REAL LIVE KIDS!
After spending more time on a lesson plan than I EVER would under normal circumstances, the day finally came. Today we worked with a one-day summer camp. These kids had won an English speech contest last year, and their prize? A day with REAL LIVE ETAs! Since we were going to a crab museum (what?) in the afternoon, the main focus of the morning was on sea creatures. I was working with 5 other ETAs on the 3rd/4th grade group.

The students were great. Only 10 kids showed up, but since these were all kids who had one an academic contest, they were also the ones who were the "best" at English and who actually wanted to be in a school setting. The kids far surpassed our expectations for how much English they knew. That became apparent when, during brainstorming about sea animals, someone said plankton. Nevertheless, we tried to make things as fun as possible, and I think they actually enjoyed it.

Phyllis. Our example for our "create your own sea animal" lesson.

They're so good and quiet.

Back to being Teacher Kate

After lunch we went to a crab museum. Many of the kids said they had been there before - clearly a popular destination for school trips. I was re-assigned to two of the older students (going into 6th grade), and spent most of the time attempting to talk to them, while at the same time making sure they stayed with the group. I did, however, learn that crabs can grow up to 4 meters. The level of English varied dramatically among the kids. Some students were EXTREMELY talkative and very confident in their ability, and others were basically silent all day. I was told that just because they won the speech contest, that didn't mean that their English was all that great. They had to memorize a 2-3 minute speech, but so much emphasis is placed on memorization here, that it is extremely easy to just memorize without having any idea of what you're saying. One even admitted that his father wrote the speech for him. While my first taste of teaching English was not necessarily indicative of what I will be facing, I think, overall, it went pretty well. It was certainly nice to be in the classroom again. And learning about crabs wasn't too bad, either.

Shrimp: Up close and personal.


Scary crabs.

Me with my charges, Nicole and Vivian.

The best part of the museum? Playing on the playground, clearly.

Literally rocking out.