Day 2: LoUd

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

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. 

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.

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

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. ​