The last week has consisted of playing tour guide, spending too much money on food, going to the Eiffel Tower and taking lots of pictures (twice!), going to the library and doing lots of work, and trying to teach English to four and six year olds with no attention spans...needless to say it has been an interesting week.
The good news is that my teaching internship is now solely on Fridays - so I have Mondays off completely! I do enjoy teaching English - however it is difficult to teach English and have conversations with the children in English when they do not know many words at all (other then hello and goodbye, some colors, animals, and body parts). I need to come up with some lesson plans for next week - any ideas? I'm thinking of doing flashcards on animals or some other topic, and then trying to find a story to read based on the new vocabulary- once again difficult because their English is extremely limited.
I've been learning a lot about myself in the last week, about disappointment and friendships, and that overall growing up can be a hard thing to do. However, I am currently planning my trip to Prague with Auntie Kate which is extremely exciting - in addition to trips to Germany, Italy, Holland (I hope to see the tulips!), and maybe Spain. Anyone have any travel ideas/recommendations? This upcoming Saturday API is taking us to Champagne for the day, and the week after we have our weekend in the Loire Valley.
I posted photos in my last entry - are they visible to everyone? I know that the facebook links were not working well last time.
Bisous,
Sarah
Growing up is the worst sometimes. As for your kiddies, I vote for making flashcards about food and incorporating snack time or something. Because let's be honest.....who doesn't love eating?
ReplyDeleteMiss you!
Go to Spain!!!!!! Sevilla might be expensive but it's totally worth it. Madrid or Barcelona would probably be cheaper and are also pretty awesome to visit.
ReplyDeleteIf you go to holland, try and go to the keukenhof! it's this huge tulip garden and its gorgeous!
hmm ideas for teaching little kids - i only taught a few kids, never a bunch at a time, but i used to make word-searches with the new words i taught them. go fish is a great way to practice numbers. maybe for a bigger group you could play games like pictionary or hangman?
my mom also sent me american coloring books and kids magazines (like my big backyard) and the kids loved those. They also love clifford and the berenstein bears books.
<3 Heather
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteSometimes growing up is difficult, but you
also become a much better person from having gone certain experiences. When I was in high school, I studied French, and I always wanted to go to France, so you are living me dream!
I'm wondering if reading a picture book might help, or even showing them a picture dictionary
(Richard Scarry). When I student taught in a kindergarten class, we labeled the classroom in Spanish, so can you label the room in English? We would just put the card right on the object (ie. door)
Another idea...Hold a piece of paper vertically and fold it into two columns. Have the French word & picture on the left, and the English word on the right.
Show and Tell---have the students give you something, and you tell them the word. Then, they have to say the word in English. You could hand the word to them on a card, and they could practice the word.
Are there any alphabet picture books available? That may also help.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. It's fun to read your blog.
Ms. Howell :)
Hi Sarah!
ReplyDeleteSorry I haven't written lately, under water - literally with flooding basement and attic! Yuck! I hope you got all of my websites that I e-mailed to you - they will help with the little ones. One of them did mention labels - a huge success with teaching words - they see the picture and read the word!
Can't wait to see you in April! Hope all is well and that you are still having an amazing time! Enjoy and have the time of your life!
Love,
Auntie Anne!