Practice Make Perfect

Today we volunteered at a local orphanage/boarding school. Upon entering the school there is a sign in English that says, "Practice Make Perfect." I taught year six which is all children between the age of 9 and 12. Amar, the British journalist was my teaching partner. This morning we were supposed to have an introduction to the school and be given information on what the kids have been studying in English. The introduction was being thrust into the classroom with 34 children blinking at me, and me blinking back at them. Fortunately, I have already encountered this problem, and I taught the body parts and the head and shoulders knees and toes song. However, I had this class from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm instead of just one class period. We played some games with animals and I had all the students make animal noises and it was wonderful. Then we did some color and number studies, family stuff, bla bla bla. Amar was not very helpful. While I was teaching the students about clothes, he would say trousers instead of pants and other little diddies that did not but confuse the children. Then he wrote on the board with all caps but dotted his eyes and that is also confusing if you are trying to learn how to speak/write in English. This afternoon I taught them about opposites (Amar chimed in by bringing up obscure opposites that might not be understood such as fire and water and ceiling and floor--I was doing up/down, on/off, left/right, in/out etc) and then taught them the itsy-bitsy spider song and they loved it. We sang the itsy-bitsy spider over and over again for about an hour and they did not tire of it. Teaching makes me feel like a grown up. Tomorrow I have a class that is even younger and I have no idea what we will do. Its difficult when you can't even explain the rules to a game... Must run along to the night market and spend some kips.

Cross your fingers and hope for photographs in the near future. I have found a place where I can get my pictures downloaded onto a cd, however I don't have my camera with me this evening...