This weekend, three of our teachers are having birthdays! So on Thursday night, we all headed out to Diva's (a restaurant) to celebrate. Here is Kelly and Natalie and I - we are all Nipissing graduates ;)
And here is the entire group. We are only missing 2 or 3 of our "new hires". (I borrowed these pictures from Briana :)
We've just completed our second week of teaching, and tomorrow begins another. But - it's Ramadan! Which means that we are only teaching 4 hours a day - which is pretty sweet in and of itself. We get to school at 8am and we leave at 1:30 - this is wonderful, considering that on normal days, we arrive at 6:30 and leave at 3 or 4. Our classes are currently 55 minutes in length, instead of 90 minutes. The only issue is that the girls are fasting, which means that it is all around harder for them to concentrate.
So it will be a slow month! At the end of Ramadan, we have a week-long holiday called Eid Al Fitr, and we're planning on heading to Dubai, or maybe Bahrain, depending on where we can get flights.
Teaching is going well - I think I need to slow down a little. It's a constant learning experience, trying to figure out how to keep the quick kids interested and challenged, while not losing the kids who are new to French. It doesn't help that the administration keeps putting new kids in my classes, who've never taken French. So I'm constantly fighting to keep them up to date. I can see how teaching adults would be much nicer - in university, you're 100% responsible for your own learning - here, I still need to sell my subject to the girls. But it doesn't mean much to some of the girls. Which means that now I need to focus on the girls who love French, and WANT to learn it, and let the ones who don't care realize that they are not going to get decent marks or have fun if they refuse to participate and pay attention.
It's just hard to do that. New teachers are allowed to be irrational dreamers ;)
We've just completed our second week of teaching, and tomorrow begins another. But - it's Ramadan! Which means that we are only teaching 4 hours a day - which is pretty sweet in and of itself. We get to school at 8am and we leave at 1:30 - this is wonderful, considering that on normal days, we arrive at 6:30 and leave at 3 or 4. Our classes are currently 55 minutes in length, instead of 90 minutes. The only issue is that the girls are fasting, which means that it is all around harder for them to concentrate.
So it will be a slow month! At the end of Ramadan, we have a week-long holiday called Eid Al Fitr, and we're planning on heading to Dubai, or maybe Bahrain, depending on where we can get flights.
Teaching is going well - I think I need to slow down a little. It's a constant learning experience, trying to figure out how to keep the quick kids interested and challenged, while not losing the kids who are new to French. It doesn't help that the administration keeps putting new kids in my classes, who've never taken French. So I'm constantly fighting to keep them up to date. I can see how teaching adults would be much nicer - in university, you're 100% responsible for your own learning - here, I still need to sell my subject to the girls. But it doesn't mean much to some of the girls. Which means that now I need to focus on the girls who love French, and WANT to learn it, and let the ones who don't care realize that they are not going to get decent marks or have fun if they refuse to participate and pay attention.
It's just hard to do that. New teachers are allowed to be irrational dreamers ;)
1 comment:
Dear Have Certificate:
Gosh, when I was in school, teachers did not look as pretty as all of you!
Kind regards, profs...
Julian
www.ijulian.blogspot.com
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