So far one of the most difficult parts of teaching as been teaching Kinder (kindergarden). The kids are nice and often well behaved. The hard part is figuring out how to keep most of them interested for 40 minutes.
I teach kinder 5 days a week for 40 minutes. That is a lot of time to be teaching English to 15 kindergardeners, or at least so it seems to me. I have been improving and keeping them more interested.
Yesterday was a really tough day, though a lot of that was that it was like 90 degrees and Friday afternoon, so the kinder class had little interest in learning new vocab in English. The songs went ok, they were up for that, but I need to figure out a game I can teach them with for when they are rambunctious like yesterday.
I have 8 more months to become a better EFL Kinder teacher, so I will improve. Hopefully it will not be that hot too often, since its hard to teach when its so hot.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
In my spare time
While most of my posts have talked about my experiences at the school, since that is why I am here, I have been doing other things when I am not working at the school or planning lessons.
I have attended one meeting of the Scouts here in Costa Rica, which is a lot different than the Boy Scouts in the US. I am going to look for them tomorrow too at the time they normally meet, but I am unsure if I will find them or not.
I was running earlier in my time here, though the last two weeks I've been busy and the weather has not been very good. This has made me run less, which is something I need to fix since I want to stay in shape while I am here. Much easier to stay in shape than have to get back in shape later.
I also have been reading a lot. There is a small library in the WorldTeach office in San Jose which I borrowed a couple of books from. One of the former volunteers who stayed with my host family left a bunch of books so I have those too. I am currently reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac from that collection.
Though I have read books from those sources, my main source of fiction has been free online sites. Sites for short fiction, Strange Horizons , Clarkesworld , and tor.com. For novels I have turned to Cory Doctorow, who releases most of his fiction for free under a Creative Commons license at craphound.com. Two other sources are Suvudu.com has a free library as well as Baen.com which has been very helpful for me in finding reading material.
I am glad it is Friday, though I do not have any exciting plans for the weekend yet. Next weekend I am planning on doing a hike by Volcan Arenal, but this weekend I plan on relaxing.
I have attended one meeting of the Scouts here in Costa Rica, which is a lot different than the Boy Scouts in the US. I am going to look for them tomorrow too at the time they normally meet, but I am unsure if I will find them or not.
I was running earlier in my time here, though the last two weeks I've been busy and the weather has not been very good. This has made me run less, which is something I need to fix since I want to stay in shape while I am here. Much easier to stay in shape than have to get back in shape later.
I also have been reading a lot. There is a small library in the WorldTeach office in San Jose which I borrowed a couple of books from. One of the former volunteers who stayed with my host family left a bunch of books so I have those too. I am currently reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac from that collection.
Though I have read books from those sources, my main source of fiction has been free online sites. Sites for short fiction, Strange Horizons , Clarkesworld , and tor.com. For novels I have turned to Cory Doctorow, who releases most of his fiction for free under a Creative Commons license at craphound.com. Two other sources are Suvudu.com has a free library as well as Baen.com which has been very helpful for me in finding reading material.
I am glad it is Friday, though I do not have any exciting plans for the weekend yet. Next weekend I am planning on doing a hike by Volcan Arenal, but this weekend I plan on relaxing.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Presentation, Practice, and Product
One of the main techniques for teaching English which I was taught during orientation was presentation, practice and product. Roughly every topic should have all three. While a given lesson may only have two, over a couple of lessons all three should happen.
While my presentation could improve, as could all of my teaching skills, I have had some success with the presentation. I am able to show what I want the students to learn. I always have a visual representation of the part of the human body or system I am teaching.
Practice is also something I have had moderate success with. I try to incorporate physical actions to help the students remember various topics. For instance today the third graders were learning various muscles, so I had them lift their chairs to demonstrate biceps and lift their leg to demonstrate quadriceps.
Product is the part of the equation which I will be working on improving the most over the next few weeks. I will be working on it for next week since I have to give all of my students an out of school project next week in preparation for the test which will be given at the end of March.
Now that I am more in the swing of teaching here, I am trying to spend more time focusing on these sorts of concerns. The first couple of weeks were a whirlwind, especially considering all told I have more than 150 students in 5 different grades. While not an unreasonable amount, I am still working on learning all of their names and such things which are necessary for effective teaching.
I am still enjoying La Fortuna, even on rainy days like today. I need to run to a meeting with the parents so I will be able to practice my Spanish for the next hour or so. I'll try to remember to update more often as I settle into a routine.
While my presentation could improve, as could all of my teaching skills, I have had some success with the presentation. I am able to show what I want the students to learn. I always have a visual representation of the part of the human body or system I am teaching.
Practice is also something I have had moderate success with. I try to incorporate physical actions to help the students remember various topics. For instance today the third graders were learning various muscles, so I had them lift their chairs to demonstrate biceps and lift their leg to demonstrate quadriceps.
Product is the part of the equation which I will be working on improving the most over the next few weeks. I will be working on it for next week since I have to give all of my students an out of school project next week in preparation for the test which will be given at the end of March.
Now that I am more in the swing of teaching here, I am trying to spend more time focusing on these sorts of concerns. The first couple of weeks were a whirlwind, especially considering all told I have more than 150 students in 5 different grades. While not an unreasonable amount, I am still working on learning all of their names and such things which are necessary for effective teaching.
I am still enjoying La Fortuna, even on rainy days like today. I need to run to a meeting with the parents so I will be able to practice my Spanish for the next hour or so. I'll try to remember to update more often as I settle into a routine.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ups and downs of teaching
This has been an intense couple of days on the teaching front. I am teaching English to the 6th graders without a Costa Rican English tacher, which is stretching my abilities as a teacher.
I think they more or less understand the nervous system, at least a little of it, but I am struggling teaching the endocrine system. I have some ideas on ways to try to explain how the pituitary and adrenal glands work, but its a struggle.
I will be working on more ways to teach it for next week. I think the new teacher will be starting soon, which should help. Having a teacher who can explain the concepts briefly in Spanish makes the teaching I do in English much more effective in my limited experience so far.
Today was the first time I taught third grade science and it went well. They were learning the names of some of the bones of the body. They already knew them in Spanish, so it made it much easier to teach it in English. While I use as much English as I can, I do lapse sometimes into Spanish.
As the year goes on I will work on ways to explain concepts visually so I do not have to use Spanish, but I also am not solely relying on the students understanding me. This has been a long and tiring week, but it has been satisfying. Some lessons have gone much better than others, but it gives me hope for the future.
I think they more or less understand the nervous system, at least a little of it, but I am struggling teaching the endocrine system. I have some ideas on ways to try to explain how the pituitary and adrenal glands work, but its a struggle.
I will be working on more ways to teach it for next week. I think the new teacher will be starting soon, which should help. Having a teacher who can explain the concepts briefly in Spanish makes the teaching I do in English much more effective in my limited experience so far.
Today was the first time I taught third grade science and it went well. They were learning the names of some of the bones of the body. They already knew them in Spanish, so it made it much easier to teach it in English. While I use as much English as I can, I do lapse sometimes into Spanish.
As the year goes on I will work on ways to explain concepts visually so I do not have to use Spanish, but I also am not solely relying on the students understanding me. This has been a long and tiring week, but it has been satisfying. Some lessons have gone much better than others, but it gives me hope for the future.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Photos
In my family, I am notorious for not taking photos when I travel. I really do intend on improving on that this trip. So far, I have not taken very many photos, but then again so much of time has been either learning how to teach or actually teaching, so I have not had that many opportunities. I will work on adding more pictures.
For anyone who wants to see my photos such as they are can look at them at http://picasaweb.google.com/pkkilkel. I have a permanent link to them on the right, but I figured it would be worth it to highlight the photos in an actual blog post.
The majority of the pictures have been released under a Creative Commons license. An explanation can be found in the link, but basically what that means is that the pictures which say "some rights reserved" can be shared, redistributed, remixed, used for commercial purposes as long as the picture is attributed to me.
Basically I want to be credited with having taken the pictures. A drawback to Picasa is that Picasa is not as clear as I would like on how to credit someone. I basically just would like a link back to my Picasa if anyone wants to, for instance, use one of my pictures on their blog.
The picture at the top of my blog is a picture I used under a CC license from a Flickr user, with the attribution underneath the picture. I have been reading novels released under CC licenses and am a big fan of the concept and figured I would use it for my own pictures.
For anyone who wants to see my photos such as they are can look at them at http://picasaweb.google.com/pkkilkel. I have a permanent link to them on the right, but I figured it would be worth it to highlight the photos in an actual blog post.
The majority of the pictures have been released under a Creative Commons license. An explanation can be found in the link, but basically what that means is that the pictures which say "some rights reserved" can be shared, redistributed, remixed, used for commercial purposes as long as the picture is attributed to me.
Basically I want to be credited with having taken the pictures. A drawback to Picasa is that Picasa is not as clear as I would like on how to credit someone. I basically just would like a link back to my Picasa if anyone wants to, for instance, use one of my pictures on their blog.
The picture at the top of my blog is a picture I used under a CC license from a Flickr user, with the attribution underneath the picture. I have been reading novels released under CC licenses and am a big fan of the concept and figured I would use it for my own pictures.
First full week
One week of classes teaching is now behind me. Next week I will be upping the amount of teaching some more, though it will not be a full week. That has to wait until a couple of the English teachers are ready for me to do conversation classes with their students.
The curriculum is ambitious for the 5th and 6th grade. I will need to work in the next few weeks on finding a happy balance between satisfying the curriculum and not overwhelming the students with too much science in English. While their confidence in English is not as high as I want it to be, many of them do remember some of the science from the previous years, which is good.
The hardest part will be the students in 6th grade who have moved from other schools, where they received less English or even no English in one case. I will do the best I can and hopefully they will learn a lot this year, even though they will likely not catch up to their peers completely.
My science classes with the younger students begin this coming week. They receive science for 80 minutes in Spanish and then the same material in English for another 80 minutes. This means I teach based off the monthly and weekly lesson plans given to me by the regular teacher. This is challenging because I need to follow the regular teacher's plans and adapt it for myself, but it is less work because I do not grade the students. I hand over the grades I will have to the regular teacher, who gives the students their science grade.
All in all, this was an interesting week which went pretty well. I know I will have challenging weeks, as someone without much training as an elementary school science teacher teaching science in a foreign language for the students.
In a discussion I had with one of the first grade teachers at lunch yesterday, she mentioned a reason I had not even considered why it was good the students were learning science in English. When students wish to continue in the sciences past high school (including engineering) most of the material is in English, and it is a technical English which even the students who did well in high school English struggle with.
While its possible the students will lose the English I help teach them between 7th grade and leaving for college, hopefully they will be able to build off of what I teach them in future years to succeed in college. Ideally anyways, even if it is only a couple of them.
To end one of the longer posts I will write something which I need to remember myself. While this is a high priority school within the Costa Rican public school system, which means it receives extra attention, it is also an experimental bilingual program. These 6th graders will be the first to have fully completed the program, so some kinks still need to be ironed out. This will be a year of taking a deep breath and accepting that which I can't change and doing what I can to make the students better in English.
The curriculum is ambitious for the 5th and 6th grade. I will need to work in the next few weeks on finding a happy balance between satisfying the curriculum and not overwhelming the students with too much science in English. While their confidence in English is not as high as I want it to be, many of them do remember some of the science from the previous years, which is good.
The hardest part will be the students in 6th grade who have moved from other schools, where they received less English or even no English in one case. I will do the best I can and hopefully they will learn a lot this year, even though they will likely not catch up to their peers completely.
My science classes with the younger students begin this coming week. They receive science for 80 minutes in Spanish and then the same material in English for another 80 minutes. This means I teach based off the monthly and weekly lesson plans given to me by the regular teacher. This is challenging because I need to follow the regular teacher's plans and adapt it for myself, but it is less work because I do not grade the students. I hand over the grades I will have to the regular teacher, who gives the students their science grade.
All in all, this was an interesting week which went pretty well. I know I will have challenging weeks, as someone without much training as an elementary school science teacher teaching science in a foreign language for the students.
In a discussion I had with one of the first grade teachers at lunch yesterday, she mentioned a reason I had not even considered why it was good the students were learning science in English. When students wish to continue in the sciences past high school (including engineering) most of the material is in English, and it is a technical English which even the students who did well in high school English struggle with.
While its possible the students will lose the English I help teach them between 7th grade and leaving for college, hopefully they will be able to build off of what I teach them in future years to succeed in college. Ideally anyways, even if it is only a couple of them.
To end one of the longer posts I will write something which I need to remember myself. While this is a high priority school within the Costa Rican public school system, which means it receives extra attention, it is also an experimental bilingual program. These 6th graders will be the first to have fully completed the program, so some kinks still need to be ironed out. This will be a year of taking a deep breath and accepting that which I can't change and doing what I can to make the students better in English.
Monday, February 15, 2010
First real classes
While classes started last Wednesday as I mentioned in a previous post, today I had my first actual class. I taught my 5th grade science class for 70 minutes (10 were taken for lunch). We spent most of the time going over the rules for the class. That was the main thing which I will have to work on, is moving from one activity to the next, so as not to let one activity dominate the entire class time.
However, even with the entire class being the unexciting task of going over rules, the class went pretty well. I am working on learning the students names and while there are a lot of them, it is not an overwhelming amount. I feel more settled now that I've actually started teaching, since I can focus on the reality of the challenges instead of trying to predict ahead of time what might go wrong.
1 class down, many more to go in Costa Rica.
However, even with the entire class being the unexciting task of going over rules, the class went pretty well. I am working on learning the students names and while there are a lot of them, it is not an overwhelming amount. I feel more settled now that I've actually started teaching, since I can focus on the reality of the challenges instead of trying to predict ahead of time what might go wrong.
1 class down, many more to go in Costa Rica.
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