So yesterday was a milestone for us DukeEngagers - the first day at our St. Andrew's sites. Let me sum up my Monday: I left for Ana al-Misri at 8:30 in the morning, and, besides the 1 hour break between Ana al-Misri and my St. Andrew's site, did not return until 9 at night. Ana al-Misri was much less stressful than that first day, but was still draining. And, it's about an hour drive from here, past the pyramids (yeah, that never gets old). But I was in art again, and most of my time was spent with only a few younger kids who taught me the colors in amiya and took turns picking colors for me to use as I was drawing. I'm going to really enjoy my time there, I think!
But on to the new stuff. The first day was... exciting and intimidating and absolutely rad. We had twenty students come to register, some of whom were not on our list (which was expected), and which was many more than went to the other sites. Fernando and I had not planned a lesson, since we had no idea to expect, so we just chilled in our classroom, did some brief introductions, let them ask us questions, and explained our expectations for the class and how it was gonna work. We came back that night very tired, but super excited.
So today was our first real day of teaching. We had received a very basic outline of teaching ideas from St. Andrew's and today we decided to do greetings and what they called "all about me." We started off with a really fun name game - the first round, someone starts by saying their name, then the next person says the first person's name and then their own, and the next person says the two previous names and then their own, etc. The second round, we said names and then everyone added a little signal or motion to do with their names, so you do everyone's names and symbols. We could tell everyone felt really ridiculous, but I think they all had a lot of fun. We then went on to do introductions, greetings, basic pronouns, and how to answer when someone asks how you are (so, using adjectives to describe yourself).
My observations: the gap between genders is huge. Not in terms of ability or anything, but the girls are really, really shy about talking in front of the boys and they all segregate themselves in class by gender. In retrospect, I should have expected this, but I didn't and so now Fernando and I are working on how to get the girls to open up a bit more or at least not be afraid to try in class. And some of the girls are just shy, and girls asked questions, and I don't think it'll be a problem. But we'll probably, for some things, split things by gender as we're teaching if we want to work with a smaller group or do some kind of silly game again.
But that brings me to my favorite moment: every day, we have money allotted to food which we feed them during a break in the middle of the 3 hour class. So break rolls around and a few kids go off to bring back food for everyone and all the boys immediately clear out to watch the Portugal - Cote d'Ivoire game. One of the girls decided that we should all go around and introduce ourselves a bit more, in English, so I was privileged enough to hear a little bit more about all these girls who had previously been sitting in the back and speaking so quietly when asked a question. I loved listening to them teach each other and encourage each other to try to speak - because all of them know some English and many are actually very good, they just need to learn pronunciation and practice grammar and speaking skills. So yeah, best moment ever, it was really cool.
Overall, the class went well. We realized that the lesson was actually too basic for them, but they all just wanted to practice and learn whatever we wanted to teach them.
That will be both encouraging and really challenging - we now feel even more determined to do our best with this class because they've already been so patient and accepting and grateful to us.
We have another class tomorrow, so I'll try to post after that, too. We go out there 3 times a week, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 5 to 8, and then the rest of the week is dedicated to class and, for me, Ana al-Misri. In case anyone's curious, I go to Ana al-Misri 3 times a week as well, Monday mornings, Thursdays for most of the day, and then Saturday afternoons. Class meets 4 times a week - Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday mornings (yeah, for 4 hours). Fridays and Sunday afternoons are off for us (although our program director sets up lectures for us to attend so we can learn stuff, too, I guess), so we do get some rest, fear not.
Anyway, I know I still haven't talked about the awesome lecture from Sunday yet, but I seriously need to go get some homework done before tomorrow while I'm still awake. But the verdict on my St. Andrew's site - I totally won, the kids are awesome, and I can't wait to see how the rest of our time with them goes.
But on to the new stuff. The first day was... exciting and intimidating and absolutely rad. We had twenty students come to register, some of whom were not on our list (which was expected), and which was many more than went to the other sites. Fernando and I had not planned a lesson, since we had no idea to expect, so we just chilled in our classroom, did some brief introductions, let them ask us questions, and explained our expectations for the class and how it was gonna work. We came back that night very tired, but super excited.
So today was our first real day of teaching. We had received a very basic outline of teaching ideas from St. Andrew's and today we decided to do greetings and what they called "all about me." We started off with a really fun name game - the first round, someone starts by saying their name, then the next person says the first person's name and then their own, and the next person says the two previous names and then their own, etc. The second round, we said names and then everyone added a little signal or motion to do with their names, so you do everyone's names and symbols. We could tell everyone felt really ridiculous, but I think they all had a lot of fun. We then went on to do introductions, greetings, basic pronouns, and how to answer when someone asks how you are (so, using adjectives to describe yourself).
My observations: the gap between genders is huge. Not in terms of ability or anything, but the girls are really, really shy about talking in front of the boys and they all segregate themselves in class by gender. In retrospect, I should have expected this, but I didn't and so now Fernando and I are working on how to get the girls to open up a bit more or at least not be afraid to try in class. And some of the girls are just shy, and girls asked questions, and I don't think it'll be a problem. But we'll probably, for some things, split things by gender as we're teaching if we want to work with a smaller group or do some kind of silly game again.
But that brings me to my favorite moment: every day, we have money allotted to food which we feed them during a break in the middle of the 3 hour class. So break rolls around and a few kids go off to bring back food for everyone and all the boys immediately clear out to watch the Portugal - Cote d'Ivoire game. One of the girls decided that we should all go around and introduce ourselves a bit more, in English, so I was privileged enough to hear a little bit more about all these girls who had previously been sitting in the back and speaking so quietly when asked a question. I loved listening to them teach each other and encourage each other to try to speak - because all of them know some English and many are actually very good, they just need to learn pronunciation and practice grammar and speaking skills. So yeah, best moment ever, it was really cool.
Overall, the class went well. We realized that the lesson was actually too basic for them, but they all just wanted to practice and learn whatever we wanted to teach them.
That will be both encouraging and really challenging - we now feel even more determined to do our best with this class because they've already been so patient and accepting and grateful to us.
We have another class tomorrow, so I'll try to post after that, too. We go out there 3 times a week, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 5 to 8, and then the rest of the week is dedicated to class and, for me, Ana al-Misri. In case anyone's curious, I go to Ana al-Misri 3 times a week as well, Monday mornings, Thursdays for most of the day, and then Saturday afternoons. Class meets 4 times a week - Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday mornings (yeah, for 4 hours). Fridays and Sunday afternoons are off for us (although our program director sets up lectures for us to attend so we can learn stuff, too, I guess), so we do get some rest, fear not.
Anyway, I know I still haven't talked about the awesome lecture from Sunday yet, but I seriously need to go get some homework done before tomorrow while I'm still awake. But the verdict on my St. Andrew's site - I totally won, the kids are awesome, and I can't wait to see how the rest of our time with them goes.
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