Day 64 – Monday 11/14/11

 I started going to English Skills courses today. The goal is for me to get to each class before the end of the semester.  These courses are English Language learners from level 1 all the way to level 4.  Not know each groups’ dynamic and level exactly planning the “right” activity posed a challenge.  I had many different ideas of what to do to bring American culture, how to make them do most of the talking, but the challenge was finding the right balance between the two for each individual group.  I went with a vocabulary game that is similar to Musical chairs, only they pass an item and the person with the item when the music stops has to name the vocabulary word from a picture.  The students seemed to have fun with it!  I also brought prizes from America many of the things were from the requests I had made to all 50 states for items to take with me.   One challenge today had to do with a language barrier.  Since I don’t know that much Albanian or Macedonian, I don’t always know what the students are saying – well let’s be honest I RARELY know what they are saying.  But I knew enough vocabulary to make them wonder what I did or did not know :)  Tricks of being a teacher!!

Lesson: Although teaching here is different since I am in a different culture- some of the tricks of the trade remain the same!