i taught a mini geography lesson to my two of my english classes friday. it was suppose to be a fun activity and it sorta was. since the majority of my students think north america and france are the same country (yes i realize what i wrote), i wanted to introduce the world to them in 50 mins. i used photos of different places of different countries from national geographic and cut them up into puzzle pieces. the class split into small groups and started to rearrange the pieces into a whole photo. Meanwhile, i taped a giant map of world onto the white board. once the groups completed the puzzle, they tried to find the places on the map. i had them find cambodia first ; )
the goal of my lesson was simply to make it fun and interactive, so that to inspire and offer them new knowledge. they said they enjoyed it and it did look like they enjoyed putting the puzzles together by the faces they made. but at the end, i asked them if they like the lesson. one of my students said that its not so important they know about other parts of the world because mostly everyone in the class cannot afford to travel and see the places...literally at that moment my heart skipped a beat... i know that one student who voiced his opinion isn't the voice of all the students....but its just really sad and pathetic. they have no hope or aspiration to pull themselves out of a situation. and mind you, this boy is in my best, most advanced class out of the entire school.
unfortunately, i was teaching alone that day. if my co teacher was there, he would've backed me up. i dunno...teaching is not getting any easier. i'm not gonna give up on this topic. i'm planning a geography class for the summer.
***UPDATE: Several weeks ago, i helped out some of students with essays for study abroad scholarships. One of my students was selected to move on to the next phase, which is an exam in PP. If he passes the tests, he will move on to the interview/presentation phase. CROSS YOUR FINGERS! This is great news, but there are a few more hurdles!
anyway, here are some random photos of my site: my room, school, students....
Cambodian flag
My house. See the car to the right? Also, my family is sittle underneath the house.
This is the main part of the house. Everyone sleeps on the floor. At night, they put up the mosquito nets and lay out the thin mattresses. 9 other people live here.
I have my own room with an actual bed. I don't have an actual mattress, only a thin camping type pad. It works. its not the most comfortable, but i bet i have a super straight spine now. the size of the room and the low ceilings make my room extremely hot. my host family has also provided a fan for me. my site has 24-hour electricity.
This is the high school where i teach. it is fairly new building, however, we don't have electricity or clean running water. electricity is available, but teachers must pay for it. so, the fans and the lights at the school are non operational.
This is one of my top students. Her name is Ravin. She is looking up the location on a world map.
This is an area where various vendors sell food. Food stalls...see all the trash on the ground...? Unless it is a big tourist attraction, pretty much all over the country is littered with trash.
These are some of my students in my advanced speaking club. On this particular day, I had them choose photos of places they liked and had them speak on it. Not many students showed up....
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