Those who are close to me may recall the times when I have said that I sould make a terrible teacher. I said that I would either not care at all, or that I would be the nastiest, strictest old geezer this side of Snape.
I lied.
I am an awesome teacher.
Today was the first of two days in which we teach English at the local grade school, here in Ocatlan. (That is almost certanly misspelled.) It was moderately grueling. Between the roosters across the street and the apparently nocturnal turkey in the backyard, I don´t think that anyone got a good night´s sleep. But regardless we were all up bright and early, for a 7 o´clock breakfast and a 7:30 pickup. We arrived at the school and split into two five-person groups, each to brave four hours of fifth and sixth grade students.
Long story short, it went swimmingly.
I acted mainly as the group loudspeaker, using sheer volume and unnwarrented enthusiasm to get the kids involved. After the school day eded (at 12:30!) we got lunch, and then visited a wood carvers workshop, where we painted figurines.
I am tired and this is taking forewcer. I will write mre later, maybe.
You go, Nick! By the way, I have a video clip in Arabic for you to decipher once we are all back at Watkinson....I told one of the students here about your travels last summer and your interest in Arabic so he has recorded a message just for you. All students at this school in Indonesia study both English and Arabic. There are penalties if they are heard to speak Bahasa Indonesia or their native language (which is often Javanese).
ReplyDeleteSo now you know...teaching can be the best job in the world. I look forward to hearing eveyone's details.
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