Here in Cambodia, I am one of Battambang’s newest guest English teachers. This post is dedicated to all the teachers in my life: Relatives, friends, Golden Apple affiliates, and all my own wonderful former teachers who are reading this (I know of at least 4 of you….thank you!)
My day 1 went like this:
8:45am – arrive on bicycle to the Buddhist school and find director of the English program that gave me an orientation yesterday
8:50am – meet preschool teacher (yes, you read that right…preschool teacher) that I will be working with an hour from now for the second block
9am – bell rings and I am turned completely loose to find the L3 classroom upstairs in a separate building for the first block, where I’m supposed to be teaching older students for the next hour
9:10am – I finally find the right room and the teacher looks confused because she allegedly was given different information, but then she invites me in to do a lesson anyway
9:11am – the class all rises and greets me with a unison chorus of “Good morning, teacher”
Also 9:11 am – I pretend I have a clue what I’m doing and act like I do this all the time
9:12 -9:20am – I introduce myself as I write “Ms. Kayla” on the board, and start asking the class questions in an attempt to ascertain where exactly their English skills are
9:20am – I cringe in fear at my lesson plans as soon as I realize these kids know WAYYYYY more than I assumed, and my lessons plans are now basically irrelevant. I accept that I have to wing it for the rest of the hour
9:21am – I try an activity where they divide in pairs and find out something about their partner they didn’t already know. It’s mildly successful until they try to present it in front of the class and I can’t get the rest of them to listen for nada.
9:31am – trying to fill time, I default to playing Simon Says in an attempt to help them with vocabulary. When I point to my eyes and they specifically say “eyelid” and “eyebrow,” I know I’m not teaching them anything new
9:36am – I play it cool after looking at my watch and decide to instruct the class: “Using your English, tell me something about Cambodia that you love.” I try to ask follow-up questions of every. single. student.
9:45am – the last student says he loves soccer and I ask him about calling it “soccer” instead of “football.” I use it as a segue to start talking about American football to fill time
9:47am – having 3 minutes left to fill, as my own personal Hail Mary pass to fill some time, I draw a football and a field on the whiteboard and proceed to act like a bona fide American football expert, complete with having all the kids raise their arms like goalposts and yell “TOUCHDOWN!”
9:50am – the bell rings to my sweet, sweet relief
10:00am – I arrive at my next classroom for the next hour: Room 6. Nursery preschool with 2 year olds. (Still unsure how I got stuck with that one). Thankfully Diane is with me, and she is a pro at this.
10:05-10:35am – read some stories with all the voices for every character, pretend to know how to play with preschool toys, and dodge out after a full run of “Wheels on the Bus”
10:40-10:50am – wait for my colleagues to finish their classes
11am – hop on my bike and wonder how the heck I’m gonna do this for 3 more weeks, especially with the responsibility of a completely different job in the afternoons.
Right about now, I’m very thankful for Google and WiFi coffee shops like the one I’m posting this from right now. What did teachers do before being able to Google lesson plans? All you curriculum-writers: my hat is off to you. Wow.
To all the wonderful teachers out there: I’ve always admired you, but now I have a whole level of respect. R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
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(P.S., extra shoutout to my mama, my favorite teacher. Thanks for making all sorts of things into teachable moments about life. I love you!)
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Update: I have just finished day 2, and it already went significantly better. I taught two classes the proper format to write a formal letter. One of my groups decided to write a letter to Justin Bieber, and I rolled with it. Any and all English lesson suggestions are welcome……I have lots more lessons to fill!
