Team Journal, October 14

Thursday, October 14, 2010--Elli

Thought of the day: "If you save one person, it's as if you saved the whole world." Jewish Proverb

Quote of the day: "We survived another u-turn." Tommy

When the day started, I felt like I finally "got it". What am I doing here, how should I teach these young people to improve their conversational English. What approach will work. I left with the group carrying my trustee book bag full of games, reading material, lesson plans, magic markers, and flashcards as well as masking tape and photos.

I started the class (smaller than usual and all girls) with the partners question and answer introductory segment. Questions went on the board. What's your name, How old are you, Where do you come from, who is in your family? Two girls were in a partnership. One told the other the answer-then the one she told stood beside her and told the group what she learned. Everyone presented info., including Julia and Elli-Teacher and volunteer. After the introductions Elli talked about her own situation and showed pictures of her family.

After some time discussing family and breaking the ice it was time for a break. The girls didn't seem eager to leave the room for a break so Elli started to lead the group in ballet exercises including lining up like ballerinas holding on with one hand and lifting the outward leg-front, side, back. Also stretching from the waist with arms high in the air. This energized the whole group and we got back to work.

Asked what they wanted to do and given a choice, they wanted to improve their skills in nouns and verbs. We spent a long time playing with the flash cards with a noun on one side, verb on the other. This continued for a long time.

After this we turned attention to the calendar, naming the months and the holiday in each one.

We closed with Elli reading idioms and slang words like geek, cool, dude, foot in mouth, money talks, etc. The girls laughed and seemed to have fun.