Two schools = Two first days

Tuesday, November 27^th, 2012

Today was my second official day of teaching, and my first day of teaching at my second school.  My co-teacher, Amy, met me at the metro around 2:00pm.  Although the school is close to a metro stop, she wanted to show me how to get there by bus.  The bus stop was about a 15 minute walk from my apartment.  We caught the bus and it was probably a 10-15 minute drive away.  The bus stops are very spread out so it was only 3 stops in total.  The school was then another 5-minute walk from the bus stop. 

My first class was supposed to start at 2:30 but we didn’t make it until 2:40.  My students were waiting for me and I was thrown right into it.  For my classes at this school, they had a copy of all the books for me.  the students themselves did not have a copy and they all borrowed one from the school.  My full day schedule was 6, 50-minute classes with no breaks in between.  At this school, my classroom looks more like a traditional classroom where I stand at the front and write on the board while the kids sit at their desks.  The first 5 classes of the day used level 1 and 2 books.  They were all lower level kids and their ages ranged from 8 – 12 years old.  My second class of the day had 20 students!  My co-teacher Amy sat in the back of that class just in case the kids were loud.  The way I managed the discipline with my classes at this school was move the chatty kids around so that they were sitting beside a quiet student.  It worked like a charm.  

At the beginning of my second last class of the day, Amy asked if I was hungry.  I said yes, a bit, so she invited me to leave my class to read on their own and eat with her and the other co-teachers.  They offered me spring rolls and this weird long white fish thing in a liquid they ate out of a paper cup.  I tried a bite of the fish and ate a few spring rolls.  The co-teachers at this school so far seemed a lot more easy going and social.   I didn’t want to keep the kids waiting for too long so I returned to my class and the kids were actually quiet and looking at their books when I returned!

The last class of the day had only two students.  They were advanced students who had a totally separate book and they are meant to study with me three times a week.  That class was a relief because these two girls were so easy to manage and picked everything really quickly!

Two of my co-teachers bused back with me at the end of the day, around 7:30.   I wasn’t as tired at the end of my second day and wasn’t as hungry because of my little snack.  It was still good to be done my first days at the two schools and have a better idea of what to expect for rest of the week!

Cool house across from my apartment.

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