this year will be different

This year will be different. That’s what all teacher say, or at least the bad ones. I wouldn’t say I was "bad" at teaching persay but maybye just a little inexperienced. Especially if the kids who I’m teaching speak an entirely different and learn an entirely different way than I’m used to teaching. They know how to keep their mouths shut and do lots of English exercises on paper. I want them to throw away their notebook and speak English with me and they are putting up quite a resistance. Those six years of college mean so little now as I’m a year in and just beginning to figure out how to do my job. By the time I do get it figured out I’ll be leaving on a jet plane. Good ‘ol John Denver.


This year will be different. That’s what I told myself. I’ve done research on and off (but mostly on) for a solid month and know exactly how to make the kids jump through my English hoops. The problem? It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I’m 25. Not very old by the life span of a normal human being but I am a quarter-century old. Old enough to have T.J’s face scraped off a nickel and my face slapped on there. Twenty-five isn’t that old when you compare it to the life expectancy of the sun or the halflife of a fruitcake. It’s just when you translate it into dog-years or chipmunk-years that it starts to look menacing. I’m neither a dog nor a chipmunk so I don’t have much to worry about.


This year will be different and it is; in my room’s appearance and all the inventive new teaching methods I’ve thought up. But it’s the same in my teaching style and that’s where all the heart and soul of teaching is. You can have a rockin’ room but if your ticker ain’t tickin’ (or if your teacher ain’t teachin’) like it’s supposed to it throws the whole ship out of whack. Mind you, I’m trying to change my teaching style. I really am. It may be the six years at Wesleyan that burned it into my brain or it could be all the American kids I’ve taught. But these kids over here aren’t American kids and they don’t dress or smell or learn like American kids and that’s where I’m running into trouble.


But I do have a pretty nifty room. Here are some of the educational tools that I (and only I) and my little brain have conjured up:


- A "silence" target. It's an infra red picture of "laminated" trees taped to a stick. It works wonders when I want the kids to do my bidding.

- A magnet board. Magnetic letters from the states (courtesy of mom) and the top of a metal (magnets stick to metal) cookie tin (courtesy of dad. cookies eaten by me. yummie cookies). Kids like to stick up letters.

- Puppets. Two of them to be more specific. With button eyes and yarn lips. Great for getting kids to interact in dialogues.

- A Calendar (from the states). With (dum dum dum!) velcro! Velcro rocks. Great for getting kids into the daily rythym of learning. It has it's own little jelly bean box (jelly beans eaten by me. They're in my tummy.) with fourty comparptments in it. A wonderful place to stick the thirty-one days. A comparptment for ever day and nine left over for saphire pendants and string.

- Various Motivational Quotes. One saying, "A Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." (old Chinese man saying old an Chinese proverb) and "The best way to learn a language is by using it." (spoken by Lao Tze. he really said it and i didn't make it up.)

- A "Word Wall." Great for daily phrases. I have "He/she is not here today" and "May I go to the restroom?" (they're "laminated" too) on it now. More to come.

- A "This Morning" Poster. With "Where is the Pin," "Sing a Song," and "Find the Heart" (with little red heart). For everyday fun activities to get the students intrested in learning. It also has (and this is the cool part) a MOVEABLE black and red "laminated" arrow (mobile with a black clip) so you can move it to what you want to do today.


I'VE BEEN A BUSY LITTLE BEAVER.


*NOTE - Everywhere it says "laminated" in this text it really means "taped up to make the object in question look similar to an object laminated with a true laminating machine." We don't got no laminaters in this part of the world honey! This is Kyrgyzstan!