Third Day of Teaching (creative heading, I know)
Responding to Comments:
Mrs. Peckinpaugh: Thank you for reading my blog. It has been very encouraging to hear how so many people are thinking of me, and are enjoying reading about everything that is happening. I impressed with all the food you have had the opportunity to eat. You are quite adventurous, (I am especially impressed that you have eaten insects!) Much of the reason so many of these foods are new is that I grew up in North Dakota, and we do not have a large number of Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese restaurants here, and even if there are some (there may or may not be) our family has never gone “out to eat” very much, instead my mom has cooked incredible meals ( I love you Mom!)
Official Blog Entry:
Good news. Today’s classes went very well. At the school, I went through some sentences asking them to help me make corrections (the way I teach writing at the office) and then we worked on pronunciation. They have trouble with “s” and “sh,” so adopting and changing a couple ideas that I found on http://www.eslcafe.com/, I wrote “s” on one side of the board and “sh” on the other. Then I made the noise and asked them to point at the noise I made. I also helped them by explained that “sh” is the sound you make when you want someone to be quite and you hold your finger in front of your mouth. Finally I wrote: “She sells sea shells by the sea shore,” and I asked a couple of individuals to try saying it. They did surprisingly well. (but they all need to work on it much more before they have it down.) With the rest of the class time, I asked them what they do with a stubborn student. We will continue that discussion tomorrow.
At the office, we worked on a number of words that they have trouble saying. For example. they asked for help with the difference between will and win. (I had them read my lips as I mouthed the sounds without making any noise. they needed to tell me which word I was saying. This way, they paid attention to the way they need to move their mouths to say the word. I also worked on “s” and “sh” with these students. It is quite a challenge to work on pronunciation because sometimes there may be two or more things in a word that make it difficult. For example: will (they have trouble with the “w” and the “ll”, and such (they have trouble with the “s” and the “ch.” After working on these words, we went to a chapter of a book that Jay had given me. I told them to read the chapter and find things that they don’t understand, and we will go over them in class, but instead of working on meaning, we worked on speaking. They wanted me to read it out loud, and then let then read it, and then I was to make corrections on their pronunciation. They enjoyed this, and felt that this is really what they want to work on. So tomorrow when we come together among other things, I will have them each read from the page… working on their pronunciation (which is exactly what Heather suggested I do the other day. (Hats off to you Heather for being so smart.)
So today has been going very well. Now, on my third day of teaching, things are starting to come together. In hindsight, I should have never been concerned about my teaching—that it wasn’t working correctly (when I had only been doing it for two days), but each day seemed like such a long time that I don’t think I quite realized it had been such a short time, and I did not think about that fact that I was bound to make mistakes for the first week or so since I have never taught English before. (duh Luke! that was quite obvious.)
Last night I found a web page: http://iteslj.org/ with a multitude of questions I can ask to students for discussion, so that should not be a problem, and I also visited http://www.eslcafe.com/ where I borrowed some ideas for future classes.
One more thing before I go. Yesterday I spoke of how I have a couple of these attacks of loneliness every day. Well, so far, today I only had a one short one. (we will see how things go tonight) Maybe I am starting to adjust to living alone in Laos. Only time will tell.
-Luke
Mrs. Peckinpaugh: Thank you for reading my blog. It has been very encouraging to hear how so many people are thinking of me, and are enjoying reading about everything that is happening. I impressed with all the food you have had the opportunity to eat. You are quite adventurous, (I am especially impressed that you have eaten insects!) Much of the reason so many of these foods are new is that I grew up in North Dakota, and we do not have a large number of Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese restaurants here, and even if there are some (there may or may not be) our family has never gone “out to eat” very much, instead my mom has cooked incredible meals ( I love you Mom!)
Official Blog Entry:
Good news. Today’s classes went very well. At the school, I went through some sentences asking them to help me make corrections (the way I teach writing at the office) and then we worked on pronunciation. They have trouble with “s” and “sh,” so adopting and changing a couple ideas that I found on http://www.eslcafe.com/, I wrote “s” on one side of the board and “sh” on the other. Then I made the noise and asked them to point at the noise I made. I also helped them by explained that “sh” is the sound you make when you want someone to be quite and you hold your finger in front of your mouth. Finally I wrote: “She sells sea shells by the sea shore,” and I asked a couple of individuals to try saying it. They did surprisingly well. (but they all need to work on it much more before they have it down.) With the rest of the class time, I asked them what they do with a stubborn student. We will continue that discussion tomorrow.
At the office, we worked on a number of words that they have trouble saying. For example. they asked for help with the difference between will and win. (I had them read my lips as I mouthed the sounds without making any noise. they needed to tell me which word I was saying. This way, they paid attention to the way they need to move their mouths to say the word. I also worked on “s” and “sh” with these students. It is quite a challenge to work on pronunciation because sometimes there may be two or more things in a word that make it difficult. For example: will (they have trouble with the “w” and the “ll”, and such (they have trouble with the “s” and the “ch.” After working on these words, we went to a chapter of a book that Jay had given me. I told them to read the chapter and find things that they don’t understand, and we will go over them in class, but instead of working on meaning, we worked on speaking. They wanted me to read it out loud, and then let then read it, and then I was to make corrections on their pronunciation. They enjoyed this, and felt that this is really what they want to work on. So tomorrow when we come together among other things, I will have them each read from the page… working on their pronunciation (which is exactly what Heather suggested I do the other day. (Hats off to you Heather for being so smart.)
So today has been going very well. Now, on my third day of teaching, things are starting to come together. In hindsight, I should have never been concerned about my teaching—that it wasn’t working correctly (when I had only been doing it for two days), but each day seemed like such a long time that I don’t think I quite realized it had been such a short time, and I did not think about that fact that I was bound to make mistakes for the first week or so since I have never taught English before. (duh Luke! that was quite obvious.)
Last night I found a web page: http://iteslj.org/ with a multitude of questions I can ask to students for discussion, so that should not be a problem, and I also visited http://www.eslcafe.com/ where I borrowed some ideas for future classes.
One more thing before I go. Yesterday I spoke of how I have a couple of these attacks of loneliness every day. Well, so far, today I only had a one short one. (we will see how things go tonight) Maybe I am starting to adjust to living alone in Laos. Only time will tell.
-Luke
2 Comments:
Reading your stuff about teaching makes me want very much to do it. But not in Laos. I don't think I could handle the heat. I am glad you are enjoying it (teaching, that is). I thought you would.
Luke has mood swings? (Christy faints in shock. After picking herself up from the floor, she continues.) I think you should get married. That will help. Of course, tomorrow or any time in the next month probably wouldn't be the best time to do so.
Have I told you how much I am enjoying all your descriptions of what you are doing and seeing and where you are going? (Of course, when you go to your next position in July, the clever people there will read your blog and come arrest you and probably murder you, but that's ok. Snide grin.) Could you tell us more about what the place looks like that you are staying in and the place you work? What is the town like? Is it small or large? Are you in the country or a city-ish thing?
I've never been to a Korean barbeque either (I'm trying to remember what it's called), but I should very much like to.
Hmm, I had some other comment I was going to make, but I forgot. I'll make another later.
By
Anonymous, at 10:49 AM
Now I remember. (This is my second comment. I couldn't remember what else I was going to talk about in my first comment.)
I am so glad you are enjoying The Count of Monte Cristo! What part are you at? Most of the unfamiliar words were more common in the time and place the book was written in. Like lorngette, a fairly common item among that class. And of course there may be a lot of French words in it. I learned a lot of French from reading books like that and from reading Agatha Christie books, who wrote in an era when you were expected to understand the occasional French phrase she threw in.
By
Anonymous, at 10:53 AM
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