If you know me or have read any of my blogs, you know I’m not the biggest fan of children. So, you can understand when I heard that we would be teaching English this month to a school of kids (Kindergarten through 6th grade), I was not super thrilled. In fact, I was dreading the entire month of Thailand (the one country I was most excited about before the Race).
LESSON 1: God is hilarious and likes to push us out of our comfort zones.
We got to our ministry site on January 3rd and were able to settle in for a day and a half before jumping into teaching English the next Monday. Unfortunately, the first day of school I had a pretty intense migraine, which kept me down for the count all day. By the afternoon when I was starting to feel better, my teammates informed me that they had each chosen a grade to work with, so I got left with the 5th graders. In retrospect, it was great that they chose for me, otherwise I have a feeling I would have way overanalyzed which grade would be least terrifying for me.
LESSON 2: God understands what we need better than we do.
My first day of school, I had a few vague expectations, but no idea what these children were going to be like or what my actual role would look like. As I walked into my very first class, I was relieved to see a teacher sitting at the desk. I thought to myself, “Yes! I’ll just be helping her while she teaches.”
LESSON 3: Lay down ALL expectations.
As quickly as that thought came, it vanished as the teacher pointed at me, pointed to the chalkboard, and then walked out of the classroom. I was not prepared in any way, shape or form, but I went for it. I began drawing animals on the chalkboard and then wrote the English word for the animal underneath the drawing. Much to my surprise they loved it! They loved yelling out the ones they knew and trying to figure out the ones they didn’t.
LESSON 4: If God has given you talents (singing, drawing, dancing, etc.)…USE THEM!
I came back to rest for a little while, excited to tell the girls on my team how great the first class had gone. I figured I was done teaching English for the day, that the teachers would still use their class periods to teach their respective subjects.
LESSON 5: Seriously…Lay down ALL expectations.
There has yet to be a class I’ve been assigned to help with that I haven’t ended up teaching. In fact, the only time I see the actual teachers is at lunch. I’m not sure if they think we’re professionals or if they are just enjoying the break, but I teach three classes of English a day to the same eighteen 5th graders. Praise the Lord they don’t get tired of me. I try to come up with new and fun ways to teach…everything from bingo (so they can learn numbers) to vowel tic-tac-toe (so hopefully before I leave they will understand the difference between “pat” and “pit”).
Here’s what a typical day looks like:
6/6:30- 8:30 – Wake up, read my Bible and journal, eat breakfast
8:30- 9:30 – First class
9:30- 10:30 – Rest
10:30- 11:30 – Music or Dance class (for us haha)
11:30-12:30 – Lunch
12:30- 1:30 – Second class
1:30- 2:30 – Rest
2:30- 3:30 – Third class
3:45/4 – Kids leave
I adore my students! I have so much fun scouring ESL websites, trying to figure out what or how I can teach the next day. They LOVE learning! And it makes me so happy!!! I think the Lord knew what he was doing when he placed me here.
LESSON 6: God always knows better!
And what do you know…I think Thailand is a contender again for being my favorite month so far on the Race!
LESSON 7: Lay down ALL expectations except one…Expect God to show up! (Thanks Rynette!)
