It is suddenly Day 5 of teaching - there's been some hits and misses with my teaching but overall I think I've managed to do a decent job with my beginner monk class.. As they seem to be relatively engaged and my games managed to draw some giggles from an otherwise v reserved and shy bunch of kids/ young teens. For the more advanced monk class I just assist the Lao teacher, though at times I cringe when something taught seems a little off and I am not quick enough to explain in a simple and clear manner to the students why they shouldn't say or write things in a certain manner..

My iPad also turned out to be a useful teaching aid - the support facilities for teaching r rather lousy, no printer except at the sch; patchy flash cards here n there so pretty much had to come up with my own materials to cater to my own topics.. The volunteer handouts provide a bunch of ideas; and thankfully J provided some useful sites too :) I drew a body parts worksheet yesterday heh... Bit amateurish but I guess gd enough for my purposes lah ;)

In another private sch class where I assist another volunteer, the kids have also voluntarily appointed me as their spelling teacher - so during their 5 min break a handful of little girls sit gathered ard my table to practise spelling new words in unison... Quite amusing but am quite happy to take on the role..

Hopefully everything goes well today n I will have the weekend to nuah yay! :P (attaching a photo of my banana pancake brekkie at the guesthouse n my worksheet)

First day of teaching!

The first day 'at work' was pretty busy n i forgot to be homesick ;) so many things happened but I guess I'd just blog abt the key things that struck me/ happened:

Good resources for teaching English seem to be really lacking in this place- I flipped thru the 'textbooks' the kids were using n to my horror found many misspelt words, colours that dun look like the colours they are supposed to show etc etc... The kids can def benefit a lot more fr just more accurate, better written textbooks.

The library I volunteer at also doesn't allow girls to come in pants (though I dunno who enforces it I will not push the boundary as yet) n so I had to bike there in a skirt n stupid me also brought a tote bag which kept slipping down my shoulder as I was biking. BAD idea, n I shall be smarter tmr.. And when I finally reached home at night after evening classes n dinner, I was greeted by a cockroach in my room! Usually I wld get D to get rid of it but was left to my own devices tonight n I squeamishly killed the invader with a flip flop.. Luckily for me this Lao cockroach didn't seem v agile so the murder was not too difficult..

There's a bunch of transportation issues n lesson plans to think abt but I think I am so ready for bed!

Having not been 'away' away fr home for a while I am suddenly experiencing a sudden bout of insecurity n neediness :( hopefully I will get over it soon and not let the worry wart in me take over my person n consciousness too much :(