First Month

Well, we're now through the first full month of school for this year! I can't believe it's been a month already! Thanks to all of you that are checking this blog. Sorry I haven't been more diligent in getting post up, but most of my time is spent preparing for or teaching lessons.

Here's an outline of what each class has been doing.

9b-The first week consisted of testing the students to put them into two groups. The entire class is about 30 students, but they are split into two classes for English lessons. The other teachers gave a written exam, and I evaluated them orally. By the second week, they were settled in their new groups (one group at a higher level...they've had a bit of English before.) We've been covering a lot of topics; housing, colors, physical descriptions, and giving compliments. Next week, we'll look at food and how to make uncountable food (flour) countable (a kilo of flour). This is a fun activity because the students get to talk about food!

10a-We've just finished a unit called "These United States." We read about and discussed several traditional American things. The students even did an activity where they created, desigened, and presented a 51st state. There were some funny ones. Some students named the state after themselves, while others got more creative. I'll try to remember to post a photo later.

11b-We've been working on Pronunciation. I have a great book that I'd like all the students to get, but for now I'm just making copies...ssshhh! We're also going into the rhelm of Multiple Intelligences and Personality Types. I'll be doing the Myers-Brigg's Type Indicator with them next week. This week we did Dr. Howard Gardener's Multiple Intelligences.

12a-I got to do a lesson this month that made me a little homesick for Alaska. We listened to an interview with Susan Butcher, Iditarod musher, from 1983. The students listened, answered questions, then conducted a survey and gave a report on the results of the survey. They need a little more practice on how to present results from a survey. But these students are 4th year English students and did pretty good. They are fairly fluent but still make plenty of mistakes.

As for me, I've got a new method of lessons planning that seems to be working for me very well. I'm doing better and writing out every step of a lesson. Before I would have an idea of what I would do, but this gives me much more to go on when I enter the classroom. I sometimes find that I have too much planned for the time alloted...that's the opposite problem I've had in years past. It's better to have too much planned than not enough and have bored teenagers in a small room.

I've started taking Hungarian lessons. They've been going very well. There are only two other guys in my class. One guy is from Scotland, the other from France. Our teacher is named Tibor and he speaks very little English. But that's good for us, because it forces us to speak only Hungarian.

It's ben interested being on the other side of the desk. I'm getting a bit of the feeling of what my students are going through. I feel like I have a little more empathy for that they experience with a native speaking teacher. I've even borrowed some activities Tibor does with us, and have used them with my classes.

Well, thanks for reading and please continue to pray for my students.

God Bless,
Erin