Alright, So I know I know I've taken a bit of a hiatus... Usually, I write my blog posts after my last class when my lesson planning for the next day is done and I'm essentially just waiting to go home. The last few days though I had to finish creating the final exams which meant I was behind on my lesson planning and we ended up closing the office early on Thursday and Friday so now I'm playing catch-up on the blog!
Thursday went well as far as classes go. My last class went especially well. I'll preface this by saying that I have a difficult time coming up with interesting ways to teach grammar concepts (suggestions welcome!) so it is especially gratifying when I do a grammar lesson and they grasp the concepts. Yesterday was just one of those gratifying days! At the beginning of the lesson (which was on If...then... statements) they had no idea how to construct the sentences and by the end they were telling me before I even asked! I also went through the difference between "will" and "might" and again, at first I could tell they were just guessing (we were filling in the blank) but by the end it seemed to make sense to all of them! So yeah, that felt good.
Friday, most of my classes went well. My P4s are a dream - always. No matter what I do with them they are cooperative and lovely and they are definitely rewarded for it because I'm more willing to do funner activities/games because I know they can handle it. So, for example, on Friday I decided to play a variation on the "Hokey Pokey" and they stood up and danced and sang and it was fun! However, when I tried doing the same song with my P3s they went absolutely crazy! They weren't doing the moves at all (despite me going over it with them and standing up at the front of the room showing them) and before we got half way through the song, some of them decided to get up on their chairs! After shutting the song down and trying to move on to the lesson they were still misbehaving and in the end I took away their Friday cartoon. My last class, my P5s, are always hit or miss in terms of behavior. On Friday I was playing hangman with them and they were having so much fun with it that I ran to the end of class without showing them their well-deserved cartoon! So I promised that I'd show it on Monday and they said "but Teacher we still have 3 minutes - Song! Song! Song!" So I played that "I am the Music Man" song that I posted here last week and they know all the words and were just having so much fun with it that we ended up playing it 3 times! I'm excited that I've found a song that they can learn but also really like. Especially because I was told that in December there is an Open House and I have to prepare skits and songs with all of my classes to perform on stage. I am definitely using this song as one of my songs for my P5s!
This weekend, unfortunately, it was really rainy so I didn't get out to really do anything. I did, on Saturday night, go over to the Old Night Market which is much more active on the weekends than the weekdays. There are more clothes and accessories vendors on the weekends whereas on the weekdays its mostly food. When I was there I also saw an aerobics class going on! They had a big stage set up in a parking lot and it looked like anyone could just join in and do a little cardio. Kind of like what was going on on Saturday mornings at Millennium Park this summer. Needless to say, I wasn't really dressed for the occasion, but I definitely plan on going back next Saturday. I have really missed doing zumba and even though this isn't zumba, it looked similar enough that I think it will be fun!
Yesterday (Monday), all my classes went well. In fact, I can think of nothing that really stands out in my mind as worth telling about. If I hadn't written so much already, I'd write more about what the school is like and things other than my classes, but I'll save that for another time.
I do have an apartment search update though. Yesterday, my TA told me that there is a place I can move into in 10 days, but I won't be able to see it until then. It is definitely not ideal and I'm going to see if I can get more information out of her about what the apartment is like. I think one of the reasons its been such a struggle is that she wants to find me a place within walking distance of the school which is something I also really want. She asked if I would be willing to buy or rent a motorbike while I lived here and I said absolutely not - so yeah, that's kind of where that stands. At this point my main concern is getting a place before my October break because I would really like to travel and I would really like to have a place to leave my stuff if I travel. G has said that if I need to I can leave my suitcase at her place in Bangkok since its likely I'll have to travel out from there anyway. And while I really appreciate the offer I would really prefer not to have to do that.
Ok, well its almost time for my first class. I'll try to get back on schedule with the blog - Thank you to all of you who read it!
Thursday went well as far as classes go. My last class went especially well. I'll preface this by saying that I have a difficult time coming up with interesting ways to teach grammar concepts (suggestions welcome!) so it is especially gratifying when I do a grammar lesson and they grasp the concepts. Yesterday was just one of those gratifying days! At the beginning of the lesson (which was on If...then... statements) they had no idea how to construct the sentences and by the end they were telling me before I even asked! I also went through the difference between "will" and "might" and again, at first I could tell they were just guessing (we were filling in the blank) but by the end it seemed to make sense to all of them! So yeah, that felt good.
Friday, most of my classes went well. My P4s are a dream - always. No matter what I do with them they are cooperative and lovely and they are definitely rewarded for it because I'm more willing to do funner activities/games because I know they can handle it. So, for example, on Friday I decided to play a variation on the "Hokey Pokey" and they stood up and danced and sang and it was fun! However, when I tried doing the same song with my P3s they went absolutely crazy! They weren't doing the moves at all (despite me going over it with them and standing up at the front of the room showing them) and before we got half way through the song, some of them decided to get up on their chairs! After shutting the song down and trying to move on to the lesson they were still misbehaving and in the end I took away their Friday cartoon. My last class, my P5s, are always hit or miss in terms of behavior. On Friday I was playing hangman with them and they were having so much fun with it that I ran to the end of class without showing them their well-deserved cartoon! So I promised that I'd show it on Monday and they said "but Teacher we still have 3 minutes - Song! Song! Song!" So I played that "I am the Music Man" song that I posted here last week and they know all the words and were just having so much fun with it that we ended up playing it 3 times! I'm excited that I've found a song that they can learn but also really like. Especially because I was told that in December there is an Open House and I have to prepare skits and songs with all of my classes to perform on stage. I am definitely using this song as one of my songs for my P5s!
This weekend, unfortunately, it was really rainy so I didn't get out to really do anything. I did, on Saturday night, go over to the Old Night Market which is much more active on the weekends than the weekdays. There are more clothes and accessories vendors on the weekends whereas on the weekdays its mostly food. When I was there I also saw an aerobics class going on! They had a big stage set up in a parking lot and it looked like anyone could just join in and do a little cardio. Kind of like what was going on on Saturday mornings at Millennium Park this summer. Needless to say, I wasn't really dressed for the occasion, but I definitely plan on going back next Saturday. I have really missed doing zumba and even though this isn't zumba, it looked similar enough that I think it will be fun!
Yesterday (Monday), all my classes went well. In fact, I can think of nothing that really stands out in my mind as worth telling about. If I hadn't written so much already, I'd write more about what the school is like and things other than my classes, but I'll save that for another time.
I do have an apartment search update though. Yesterday, my TA told me that there is a place I can move into in 10 days, but I won't be able to see it until then. It is definitely not ideal and I'm going to see if I can get more information out of her about what the apartment is like. I think one of the reasons its been such a struggle is that she wants to find me a place within walking distance of the school which is something I also really want. She asked if I would be willing to buy or rent a motorbike while I lived here and I said absolutely not - so yeah, that's kind of where that stands. At this point my main concern is getting a place before my October break because I would really like to travel and I would really like to have a place to leave my stuff if I travel. G has said that if I need to I can leave my suitcase at her place in Bangkok since its likely I'll have to travel out from there anyway. And while I really appreciate the offer I would really prefer not to have to do that.
Ok, well its almost time for my first class. I'll try to get back on schedule with the blog - Thank you to all of you who read it!
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