So, as I was making lunch this afternoon, I realized that one egg had cracked during one of my many falls on the way home from the supermarket. Now, apparently, in -30 degree weather, a cracked egg doesnt spill but instead freezes. So when I broke this egg into the frying pan today, I found a very interesting substance-- egg white with icicles in it. Added to the other normal egg, it was edible, but very weird to cook (as one egg was cooking, the other was thawing!). I know, that's a strange story to share, but these are the moments that make my experiences in Mongolia unique!
Not much more to tell by way of news-- the computer in the teachers' room finally has internet, so I get to spend some time writing this blog right now on a break from work (Wendy, nothign exciting to look at, these computers-- it's the incredibly slow internet speed that sets them apart!). Other than that, it is just another day preparing lesson plans. Looks like I will have quite a bit of freedom after all... my 2 years of on-and-off tutoring at the Writing Center, and sepcially this semester's work with Dr. Williams' class, actually makes me the most experienced English teacher at this school! (no one else has more than a few months' teaching experience). Plus, i am the only one here who speaks the language, so I think they are content to let me be as long as I show them a basic plan and work towards the TOEFL amongst other things.
Still, it's hard. I am going to teach 8 classes of 35 students each; each class is broken up into 2 groups, so I am teaching 16 groups of students. I will only see each group once a week, and the term is only 8 weeks long (I am teachign 2 terms here). It's hard to know what to cover and what to leave out. Focus on academic English or everyday, spoken English? Focus on helping students speak about their experiences or on introducing them to American and British English through audio-visual materials? Those are all important to me, and I am not sure how to strike a balance amongst them. The Mongolian English textbooks are TERRIBLE and the foreign books they have here talk too much about British food and other things the kids probably couldn't care less about. I think I am going to be inventing teaching materials as I go along...
I guess I'll know in a couple of days...
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I have a mean flu bug, but I'll quickly share an idea. I read somewhere recently about an English teacher who had students each bring in a word each day. It could be any word at all--the only requirement was that it be a word that was interesting to them for some reason. Those words would form the basis of lessons, and eventually they collected enough to begin making sentences out of them. The assertion was that this made the lessons intrinsically interesting and therefore more memorable. I woul hope they'd bring in odd words and create crazy sentences. But that's me.
ReplyDeletejames
Wow, 8 classes of 35 students each. You have your work cut out for you...especially if you are grading their writing.
ReplyDeleteAlso...a comment on James' comment...Since your students are not an an English-speaking environment, it may be difficult for them to actually find words or phrases to bring into the class. They need a place to start looking. If you could provide them with short readings (could be fiction, poetry, expository readings, etc.), the students themselves would have to identify interesting/problematic vocabulary and structures. Using different stories with different groups would create the opportunity for members of different groups to teach new words/phrases to their classmates. Then, when you use the same stories with later classes, you should be able to anticipate the words/phrases they will find.
I also recommend some active learning strategies such as brainstorming, ranking or rating items in a list, problem-solving, role-playing situations or information gap activities to promote actual thinking in the target language rather than rote memorization.
-Aaron
Hey Aditi!
ReplyDeleteI've been reading your blog... though I really had NO time this past week to actually spend long enough on the Net to write stuff - we had 55 kids and 15 adults over at BABLI for a 3-day 'workshop'!
That lot has just left - but now the guest-house is full with other guests again! Good business, but VERY bad schedules - days start at 5.30 a.m. and stretch till 1 - 2 a.m. at times.
Your frozen-egg story reminded me of paintings by Salvador Dali!
About your job-at-hand... well, I'm sure you will figure out what they need and how to render that soon enough - for me, the ONLY important thing as a 'teacher' has always been remembering a fundamental point - that it is not MY prerogative that the students 'LEARN'! Meaning, the only thing that is really important is the teacher's ability to stay INVOLVED, as opposed to being ATTACHED to the students processes of learning. Detachment is, for me, the prime qualifier between 'human' and 'special'.
All the very best to you with regard to the -30 degrees! I remember my short stint at a school in interior Ladakh - that kind of harsh cold can severely wear your spirit down!
Take care, and have fun!
Aaditto.