Preparing Lesson

I did not sleep very well last night; there was a terrible thunderstorm around midnight, a chorus of drunks and to top it off, I was feeling a bit apprehensive about today as it was to be my first day in the classroom.  Since I had to go to school I had to wear smart clothes – hmmm there is limited choice amongst my trekking gear.  Luckily, I have my Indian outfit with me, which the TEFL staff said was suitable.

The morning was spent planning the 45 minute lesson, which is broken into the following:

• Warmer ;
• Context Setting;
• Reading;
• Questions testing the reading;
• Writing;
• Speaking;
• Winding up.
  

  TEFL Students

At midday we all headed towards the school to meet the children.  My student was called Kriti, she was about 10 years old and an absolute sweetie.

I chose Sydney Harbour as the topic of my lesson.  To start I played hangman.  She was very shy, so it was very hard work.  At first she wouldn’t give me any of the letters to the play game.   However, as soon as I gave her a couple of letters, she would work out the animal and give me the rest of the letters.  Since it was like getting blood out of a stone it took a wee bit longer than I planned :oS

Kriti My 1st Student

I then set the context.  I took with me a drawing of the harbour, with the bridge, the zoo and other native creatures.  That section went a lot better.  I got her to talk about the scene and she started opening up to me.

For reading I had also written a story about Sydney Harbour describing the bridge, the zoo and its animals, explaining what a marsupial is and finishing with deadly spiders/snakes.  Kriti read beautifully, she only had real trouble with marsupial – which is understandable :o)  She then went on to answer all my questions.

It was going well until I hit the speaking section and I had to tape Kriti talking for 2 minutes.  Again, it was tough going, she became all shy and would hardly speak. :o(  I am dreading hearing the recording.

Kriti and Her Brother

I finished the lesson with a word version of tic tac toe, so it finished on a happy note and I gave her a sticker for her hard work.

I really enjoyed the experience and I think overall the lesson went quite well.   I hope Kriti got something out of it too.  It is a shame I only get to teach her once, I would really like to teach her more.