CourseTalk
Find the right course from the right source.
Imagine a classroom of three dozen 7-year-olds. Now imagine them speaking a mile a minute in a language you only partially understand. Add in the fact that they’re dashing to you from their seats every few seconds to hand you candy and tell you about their relatives who live in the U.S. Plus, the classroom’s windows and doors are all open while another class plays right outside. Welcome to the world of teaching English in a Colombian elementary school! Every day is a mix of excitement and chaos, progress and frustration, fun and hard work.
In case you’re new to this series, I’m a CourseTalk team member who decided to see another side of education by volunteering with Colombia’s national bilingualism program. I’ve now made it through my first month of teaching, and I’m starting to get the hang of things! For example, I recently discovered that there is, in fact, a fridge where the teachers store their food, so I no longer need to eat warm tuna sandwiches! I’m also newly able to tell taxi drivers how to get to my school.
Much more importantly, I’m also making strides with my students. The first meeting of English Club was a success — 30 students showed up to play charades and other vocabulary games, and that’s without me advertising it widely so that we could have a soft launch. I’ve also noticed students becoming much more comfortable with topics we’ve touched on several times now, like how to answer “How are you?” and “What’s your name?” It’s a great start!
The school’s 12 teachers and I have decided to focus on simple conversations and classroom sayings for the rest of the school year (which goes until the end of November), since these are the topics most likely to benefit our students in real life. To date, we’ve played lots of games that involve introducing yourself, and I’ve presented information about myself and my home in all sorts of ways. The kids seem to be loving it, as they ask me every time I see them in the halls when their next lesson is.
I’m discovering more and more differences from the U.S. classrooms I’m used to. For instance, the students here almost always sit in rows, and they choose their own seats. Hand-raising and nametags seems to be pretty foreign concepts, but I’m trying to introduce them. Students have one notebook for each subject, which is filled with notes transcribed from the board, since making copies is expensive and more interactive activities don’t seem too common. The students also seem to like coming to school more than many in the states, judging by how many showed up at 9 a.m. for English club when they didn’t actually need to be at school for another four hours!
I’ve got to get back to lesson planning, but let me leave you with some of my favorite student quotes thus far:
– “Teacher Shea, why are you so tall?”
– “Have you ever been on an airplane?” (Utter excitement when I said yes. Not sure how they previously thought I got to Colombia!)
– “Does everyone in the U.S. speak English?”
– When I asked them if they knew of any U.S. states: “Portugal? Canada? Miami?”
– “Teacher Shea, I love you.”
Continue reading...
In case you’re new to this series, I’m a CourseTalk team member who decided to see another side of education by volunteering with Colombia’s national bilingualism program. I’ve now made it through my first month of teaching, and I’m starting to get the hang of things! For example, I recently discovered that there is, in fact, a fridge where the teachers store their food, so I no longer need to eat warm tuna sandwiches! I’m also newly able to tell taxi drivers how to get to my school.
Much more importantly, I’m also making strides with my students. The first meeting of English Club was a success — 30 students showed up to play charades and other vocabulary games, and that’s without me advertising it widely so that we could have a soft launch. I’ve also noticed students becoming much more comfortable with topics we’ve touched on several times now, like how to answer “How are you?” and “What’s your name?” It’s a great start!
The school’s 12 teachers and I have decided to focus on simple conversations and classroom sayings for the rest of the school year (which goes until the end of November), since these are the topics most likely to benefit our students in real life. To date, we’ve played lots of games that involve introducing yourself, and I’ve presented information about myself and my home in all sorts of ways. The kids seem to be loving it, as they ask me every time I see them in the halls when their next lesson is.
I’m discovering more and more differences from the U.S. classrooms I’m used to. For instance, the students here almost always sit in rows, and they choose their own seats. Hand-raising and nametags seems to be pretty foreign concepts, but I’m trying to introduce them. Students have one notebook for each subject, which is filled with notes transcribed from the board, since making copies is expensive and more interactive activities don’t seem too common. The students also seem to like coming to school more than many in the states, judging by how many showed up at 9 a.m. for English club when they didn’t actually need to be at school for another four hours!
I’ve got to get back to lesson planning, but let me leave you with some of my favorite student quotes thus far:
– “Teacher Shea, why are you so tall?”
– “Have you ever been on an airplane?” (Utter excitement when I said yes. Not sure how they previously thought I got to Colombia!)
– “Does everyone in the U.S. speak English?”
– When I asked them if they knew of any U.S. states: “Portugal? Canada? Miami?”
– “Teacher Shea, I love you.”
Continue reading...
