Could not sleep last night. I am not sure why, maybe still flat after Monday and Tuesday. Kind of just want to disappear. Yesterday when I went to work the staff checked if I had had breakfast and I motioned to the kitchen in the block where I sleep. Today I felt I had better go to the main kitchen and put in an appearance but after a very bad night's sleep I do not know why I walked in saw all these faces that I cannot talk to and for whom I am just another inconvenience and just walked out again.
Anyway I had better pick myself up, it is another lovely day in Chon Kemin and unlike the poor mouse I am alive. I was worried about the staff finding the mouse,(they had rightly been critical of me keeping the apples in my room till I had found a box to store them in) and it was keeping me up, and they put poison down in the kitchen , which I could see was being eaten, so perhaps it is not surprising that I found its dead body when I swept up today.
This evening coming home I was joined by the most able girl from the class I least like teaching. I think it is just cos I do not seem to be able to reach them so that frustrates me, they are a bit too old for the material they are using but for their English it is useful and I guess in school they have shorter class with a strict teacher so just let rip to cope with the 80 minute class they have with me. But in truth the amazing thing is that at 10 they are speaking and reading English and this girl definitely has a bility andshe works hard. So when she started chatting to me it was actually almost like a proper conversation, what is your mother's name, what is your father's name etc. What did I like Bishkek or Chon Kemin. I know the Russian word for good , okay as a result of my Kazakh student a couple of years ago, it is a very useful word, something like Harashow, and rubbish not too good is something plowkha, but the Krygyz word for not good is something like German!!. Anyway I said that I was going to go to the shop (magasin like the French) to buy and mimed a hair brush and she explained that she had to get chleb (bread which is the same in Polish so again a word I know from England) So we went together the first shop did not have what I wanted but the second did and it was really nice being accompanied for once and not feeling the odd one out and I think she felt very empowered that she could translate for me. So she has cheered my day.
You have 80 minute lessons?? No wonder it is hard to keep their concentration. I have never heard of such long sessions, especially when it is in a different language.
ReplyDeleteI used to teach for two, three hours at the college which seemed ages at first and I taught two hours for adults, but yes I think this is a bit too long for 10 year olds, I teach for 45 minutes for the 8-9 year olds at the school and 30 minutes for the 5-6 year olds. How long are lessons in your place?
ReplyDeleteWell it depends on the subject.....sometimes class teachers will keep science lessons going for 90 minutes, but broken up by practical and recording activities.Art and games classes are always longer, but again it depends on the ages of the kids.But things like foreign language lessons are not usually longer than 45 minutes.I was imagining you were trying to contain 6 year-olds for 80 minutes, which obviously would be very difficult....
ReplyDeleteThanks that is helpful I am thinking about trying to give them a short break even. Here one teacher uses something from the old soviet system which is a minute of exercise. I do break up the lesson w ith games, and songs, though already, but maybe just a 2 minute go to the loo, have a drink would help. Or perhaps it is just me that should have a drink I feel the lure of vodka at present rather worry.
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