Thursday, July 24, 2008

Teaching Adventures Continue

My class is now learning to say the alphabet letters in English and spell their names with the English alphabet. When I first met them they could sing the alphabet song, but then I realized they knew that by memory, but couldn't say the names of the letters in English when asked to do so. We've also been working on before and after, for in worksheets I discovered they knew the days of the week and months of the years, but couldn't do a question such as: What day is before Tuesday -- because they didn't know the concept of before and after. Today we worked a bit on opposites and I also gave them a lesson about Hawaii for that was a state that interested them.

Last evening was camp initiation. In anticipation all the new campers and volunteers were anxious about camp initiation. I encountered a group of worried girls, and said, "I did it and lived." They replied: "You are an adult." Well for this initiation, they first got their faces painted by the counselors, then had to crawl through a tunnel made of chairs, then had to eat a slice of lemon, then had to drink a cocktail made of juice, catsup, mustard, salt and pepper, then put on huge boots and carry a ping-pong ball on a spoon, then take off their shoes and socks and walk over pine cones, and then finally kiss the nose of a statue. They received a diploma showing them they had done it!

Today because the kids were so twitchy I took them for an "I see it" walk. We got to the pond and were enjoying seeing the fountain work. Little did I know, my boy students were involved in turning the water on for the fountain.

Well, the good news is that tomorrow is only two classes! The other two classes will be presentations about the states where we are from.

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