If this had been any of my other classes at the academia I probably wouldn't have been so O.K. with it. However, I love this class. There are 7 students (3 boys and 4 girls) and they are all in third grade. The great thing is that they are still young and still actually interested in English, it's still cool to them. This is to my advantage since they soak up every new thing I teach them.
I have to admit, teaching at the academia hasn't always been this fun. Sure, it's a second income on top of our government paid allowance, and it allows me to travel and explore, but it isn't all sunshine and daisies. Javi (the boss) has a pretty laid-back teaching style. He has virtually no teaching supplies in the building (no books, no workbooks, only the occasional worksheet, etc) leaving most of the organizing and planning to the teachers. Of course, that was really intimidating at first (not to mention a LOT of work). But lately I've really been getting into planning activities, and more so, activities that go on longer than just one class. It's really difficult to think of individual activities to fill a whole hour, 2 times a week, with students (the worst are those unruly teens!) who don't speak English very well. After getting to know the classes, getting more comfortable with their
level and with their personalities, it's been really fun thinking up activities for them. On more than one occasion I've found myself doing something when all of a sudden I think of a great idea for one of my classes, and then of course I get really into the planning and can't wait to tell them about it.My latest activity, that I started with my wonderful class of 8 year olds, was something that thought of just this afternoon. Before Christmas I'd taught them the names of different rooms in a house: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, dining room, etc. and also some examples of objects that can be found in each one. They loved it and already knew quite a few words. So Tuesday I brought it up again, to see how much they remembered, and to expand and try to make sentences (I sleep in my bedroom, I eat in the kitchen...) It went over really well, and we decided that in the next class they would work on drawing a floor plan of their house (little architects they are). Well, this afternoon I decided that in order to draw out the project, I would get them to make a mini-book that they could draw pictures of each of the rooms of their house in, and then write a sentence or two to describe them. Well, let me tell you. This was a hit! Diego, who is always really into everything, loved the idea. So much so that he expanded it to pretend that we are all selling our houses so we have to describe them like for an ad in the newspaper. They got started and worked all the way until the end of the class.
What made me ev
en more happy, is that I started noticing that they are trying to speak English more. They get excited to say the key words of games in English (I saw you!, Can we play..., You're out!) and they are getting a lot better at saying "How do you say...". They are such a great class, and being with them has really made me realize that I do really want to be a teacher. I can only imagine that if I get so much satisfaction from 1 hour, how much teachers can get out of a whole career. Of course, I've had lots of crappy days when I get home and I'm exhausted, days when it seems like I haven't achieved anything, but days like today make me completely forget about them.I cant wait to be a teacher. Now if only I could make the next four years of university go by a little faster, I would be decorating my classroom and teaching the verb ser to my Spanish class or être to the French class. Or maybe teaching students how to make a cake...there are just too many options for Miss Jenn!!
Thanks for sharing your experiences
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