We really did try to go to sleep early last night, but (of course) we got talking… It was hard to get up for the 8:30am class today, but it was Margot’s class, so we had fun! Mostly I just had them ask Maria lots of questions (and I taught them “What is your favorite ____?”) and I read them the story of the Gingerbread Man. We really did have a good time—they were interested and well-behaved, which makes all the difference!
After class, we came home and Maria skyped with a friend from home while I typed up the pen pal letters that were written by students from Keizer Elementary School in Oregon. Their handwriting is sometimes hard to read and I wanted to correct some confusing spelling as well. And take out the questions that were meant for the original pen pals… The class had thought they were writing to elderly folks in Oregon, so some of the letters contained questions like “Do you have any kids?” or “Did you fight in World War II?” and I figured that would be a bit confusing to my 10-yr old students!
After a quick lunch at home (we attempted to go out for pizza, but the restaurants are closed on Monday as well here…), Maria and I biked to the other school. Class with the younger kids actually went really well today! They were more engaged than normal—and better behaved! I discovered something that worked really well: when having them repeat vocab (such as colors), change your voice from a normal tone, to whisper, to half-shouting. It really kept them paying attention! Always good to find new ways to do things!
The older kids were beyond excited to receive the letters from their pen pals! After passing out the letters, Maria and I went around trying to help them understand them. That wasn’t always easy—some of the American kids wrote rather complicated stuff in their letters! But, we did our best to help them understand. I gave them the typed up copy of their letter, but also the handwritten original. They commented on the rather lousy handwriting of many of the American students. It’s true, though—here they make a point of spending a lot of time on having good handwriting. We don’t really do that in the US…
After class finished, Maria and I biked over to the store so she could get some food for her long days of travel tomorrow/Weds. We had to hurry, though, because I had to teach again at 3:45pm. I let Maria stay home to just relax, while I went to teach the CM1 class. I was hoping that the kid who is really badly behaved would be absent again, but no such luck. He was there and within minutes I was ready to pull my hair out. The teacher (well, long-term substitute) was in the room, but apparently the kid was being observed by the school psychologist (who was standing outside the door), so she didn’t want to interfere. He wanted to see how the kid normally acts in class. Well, it was awful. Finally, I actually YELLED at him and the class got quiet for a minute or two, but then he started right back up again. The teacher hauled him out of class—literally hauled—and I did my best to finish teaching. At the end of the class, I gave them all a lecture (and the obnoxious kid was brought back in) and compared how well they behaved when Maria was there…and how fun that class was…whereas today it was awful. I told them that if they were well-behaved, then I would be in a good mood and we could have more fun. We’ll see if they act any better during Friday’s class… I think if that one student were removed, it would go pretty well. SIGH.
When I got home, we had tea with Margot and then did the online geography quiz. It’s been a while since we’ve done it, so we all did worse than our best scores… oh well! Then we played some cards with Margot and played with photobooth for a bit.
Photo: Yeah, we're cool.
During dinner tonight, Catherine noticed that my eyes were really pink…and I had thought they were watering a lot… yep, I have pink-eye again. I really don’t understand why I always get it?!!?! But Catherine doesn’t seem to be worried about it, so I don’t think it’s a big deal here—I guess I will be going to work anyways. And she’s going to pick up some eye drops for me tomorrow. Sigh.
After dinner, Maria said goodbye to Ralf (because he will leave for work before we get up tomorrow) and then we went upstairs to hang out. We ended up watching the movie, “Bridesmaids,” which was okay. We mostly liked it because the main characters were best friends and they seemed kinda like us!
No comments:
Post a Comment