictation is good because it forces students to work on retention but boy does it take a good chunk of class time. I don't know how good I feel about sacrificing learning time (class time) for dictation tests. I guess it makes sense because it doesn't matter how much information you throw at students if they don't catch on and hold on to any of it. 
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This worksheet is really hard. I had to write the "essay" because this task is way out of the students' wheelhouse.

Sixth and seventh graders

Oof. This class is tough. I literally sat down in this class. I never sit. I think I mentioned all this earlier but I must say it all applies to this class. This class just wears me out. I think one factor could be that there are too many students in the class. Some students truly have no interest in the class. The problem is that I have a hard time telling any student, no matter how unproductive, to not come. At the same time, maybe that is not such a bad thing as the opportunity to learn is then taken from everyone... so then no one learns. It's just that this class is supposed to be open to everyone and showing up in itself is an achievement. Let's just cross our fingers that next week will be better. 

Eighth and ninth and tenth and eleventh graders? 

Okay so eighth and ninth graders were joined by the next class too. I have no idea why but hey I mean they showed up (100% improvement form yesterday). I placed them in an adjacent classroom with those three girls who were also doing worksheets (for those who are not caught up -- I have three girls who already know my lessons so I got them worksheets instead). It was a challenge trying to teach a class and going over to check answers on the other side. It went okay but whenever I would leave the 8th and 9th graders, all chaos would break loose. One trip to the other classroom gave an eighth grader ample time to rip the pages out of another student's book. I hope the older students do decide to come on time because it would help keep the other class on track. Overall, the eleventh grade students really appreciated the worksheets -- they asked for the book which I happily gave. The ninth graders thought their sheets, which were meant for their grade, to be too hard. The tenth graders found the O/L worksheets too hard so I gave them the ninth grade sheets and they also found it too hard. I guess a challenge is never a bad thing but I am considering looking at some eighth or seventh grade worksheets for next week. 
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Day 2: LoUd

7/11/2018

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The title is accurate. 

Third graders

Third graders were crazy quiet and believe me when I say I appreciated that. I am surprised by how slow the progress is as we still haven’t finished the first lesson. Usually lessons take two days but I project we will need all of tomorrow too. For some reason this year has been slooooow - look I know it's only been two days but I am just getting a really uncomfortable feeling. I just think this year has been subpar by a lot -- I usually like to spend more time on my project but this time I feel super rushed. Hey now -- let's not get too down -- look at those smiling faces. I do this for a reason, even if it is not at the scale I want, I still get to spend time with the loveliest group kids in the world. 
Lesson: Animals and Colours
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Fourth graders

The fourth grade teacher asked me to do a worksheet with them instead of my usual lesson. I was game - anything to be of help! The worksheet went really well. They couldn’t do it on their own but rather we did each problem together as a class. I took pictures of what we did... 
Lesson: 
Animals and Colours
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Also, on a different topic, the teacher requested that I make their “English board” for the class. I couldn’t really say no... It’s basically a spot on the wall where I have print out or cut out pictures and label them in English. I told her to give me the weekend — it’s actually kind of nice because I missed out on doing cute stuff like this when I was in fourth grade because by that time I had moved to the U.S. :)

The space I have to decorate is the orange square in the picture to the left. 
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Fifth grade

I taught the fifth graders early - they had something to do after school so I moved my lesson to the morning. We started the lesson with “dictation”. Basically I saw a word or phrase we learned yesterday and the students have to write it down on their paper. We did five words/phrases and four kids got perfects :O

We did some more words from my master list and I gave them ten words to study by tomorrow for tomorrow’s dictation. I feel a little guilty giving such young kids homework but it’s for the best - the Scholarship exam is in a couple weeks.
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Town run

So in my hours before the afternoon class I made a trip into town. I went and bought some English worksheets for those ninth graders who are beyond my lessons. (See yesterday’s post). Okay okay so I bought one book of worksheets and photocopied the rest — hey now don’t judge it’s for a greater good. I also got a set of six 2016 O/L English past exams.

Sixth and seventh graders

I have permanently cut down the 6th and 7th grade class into a forty five minute class — It just seems to make them a little less squirrelly if they know they get to finish early. It wasn’t as bad as yesterday at least. Our lesson will be (Talking About People) for the next two days. One would think they would know simple words like mother but no... Which is weird because I know they learn them in the lower grades. I think they forget over time or with lack of use.
Lesson: Talking about people

Eighth and ninth graders

The 8th and 9th grade class went really well. The lesson was the same as that of the last class but the understanding and overall retention of vocabulary learned throughout the lesson was definitely improved. We played a version of the game Around the World. Two students would stand and I would tell them a vocabulary word in SInhales and the first one to translate it correctly into English wins. The victor stands while the loser sits and different challenger gets up. We had a two time champion, she has come to classes for about two years now so she had an easier time with the lesson. She was defeated in the third round by (wait for it) J. For anyone who has been reading J is one of my worst best students. He has come to classes from the beginning but he hardly learns anything - he stays for nearly all the classes and just hangs around. Out of no where when the reigning champ was about to win a third time J beat her. I swear I am not making this up it was such a fun twist. 
Lesson: 
Talking about people
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Tenth and eleventh graders

The O/L English class just didnt happen. THe students needed to study for their school exams that were starting tomorrow. I understand that — these classes are not a priority for them its just some simple fun. ​
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Unsolicited update

7/10/2018

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​It’s Samalya and it’s 9:30 am. I should be teaching fourth grade but there was a miscommunication as they are having Sinhala right now. I’m sitting in and am currently occupying a chair meant for a fourth grader (it is not comfy). I’m just writing a quick update because I have some major time to kill until I get the class. Just a fun update. Will give an official overview of today tonight. :)

Bye for now!
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Update: Okay I was going to stop writing but the teacher started making all the students sing one by one and the little boys have such adorable singing voices. They are all so cute! Okay I’m done.

New update: some bug keeps biting me. Identity is TBD.


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Day 1: We all might be a little rusty...

7/10/2018

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The first day of teaching happened. Wow - I am so tired the best adjective I wrote is "happened". I am almost too tired to write this but I know if I don’t, I’ll just regret it later. I showered a bit ago but I am already covered in a fine layer of sweat so might as well sit and bear through a little more. 

The principal’s office is just a large room where he and the head teachers sit. It’s an amazing people watching spot. Today was an extra interesting day as I saw many parents coming in to see the principal (many = like five but hey it’s more than the usual). Apparently, that day the principal had summoned all the parents of the students who had been skipping school. These kids happened to (apparently) be mostly tenth graders and mostly boys. The principal was explaining to these parents why their students could not advance to the next grade. I later heard via some teacher gossip that these students would not come to school for months and just show up out of the blue. With all this going on the principal said a quick hello to me before I went on my way to start teaching.

Third graders

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Working hard or hardly working?
​The third graders were sweet as per usual. This was my first time teaching this batch of kids so it was a process to figure out which kids are the “loud ones” and which ones need a little more time and encouragement. We all bonded pretty fast and the lesson went smoothly (Animals and Colours — as is from the 2017 report). If anything, it was a tad slow. We were not getting through the list as fast as we usually do but that’s okay — it might just be the first day drag.

Fourth graders

​We had a crazy time in this class. The teacher left :P (I teach third and fourth graders during school hours - which works well because the English teacher is MIA these two weeks - for the sole reason being that I cannot handle them on my own). The lack of a teacher kind of tips the success of a class. We managed but it was louder than what I was used to. No big deal — it was actually kind of a win because I think I have matured enough to at least handle the students. It used to be that I could NOT control them but the fact that I managed is progress. The lesson was the same as the third graders but we got much father than they did.
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I snuck in a quick pic of the fourth graders. If they see the camera they freak out!
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Look at their lovely work <3

Fifth graders

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Stole a book for a picture...
They were surprisingly, some may even say suspiciously, well behaved. Okay so it is not much a mystery — there were some mothers near our classroom doing some cleaning for the school. Sri Lankan mothers have a talent of striking fear into the hearts of children. We are slowly making our way through the list of phrases needed for the Scholarship exam. There was one big discovery: I found an new Scholarship exam study guide WITH SINHALA TRANSLATIONS. I no longer need to do last minute online translation searches — I will go our and find this book and buy it for future use.

Sixth and Seventh graders​

​This was by far the most disappointing class. The behaviors was just so insane - they could not stop talking. Talking is a generic word - what I really mean is verbal sounds that fall into categories ranging from teasing to screaming. We only made it through the vocabulary of the lesson (Activities) by which point I thought continuing the class was just a waste of time for the students and a an abuse to my thought which had been screaming. I was so bummed that I had to stop 15-20 minutes early - It’s just that I actually feel really guilty. I want to provide them with every opportunity I can for learning but if they don’t want it there is only so much I can do to thrust it at them.
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This picture represents the chaos that was the class period.

Eighth and Ninth graders

This went MUCH better. We got through the entire lesson (Activities) and it all went relatively well. The disturbances were minor and I actually got some new faces in the classroom that I never had before so that was really fun!
The most notable thing I want to talk about is actually a little problem I have. I teach 6-9/10th graders the same lessons for three years now. I have had three lovely and intelligent girls that have attended my classes for all three of those years. At this point they know the lessons very well. That said, the classes are really of no use to them but I still want to provide them with a chance to make use of my presence. 
Solutions:
#1 (temporary) - I could get some English past papers/work papers from a book shop and distribute them so that students who no longer make use of the lesson can do them instead. 
#2 (more permanent) - I could make more lessons and cycle them. I could do one set one year and another the next and etc... This way there won’t be repetition from year to consecutive year. 
#3 (way more permanent) - I could make different lessons for each grade group so they get more difficult lessons as they keep going to class. 
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I don't know about the tape...
For now I am doing #1 because it’s really not a big deal to print out a few papers from three people. Most of the other students are well within the area in which my lessons are helpful and of appropriate difficulty. We can explore the other options later...

Tenth and eleventh grade

​Quite a number of tenth graders came and they told me they were having trouble making time for my class and studying for their final exams. I told them not to come — I love what I do but I know where I stand as a priority. I would rather them do well on critical exams rather than having fun English lessons. Today was just a day for me to figure out how many students would come so I could figure out how many O/L English papers to buy (This is the class I teach O/L English to btw). I am guessing about 6 max students will come tomorrow - the eleventh graders are coming for sure because this class is very relevant to them.

​The book I used: 
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Back to school - late but better than never

7/9/2018

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The visit went quite well. I have a working schedule:

8:30-9:10 Third grade
9:10 - 9:50 Fourth grade
(run home and get some lunch)
1:30 - 2:30 Fifth grade
2:30 - 3:30 Sixth and seventh grade
3:30 - 4:30 Eighth and ninth grade
4:30 - 5:30 Tenth and eleventh grade

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The younger students always scream when they see me. It always catches me off guard the first time. My regular day to day hardly involves screams of loving welcome.

The first day is always the most awkward when it comes to the older kids (grade 6+). It’s like seeing distant cousins that are about your age after a while. You know them but it’s weird to just run up and be super friendly all of a sudden. We announced the class times to each class. The younger kids are always hyped but as they get older their enthusiasm takes a hit. I am actually afraid no older students will even show up :P but to be fair for the past three years, while the first day is rough, students do get themselves to class.

The priest/principal was not there today but I will be able to meet him tomorrow before classes start. These first posts are supposed to be boring — the real fun begins tomorrow.

Until then!
Samalya
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I'm going into town. Anyone need anything?

7/9/2018

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One year in the Sri Lankan atmosphere is basically enough time for any item to become unusable. That said, each time I come to Sri Lanka I have to restock everything. If I want to bake I have to repurchase everything from vanilla to flour. If I want to run a teaching program I have repurchase everything from pens to paper. SO My bookstore bill came out to a pretty 2,100 rupees. What did I buy?

  • 3 pencils (students come to school so often )
  • 1 pencil sharpener (for the aforementioned pencils)
  • 3 markers (poster making tools)
  • poster paper (guess why)
  • 2 packets of lined paper (students sometimes don’t have paper)
  • 1 O/L past papers book
  • 2 star sticker cards (the 3rd and 4th graders love them - but on occasion have lead to some stampedes in the classroom)


Next, we discovered a new favorite tea shop. Dickwella is swarming with shops tailored to tourists so it’s always nice to go somewhere that feels more like pre-tourism infestation era. The best part was the airflow (there were a bunch of fans and the door was basically a wall open to the street so the wind came in too). An odd attraction elsewhere but an understandable one in the humid Sri Lankan weather. So my father and I went home armed with tea buns and gnanakatha (Sri Lanka’s gingerbread man — look up gnanakatha malli).

That’s all for now... teaching updates yet to come.
Samalya
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Where is EARSL 2018?

7/8/2018

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I was unable to give a confident answer to the question in the title for quite a ways into this summer. Between the influenza outbreak in the Southern Province, my family’s obligations to Colombo, and my general fatigue I was not even sure if I would teach this summer. Regardless of all that, I am excited to announce that I will start teaching tomorrow (actually, I am sorting out logistics tomorrow but I should be starting the day after).
I attended the annual Buddhist parade the school takes part in and it was quite fun! The parade has become especially special to me since I started teaching. I feel more integrated into the community and I always get a slew of hellos and waves from my students. I took tons of video -- so look forward to an edited concoction that will come out soon.
I couldn’t imagine not teaching. The main reason being that the students expect me to come and I don’t want to let them down. I usually teach only a few days a week because, well, I just can’t handle more than that. It is extremely tiring to attempt to wrangle the attention of these students. However, due to time constraints I will be teaching four days a week for two weeks. Lucky for me, I did a pretty good job of documenting last year in my EARSL Report 2017 so I will be using those lessons again this year.

More details to come after I visit the school tomorrow!
Until then,
Samalya
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    Author

    Hi! I'm Samalya. When I'm not running about cramming for school I sit on my laptop and (attempt to) make a curriculum to improve spoken English in rural Sri Lanka!

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