Hey it's me again!
Let me continue from where I left off.
Ok! 8:30. Monday morning. At Joh-one elementary school- my first class is 5th grade. The peroids at all the schools are 40 minutes long with a 10 or sometimes 20 minute break in between classes. During that class time I have taught from 40 minutes to 0 minutes. It depends on the teacher, and if there going to have a test that day. For the 5th grade and the next class (6th grade), I teach with Lily. She usually does the first 20 and I teach the last.
Teaching 5th graders is very interesting. There seems to such a big gap between the sweet and somewhat strange 4th graders (depends on the kid) from the almost 6th grade 5th graders. I think It's during the 5th grade year that liking your English teacher and school isn't always cool. Fortunately most of my 5th grade classes are going pretty well, but I think during the winter vacation all the 5th graders on the island get a little memo stating that for next semester it is no longer cool to like school. Though some might have gotten it already, I still love them all very much.
Next class: 6th grade. 6th graders are King (and Queen) of their school. They are the big guys that demand respect from the 5th and below. At almost every school there seems to be an Alpha male, or sometimes female, that decides if you should like me or not. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but hey they're powerful! To be totally honest, if I had a different Alpha leader in any of my classes then I think they could be very different. Learning through experience though, if I can get the Alpha then usually the rest of the class will follow. Not that you try to appease them, but you earn there respect and also show genuine love to them as well as to everybody else. However, this is all Andrew's opinion 101.
4th grade. Fourth graders are cute. They're also smart. They like the American. I love fourth grade!!!!! (this semester.......so far). I don't know what it is, maybe it's just my schools, but my 4th graders are impressive. Some could probably quote the english book to me (kidding), and as a whole they're pretty enthusiastic. As you can tell, teaching 4th grade has been so far so good this semester.
Finally there's the 3rd grade. Sometimes teaching third grade is like being in a room full of ambulances. Once there's a problem a high picth, "RRRREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAARRRR" goes off. Teaching 3rd graders has been very different this semester. 1) Last semester they were in 2nd grade, so there I didn't teach them last year. 2) The 3rd graders last semester had already had a semester of English before I came, while these guys are just starting. It's improving though.
Well, I'll stop here and continue next time!
Drew
