(Ch)
Sorry for the slow updates, somehow our blog got labeled as "spam" by Google, so I'm not sure that anyone is even reading this! Oh well.
Anyway, yesterday (Wednesday) was our first day of teaching English classes. Due to the way that registration went, Clarke and I are co-teaching one class (5 - 7 PM) and teaching our own classes (7 - 9 PM). The four hours straight is pretty trying.
Our first class together went well, we had about 10 men there, most of who are older than us. It's funny because many of the students who're taking classes are teachers (biology, physics, etc...) in their own right - and now we're teaching them!
The second class was different... Clarke will write more about his own experience later, I'll write a little about mine.
My class was large, about 18 people. Things didn't go as well as I'd hoped. As usual, I tend to speak a little too fast (although I was making a deliberate attempt to slow down), and I feel that I lost some students. Also, I'm having a hard time engaging all of them - since I don't know their names (the difficulty is amplified since they're all Arabic names)! In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm letting them down and failing them as a teacher - even after only one lesson.
In general it was a pretty rough night. But God is faithful. Today, through my quiet times I did hear a word... "Who are you doing this for? 18 Arabs? Or Audience of one?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I'm reading this!!
=)
Hang in there! I'm sure things will get better, we've still got 2.5 months left to figure out how to do things right...
We are reading this too! You are doing a great job I am sure! Keep telling those lies that you aren't good enough...you are young... and not qualified out of your head! Think of you guys often!
In my biology classes they made us take group pictures and had us write our names below our picture. Maybe you can write the phonetic pronunciation? Maybe it can be part of the class-- "please write your name in English"? And then maybe you can learn some Arabic, if they write it in Arabic and you have the phonetic pronunciation.
Anyway, good luck! I wish I'd started following your roots story earlier. Really appreciate what you have to share :)
Post a Comment