Week 7: Tired but Trying (and still loving it)

I ran out of my beloved 'Giant Post It Notes' - So I just glued some half-sheets into long strips. Desperate times call for tape.

Fifth graders busily writing. By writing I mean pausing to pose for the camera.

Look at how pretty they dress when they don't have to wear a uniform <3.

They love photos -- they usually fight to be in front so I made them stand at their desks. I had to spare the bloodshed somehow.

The fifth graders got out early so they came to visit me in the hall where I teach the older kids. This is them running out to play.

They were running towards me because I was taking pictures with my phone -- they. love. pictures.

Water break.

These flimsy things kept blowing around in the wind. Next year I'm bringing at least two sets of those 'Giant Post It Notes'.

Grades 6-9 busily writing their posttest.

The dialog for grades 10-11. They kept pronouncing Give as Gew. We kept saying "give/gew" for like 10 minutes until they finally got it.

This photograph has amazing lighting - compliments to yours truly. (sarcasm).

I feel like an elderly person these days...

I come home saying things like "uf, my back hurts today." or "geez those kids are crazy." I sound like the stereotypical grandpa. Like the ones in movies that calls kids "whipper-snappers" . That aside, in all seriousness, I'm getting a bit worn these days. In the beginning I could knock out 4 hours of non-stop teaching without a sweat. Now, I am tired before and after every lesson. That's the funning thing, when I get into the class - I am perfectly fine. I think that's my love of teaching these hooligans overpowering my tiredness. I'm not completely worn out, it's not that extreme, but I will admit my usual bounce is now a enthusiastic hop. I keep lessons upbeat and fun, and I make sure the kids are enthusiastic and paying attention...it's just that that task becomes a tad harder by the 7th week. 

Grade 5

I almost squealed in class today. A few students were telling their teacher (the fifth grade one - she likes to sit and chill with us when I teach) that ENGLISH WAS GETTING EASIER. Muwahahahaha. My evil pans are working. I am confident I can leave next week with all the Scholarship Exam material covered.
It's just so great to actually see progress. I have an easier time knowing there is progress in other classes because of the pretests and posttests. But for fifth graders I have to go off of what they tell me. They usually don't tell me all that much so these comments were so encouraging. 
We did the usual: I write and translate a sentence/question/phrase and they write it down. 
As for behavior, they are fine at first then they get a bit rowdier. But kids shall be kids. They are very well behaved when the teacher is around but when she leaves it goes crazy. Today there were about ~5 minutes left of class and they were just nuts. I decided to stop the class a bit early. They yelled "noooo" and made me stay and said they would behave. It was so cute.

Grades 6-9

Fewer and fewer students come... although that's not exactly a shock. It's vacation! It's time to chill out and run to the beach. Who wants to got to a class when one can run to the beach that's literally just a few meters (hey look at me - adopting the metric system) away. 
That's not to say no one showed up. I am actually impressed at the students that do come. It takes a lot of will-power to commit to something like this. Especially when they're not forced to come. On top of that, most students come ready to learn and put in their all. 
So this week we learned vocabulary/phrases,/questions around the theme of "Going to a Restaurant." I'm not going to lie... this has not been my favorite lesson. It just didn't feel as immediately useful as some of the other lessons. I guess a phrase like "I have a headache" has greater usefulness compared to "I want pasta". I have nothing against pasta it's just that when it comes to ordering you could just point at pictures on the menu. I'm not going to bash it completely though -- it's the best lesson I could come up with considering I've spent most of my material over the last six weeks. 
The most useful part of the lesson was definitely the meats section. The thing is here in rural areas of the Southern Province people usually eat chicken but frown on most other meats. So beef, pork, and mutton are usually are considered reeeeaallly gross. Like green-eggs-and-ham-level gross. They wouldn't have beef even if it involved a fox in a box. I figured if they knew what these meats were called in English they could easily avoid them if the need arose. They could opt for chicken pasta rather than pork and etc... 
I taught them the phrase "Does this dish have ______" for cases of allergies and etc... First defense before an Epipen has to come into the picture. 
They naturally asked me if I eat any of those 'no-no' meats. I was all like, "Me? Whaaaaat please. No way" ...while conveniently forgetting about my favorite Mushroom and Swiss Hamburger from Hardee's. In my defense I figured a little white lie wouldn't hurt anyone - especially when it kept from being labeled a gross person by my own students. #Priorities. 
So overall the class went great but the lesson could use some work (as could my integrity :P). I am so proud of the students that came - I hope they find themselves glad in the future for  sacrificing some of their vacation time to come to class. 

Grades 10-11 (okay so it's really just 11th graders at this point...)

I am down to four students - it's better than zero! I'm actually fine even if only one student comes - I could never turn away anyone who is willing to learn. 
I'm always relieved a bit by this class. They are my age so their maturity is refreshing. But they are well into their teens which means they also have some of that trademark laziness. I can't boss them around as easily so they get out of doing a lot of the work I ask them to. If I tell them to read the sentence and translate it -- it's "too much" for them i.e. they are willing to do one or the other. They have also picked up a bad habit of asking to be let out of class early - it throws a bit a of wrench in my plans. 
Still, I'm just glad they show up. (I'm starting to hear how low my standards have become these days :P). 
Their a fun class though. We chat about normal girl-stuff in the middle of class and it's a bit more relaxed with just the four of them. Probably my favorite class of all of them - or maybe a close second to the fourth graders. 

Lesson Links:

Grade 5:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1T5Lso1TutBZmHvLxen2qv9onPD2Y4xbCIdvtPZ7FGqk
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Grade 6-9:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J9MCo0NP6GN29yTtESOG2BTDMobk2qICachFzGLJXBc/edit?usp=sharing

Grade 10-11
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YgVGk1YQQaIM54OTgA04TShw42rBPZRfIGpvmJOhpuQ/edit?usp=sharing