Sorry everyone for the inactivity for a few weeks. I've had this post half written and didn't get around to finishing it till now. But here it is! And I promise that I'll be better in the future.
So anyway, a few weeks ago I finally started teaching. I was a bit terrified, but thankfully I was scheduled to shadow a few other classes first before I had to go into my own. Shadowing was extremely helpful and when I planned my first lesson, I made it very similar to lesson I shadowed. It took some tweaking and I think that now I'm starting to figure out my own teaching style.
The school itself is a private English school, so most of our classes are early mornings or in the evenings before or after the kids go to school. That means I have most of the day to relax and plan lessons, which makes things a little less stressful. That gets balanced out though since the school was just renovated and there's a lot of things wrong around the building still. For the first two weeks, none of the smartboards worked. That wouldn't normally be an issue, but we don't have normal boards either so that meant no board. Most of the classrooms are working now, but when we moved to assigned classrooms, guess who got the one that doesn't work. Not only does my classroom not have a board or any of the audio or visual equipment I'm supposed to have, but its also missing the most basic thing that makes it a room: walls.
Not having walls is especially a problem because all of my students are 7-9 years old. That's not an age group very well known for their superior concentration skills. So with other kids and parents and teachers all wandering around the other half of the shared space (Damn open floor plans.), I spend a decent amount of time every class trying to get my students to stay focused.
At first, I was also a little self conscious about people being able to watch me teach, but I got over that pretty quickly. Especially when one of my coworkers said she can hear me when I'm teaching from almost everywhere in the school anyway. I've noticed that even at their normal speaking volume, Russians talk very quietly. So much so that sometimes I can hardly hear somebody that I'm standing right next to. Since that obviously means that Russians must all have some sort of super hearing, I can only imagine how my extremely loud Americanness must grate on their ears.
Here's a photo of the school from the entrance so you can have a visual of this. My classroom is the back half of that room next to the boxes on the wall.
So anyway, a few weeks ago I finally started teaching. I was a bit terrified, but thankfully I was scheduled to shadow a few other classes first before I had to go into my own. Shadowing was extremely helpful and when I planned my first lesson, I made it very similar to lesson I shadowed. It took some tweaking and I think that now I'm starting to figure out my own teaching style.
The school itself is a private English school, so most of our classes are early mornings or in the evenings before or after the kids go to school. That means I have most of the day to relax and plan lessons, which makes things a little less stressful. That gets balanced out though since the school was just renovated and there's a lot of things wrong around the building still. For the first two weeks, none of the smartboards worked. That wouldn't normally be an issue, but we don't have normal boards either so that meant no board. Most of the classrooms are working now, but when we moved to assigned classrooms, guess who got the one that doesn't work. Not only does my classroom not have a board or any of the audio or visual equipment I'm supposed to have, but its also missing the most basic thing that makes it a room: walls.
Not having walls is especially a problem because all of my students are 7-9 years old. That's not an age group very well known for their superior concentration skills. So with other kids and parents and teachers all wandering around the other half of the shared space (Damn open floor plans.), I spend a decent amount of time every class trying to get my students to stay focused.
At first, I was also a little self conscious about people being able to watch me teach, but I got over that pretty quickly. Especially when one of my coworkers said she can hear me when I'm teaching from almost everywhere in the school anyway. I've noticed that even at their normal speaking volume, Russians talk very quietly. So much so that sometimes I can hardly hear somebody that I'm standing right next to. Since that obviously means that Russians must all have some sort of super hearing, I can only imagine how my extremely loud Americanness must grate on their ears.
Here's a photo of the school from the entrance so you can have a visual of this. My classroom is the back half of that room next to the boxes on the wall.
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| During my class, it's actually usually more crowded than this. |
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