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As many of you know, the one thing that I hate the most about traveling is having to say, "Goodbye."
Today was extremely tough for I have made some very close friends. It was a very tearful goodbye. Today was the very last day of English and we ended it with a bang!
I think you can tell where I am going with this from the photos above! I divided my students into teams and blindfolded the feeder and eater. The third person remains unblind folded and has to give their partner instructions on how to feed the eater. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this activity in not only eating ice cream, but watching as well, for it was rather entertaining! And believe me, there was so much laughter! In the end, Dao, one of my students, came up with the brilliant idea that I should do the challenge as well. I got a taste of my own medicine. For Easter Sunday, I printed off the Easter Story. I cut out the story individually and placed the slips of paper with the number and photo inside 12 plastic Easter eggs.
I hid the eggs all over the Hope Church property. The youngest of the class were so excited that they had to go and find the eggs. After finding all but one, as I forgot where I hid it, my helper and the children went back inside the classroom and went over the Easter Story one by one in the sequence of the numbered eggs. Some of the eggs had the object as described in the Easter Story which added more excitement for the younger class. Not all went as planned in my head. For as I was out trying to find the missing egg, it never occurred to me that my younger students would want the things inside the Easter egg. With some help, we finally found the missing egg, all credit goes to my lovely assistant Noot. When class was wrapping up with the youngest group, I went over and checked all twelve eggs, for I needed everything again for my older class. Egg number two which used to have Baht coins, was empty. I asked Noot where did the money go. One of the older boys in the class had pocketed the Baht. Egg number four, which used to have the communion juice and bread, had completely vanished. I turned to Noot and asked her where that went. One of the girls, whose name translates in English as Rain, had consumed the contents. Egg number six, which used to have plastic twine (that resembled rope) had also disappeared. Noot explained that one of the students had shredded it to pieces. All of the contents that went missing were easy to replace. The memory of it all makes a very amusing story. After the younger class, I taught the older class in the afternoon. It was very hot, but everyone still enjoyed searching for the eggs. Afterwards, we went over the Easter Story and had a competition with an Easter Word Search. First three to finish received prizes, though in the end everyone got prizes as I am soft hearted! Today, I decided to teach with a slightly different approach.
Wit, who is one of my students, quickly rode on his motorcycle to pick up the ingredients we needed for the class project. Once all ingredients were gathered, I divided the project between the three of them and had them write out the steps in English. Dao, who is wearing the yellow t-shirt, was in charge of writing specific instructions on how to cook the minced pork and frying three eggs. Opal, who is wearing the light blue t-shirt, was assigned to write out the process step by step on how to prepare the rice. Wit had to write out a long list of instructions on how to prepare all of the vegetables. After the writing was completed, all four of us headed to the kitchen. There was lots of laughter as communication was slightly more challenging from an instruction point of view. There was lots of oil popping and hot Chile pepper juice flying, but thankfully no one got hurt. In the end, not only was their English expanded, but I now know how to cook Phat Bye Grapaw Muu. Two times a week during the afternoons, I have been giving some of my students the option to take an extra English course that is more intense than my morning class.
I have them use a English/Thai dictionary (the same one my Mom used when she lived in Thailand). My students copy down the English word and beside it. They also rewrite the word, but in Thai. I also had them read aloud tongue twisters. There was much laughter and giggles. My English students were more than happy to end the lesson with several rounds of Uno. Today’s class was small, but very beneficial for my students.
The session focused mainly on how to give instructions. Not only that, but how to carefully listen to the instructions and ask important questions here and there. Nan and Noot worked together on this challenge. Similar to Pictionary, Noot would pick a slip of paper and instruct Nan on how to make the thing with Play-Doh. Once the object was made, Nan would have to guess what the thing she created was. All of this had to be done in English, of course! Each Sunday, I teach a morning English session with the little ones.
This time, we went over Noah and the Ark. As we did, we reviewed numbers since God commanded Noah to bring only two pairs of animals onto the Ark. I had them draw the Ark and two pairs of their favourite animals. Once or twice each week, I have been using the Discovery Bible Study guide and incorporating extra English speaking opportunities into it for my students.
Going around in a circle, each student has to read aloud a couple verses in English. After we finish the Bible passage, there is a list of questions to complete. For those who are not familiar with Discovery Bible Studies, here listed below are some questions to give you an idea: 1. Go around circle, each person reading a verse or two. 2. Have two people tell the story in their own words. 1. What do you learn about God in this story? 2. What do you learn about people in this story? 3. What does this story mean for me? 4. How can I apply it? 5. Who will I tell this story to? We also spent a good amount of time on working with pronunciations and definitions of words they are unfamiliar with. My English students have been really enjoying this and are very engaged with each session. Not only are they getting more English practice, but also digging deeper into God’s Word. |
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