On Monday I had my first day of teaching. My teaching schedule is very light. I teach one class from
10-11:00 in the morning. I have a break from 11-4:00 and then I teach 3 classes from 4-7:00. My first two classes are Level 2, my third class is lever 8 and my last class is an advanced discussion class. All the classes are small between 8-14 students. Although my schedule is light I have been spending quite a bit of time preparing for lessons. One of the challenges is the 3 back to back classes in the evening. There is no time in between classes, and I have to change rooms. It is a little difficult to switch gears and move from one level to the next without wasting too much of the students time. Another difference between teaching at CWF in Cambodia and Unitas in Japan is that I see the same students everyday not just once a week. So everyday I have to have to prepare new lessons for my students. So far all of my students have been very eager to learn and the classes have been very enjoyable. The most challenging class so far is my advanced discussion class. All the other classes are very concrete with new vocabulary so it is easy to pair the students up and have them drill each other. In my AD class the subjects are more abstract, so I’m having a harder time breaking the students into groups and letting them learn from each other. Using pairs and groups for teaching was stressed to me in orientation because it allows the students to speak more than if everything went through the teacher. I really like using pairs and groups, I am just finding it a little difficult with the advanced class. So far I am really enjoying the work and I am looking forward to the challenges. When I taught in Japan, it seemed like my students were not very interested in learning English. So as a result I didn’t put too much effort into my lesson plans. My students here seem to be up for the challenge and it pushes me to make my lessons the best I can. I am sure I will spend a lot of my free time preparing activities and working on my lessons plans.
