English Language: News from Kathmandu #3

More news from Martine and Monika:

"Hello everyone! Yesterday we spent most of the afternoon on a rooftop cafe preparing lessons for today: our first day of teaching. Monika taught at Bal Vinod and I delivered a lesson at Bal Bigyan.

It was a great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The children had come in specially to be taught by us. Something that would never happen in England! There were 24 pupils and they couldn't wait to enter the classroom whilst I was preparing it.

Once we started I could not quite believe how adaptable the pupils were. They are so used to shouting out answers ad hoc and repeating after the teacher in a very haphazard way, but after a few times of me demonstrating how I preferred them to answer in unison, they very quickly adapted their behaviour. Their enthusiasm was amazing and they loved the action based teaching. The boys in particular were participating well and very excited to win the competitions.

One thing that really amused me was the fact that the pupils stand up to answer a question and don't sit down unless told to do so. At times I noticed pupils just standing behind their desksa and wondered why...they were just waiting for me to say they could sit down again.

It is fantastic to teach such keen pupils. Their English comprehension is very good. All credit to the teachers. The pupils are also happy in the school, they want to be there and that is lovely to see.

At the end of the lesson I was almost mobbed and showered with questions, in particular “Do you like Nepal?” They are very proud of their country and want us to like it as well. They also asked for my autograph before they left and for a moment I almost felt like a famous star!

I will always remember this lesson, especially the smiles and above all the keenness of the boys!

Tea and biscuits were duly served and lots of teachers joined us in the classroom to chat about the lesson.

I am looking forward to the lesson at the school we were unable to reach yesterday.

Until then.

Martine

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So today was our first teaching day at the schools here.  I taught in the morning at Bal Vinod.  It was the same class we observed two days ago, and I decided to make this class a follow-up to what they had learned on Tuesday.  Before class began, two girls came into the room and were surprised to see me there, setting up.  I asked them if they wanted to help and they assisted me in posting vocabulary words on the walls of the room.  All the students stand up when the teacher enters the room, and they wait for you to give them permission to sit down.  On the one hand, such formalities are nice, and on the other hand - so unfamiliar! The lesson continued on the theme of "introductions", giving students the vocabulary and the sentence structure to be able to introduce themselves as well as other people.  I tried to make the class as interactive as possible - mixing in strategies for visual, kinesthetic and auditory learners.  The students seemed to enjoy the class, and I received positive feedback from the teachers as well as the headteacher who observed the class.  After both Martine's class and my class, someone would always approach me and comment about how good it was, and at the same time, how they see how much planning it takes!! This is very true - to make lessons work for all the different learning types, and also to incorporate all the language skills in each lesson DOES take a tremendous amount of planning.  The smiles on the students' faces, and their improved pronunciation is a great pay-off though!

Both Martine and I were impressed with how quickly the students caught on to our requests.  We taught them to raise their hands instead of shouting out, and within 2 tries, everyone seemed to get it.  We could not, however, stop them from jumping to their feet when they were called upon.  And of course, as Martine mentioned, we would forget to ask them to sit, and 2 minutes later, might find them still standing, rooted to their spot! It's a joy to teach such eager learners.  I still can't believe they voluntarily came to school on their day off - nowhere in North America would that happen!  I could see that the boys especially were happy to be up and out of their seats for some of the activities, and the girls took the speed/competition exercises very seriously.  Overall, I think the methods and exercises we tried out today were successful.  There will be an adjustment period, but the students adapt far more quickly than we would have imagined.  I look forward to tomorrow's lesson.  Each class is always different, and it will be another great experiment to see how these students take to our ideas.

Wishing you a pleasant evening, or day, or whatever time zone you're in - enjoy!"

Monika