Sunday, March 18, 2012

High School Kids and Saint Paddy's Day

So, we had a bunch of high school kids here, and it was cool, but strange seeing so many foreigners that I didn't know walking about town. I was in the supermarket while the group walked by, and the supermarket ladies thought it was the most fascinating thing ever. (To be fair, not much happens around here) It was great having a few kids come to my class. My students were really shy, but it was cool having them do self introductions that my students could understand. They were really excited to realize that  I hadn't been tricking them this entire time and that they could actually speak a little bit of English and understand what was happening. Earlier in the day we had done some ice breaking activities with the high schoolers and groups of students from all the TFC classes, and that was fun (especially for those of us who got to watch them try to build towers out of newspaper, mime things like going to the restroom and not having toilet paper, and doing the human know) and I think all the students (local and foreign) enjoyed it.

My favorite part of the trip, however, was definitely watching some of these high school girls confront the horrors of the restroom in nicest restaurant in town (which is really pretty comparatively clean). Ladies, if you somehow end up finding this blog post, I'm sorry, but I lost it when one of you walked out of the restroom with tears in your eyes. (I should really work on being a nicer person)

Also! St Paddy's went well! We had a bonfire with extra papers that had accumulated in our rooms, and roasted marshmallows (one of our amazing second year fellows brought them back from Beijing) and made s'mores. It was great to spend time with everyone--it's rare for all of our local TFCers to get together, so it's always a good time when it happens.

Now  I just need to crank out a ton of lesson plans, worksheets, and other stuff so I'll be ready for class tonight.....

3 comments:

  1. Glad the American high school kids had a good visit. More importantly, congratulations to your students for being able to communicate a little in English. Nice work Teacher!

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  2. Newspaper tower! (How?) Miming no 't.p.'! You all are a riot. What about speeches about international cooperation and a slide show?

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  3. "doing the human know" What is this? Congratulations on having your students believe that they really can speak English. That should help! St. Patrick's Day celebration sounds nice. I personally still have a vivid recollection of the squat toilet in Russia. Not only that, but I had my all weather jacket (about mid-shin level), a purse or something (can't quite remember)over my shoulder, the shock of no door, and lets face it, this was not as nice as some of the links you posted. It will have given those poor girls a memory for life!

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