First Full Day of Teaching

So today I had my first full day of teaching...needless to say it was interesting.

So it started out kind of early. I decided to go into school early so I could concentrate and make sure that I had my lesson plans ready to go and to prepare for my 4th graders tomorrow, and it is also nice to get out of the house. So I sat around and chilled at school, made my plans and made the necessary preparations for school tomorrow. Then it was time to start teaching...

My first few classes were very rough. We didn't really know how to communicate that well and my lesson plans did not go as planned, I had made them way to complicated. So the first 3 I would say were aweful. As time went on they did get better and by the time I got to the last 2 I was on a role. It was interesting though there was some review vocabulary for the first unit and the kids did not know the words at all, so we just spend the whole hour learning the new words...I definitely have my work cut out for me. This time around it was the students who have more difficulty in English, so they were my harder group of students. At the end of the week I will have my better students...but in time we will get there and I can see that I will quickly learn Romanian...I don't have a choice. It is crazy though, when I was in practicum I tought 5th and 6th graders and I didn't have to use a word of Romanian with them. Today when I was with the 8th graders I had a few translaters, but some of them did not know a word in English. It is amazying how diverse they can be and it is going to be a challenge with the mixture of levels of my students.

I was feeling pretty crappy before I started writing in here...but now that I have written it down I am starting to feel much better. I know that in time things are going to improve and I am usually pretty quick about learning how to communicate with people...I don't have a choice. It is just difficult because some people including the students, have a much stronger accent than other people and they are more difficult to understand and it is hard to get them to understand that they need to speak slowly and clearly for me. In time, that is what everyone keeps saying :)

Other than that it was a pretty good day. I had a teacher come up to me and ask me if I could teach English lessons for the adults/other teachers because he wanted to learn. I am totally up for doing this, which I am sure will be a project I attempt to tackle later :) for now I just have to get used to school, at least I have one secondary project in sights then! :) I am probably going to start working on a Halloween project soon as well, so that should be interesting, apparently it was this big thing last year so they all want to repeat it. I am not sure that I can make it as big as they want it to be, but I will try to bring them something great. I think there is already a teacher who wants to work on it with me, so that should be pretty cool :) We shall see I guess. I hope that I can make it fun for them. They already have an idea of what Halloween is, since they had a prior volunteer here. So I think that we can make it fun and hopefully I will be able to take lots of pictures. Oh and if you want, send me any ideas that you can think of, I am open to anything :)

Other than that things are good. I always have lots to keep my busy and lots to procrastinate on as well :) I really am enjoying myself and I am actually looking forward to teaching the really little kids tomorrow...I have a powerpoint presentation and a game for them to play. I actually think the little ones are easier to teach, believe it or not :) So other than that nothing else much is new. I hope that you are all doing well. I love and miss you very much and think of you everyday. Oh and before I forget, Happy Birthday to Laura and Kyle. I hope you both have a great day!

Love always!

~Until later
Sarah B.