After much anticipation on behalf of the students and the teachers, we officially began Access Academy classes today. We all teach 5 periods, 50 min each. 2 of those periods are 'English/English Grammar', or as I like to call it - homeroom. The other three classes are determined by which group we've been placed in; computers, composition or literature.
I absolutely LOVE my schedule. I have my homeroom for the first two periods in the morning, then I have two literature classes, lunch, and then my final literature class. i'm done at 1:50 every day...at least with teaching.
We'll still have bangla classes 3-4 afternoons a week, in addition to leading extracurricular activities ... whenever those logistics are figured out.
My students are wonderful, adorable and absolutely fantastic! Talk about seeing everything through rose-tinted glasses right now, eh? Seriously, thought, they're really here to learn the english language better and are extremely well-behaved...due to having come from rote-learning backgrounds, and from cultures that expect a large amount of respect for elders and educators, almost all my students request permission to enter the class, they all stand up to speak when they're called on and they ask if they can leave the room after i've dismissed class...i'm sure it won't take them too long to get used to my much-more-western style of running a classroom...the biggest problem i THINK i'm going to have is people speaking in class when others are talking. i even had two girls today inform me that one of their favorite hobby is gossiping. sure enough, later in class, they were sitting right next to each other, leaning their heads together, chatting it up.
Overall, the first week (or three days) of class I planned is really laid back, and I feel like I'm right back into my silver bay counselor mode...icebreakers and 'getting to know you' games through and through. so, yea, next week the "real" work will start I guess (complete lie...we've already spent hours on our lesson plans for this week which is ridiculous. however, it's been a great intro for those of us that are new to teaching). I am really nervous about getting into the thick of it all, teaching the tough english components, but at least this time around I'll have a book to work from (as opposed to teaching 'survival english' ESL classes before i left...).
and, to leave y'all with an uplifting situation...(sense my sarcasm?)...here's a BBC story on South Asian rice price crisis right now...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7324596.stm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment