So my first (full) week of teaching is coming to a close.
I started teaching ESL to the kids at a nearby school last week, but sickness kept me from being able to teaching the whole week. I think it was a mix of the trip to the Carpathians catching up to me and being around kids all the time. At any rate, I contracted pink eye (not a good time) and am still dealing with some sort of upper respiratory infection. I seem to get the upper respiratory infections every year, at least once or twice, so although it sounds like a big deal, it’s totally not for me. Regardless, coughing all the time has made me lose my voice, which is not good when you’re trying to wrangle children who already don’t understand what you’re saying.
It was a tough first week last week, but thankfully this week has been better. My pink eye is gone (hopefully) and my voice is finally coming back (now I can make more people laugh with my bad Russian!) so life’s getting better for me now, little by little. This week I taught three classes each day (the oldest made up of 12-15 year olds, the middle of 9-11 year olds, and the youngest 6-8 year olds) for 45 minutes each. We played super-fun games, including the classic Four Corners and Red Light, Green Light, and learned new words to describe what we like to do, our favorite animals, articles, plurals, and verb tenses. It’s been cool to see the growth in the students’ speaking ability in just one week.
I have only one more week with this bunch of kids, which is sad because they’re really great. I only had to kick one kid out of class and most of the kids are very eager to learn and to practice their English on me. I’m praying that I am able to shine the light of Christ there, even though I don’t speak the same language. I’m especially praying for the fifteen year old girl from China that I told you all about earlier- I’ve been getting to know her and her sister better, and I’m praying that I can somehow speak into her life in this last week of teaching.
I started teaching ESL to the kids at a nearby school last week, but sickness kept me from being able to teaching the whole week. I think it was a mix of the trip to the Carpathians catching up to me and being around kids all the time. At any rate, I contracted pink eye (not a good time) and am still dealing with some sort of upper respiratory infection. I seem to get the upper respiratory infections every year, at least once or twice, so although it sounds like a big deal, it’s totally not for me. Regardless, coughing all the time has made me lose my voice, which is not good when you’re trying to wrangle children who already don’t understand what you’re saying.
It was a tough first week last week, but thankfully this week has been better. My pink eye is gone (hopefully) and my voice is finally coming back (now I can make more people laugh with my bad Russian!) so life’s getting better for me now, little by little. This week I taught three classes each day (the oldest made up of 12-15 year olds, the middle of 9-11 year olds, and the youngest 6-8 year olds) for 45 minutes each. We played super-fun games, including the classic Four Corners and Red Light, Green Light, and learned new words to describe what we like to do, our favorite animals, articles, plurals, and verb tenses. It’s been cool to see the growth in the students’ speaking ability in just one week.
I have only one more week with this bunch of kids, which is sad because they’re really great. I only had to kick one kid out of class and most of the kids are very eager to learn and to practice their English on me. I’m praying that I am able to shine the light of Christ there, even though I don’t speak the same language. I’m especially praying for the fifteen year old girl from China that I told you all about earlier- I’ve been getting to know her and her sister better, and I’m praying that I can somehow speak into her life in this last week of teaching.
I’ve been able to tutor one of the teachers as well, which has been great, but challenging. She knows only what she has memorized, and it’s tough trying to explain things in Russian when I know so little. It’s also tough to figure out a time to meet, but I’m excited to see how it goes as I try and meet with her a few more times before the end of next week.
As I’m finishing up my time of teaching at this school, Kurt and Rochelle and some friends and I are planning an English camp for two weeks in July at another school. Originally, I was asked to do some tutoring here and there as needed, but so many kids responded that we’re doing a full-fledged camp! The kids will be as young as 4 or 5 and as old as 16 or 17, and they will be at camp at the school from 9-1 every day. The team is meeting together this Sunday after church to talk things over, so hopefully we can get a game plan going.
As I’m finishing up my time of teaching at this school, Kurt and Rochelle and some friends and I are planning an English camp for two weeks in July at another school. Originally, I was asked to do some tutoring here and there as needed, but so many kids responded that we’re doing a full-fledged camp! The kids will be as young as 4 or 5 and as old as 16 or 17, and they will be at camp at the school from 9-1 every day. The team is meeting together this Sunday after church to talk things over, so hopefully we can get a game plan going.