End of Work Week #1

Hard to believe but it is Friday!!!

My favorite day of the week, whether in Ho Chi or the good ol’ New York City. Actually in any country, as a matter of a fact. Nothing beats the feeling of being done with work and having the whole weekend to relax (or not... because the next 4 weekends are pretty much booked with sight seeing all around Vietnam, which is quite wonderful) but I’m going to still pretend that I don’t have to wake up at 7am tomorrow. 

Already a week of teaching has gone by and only 3 remain. 

Thinking about it in weeks, seems like Ms. Pho will be forced to retire in no time!

Meeting new students always feels like you're breaking in a new pair of shoes.

You don’t know how it’s going to feel until you wear it out for a day. 

Once the shoe becomes broken into, you feel like they are "yours" and you’ve also fallen in love with them in the process of breaking them in.

It took precisely a week but after today, I feel like I have a good grasp on a lot of the students here. It’s difficult to know ALL the students after a week cause there are 100+ students in this summer program. 

In terms of their English proficiency, I was pretty surprised. As I have mentioned in an earlier blog post, there are 3 levels of students.

Level 1: Students can write their names in English. Say basic English phrases like: thank you, can I, sorry… identify colors, numbers, and days of the week etc.

Level 2: Can write sentences can follow simple oral directions with little to no help.

Level 3: Can understand English fluently with the exception of some higher level vocabulary words. I was most impressed by level 3 because the students are VERY fluent and teaching them doesn't feel any different than teaching my fluent English speaking students back home.

Something that caught me off guard is how hard it is to instruct the level 1’s (the youngest of the bunch) to use their fine motor skills when they have a hard time understanding what the heck is being said to them by their crazy Korean American teacher and because they don't understand you, keeping them interested and focused on the lesson is a different story.

You can bet, all of my level 1 lessons this week included LOTS and LOTS of hand gestures,
exaggerated facial expressions,
and “LISTEN to the teacher please!”

BUT, in the midst of ALL the "please listen" and the crazy facial expressions, the students were able to create these fabulous arts and crafts pieces.

Enjoy!

Paper Flower Bouquet by Level 2 Students

Paper Cut Self Portraits by Level 1

Animal Mosaics by Level 2