Somehow my first term teaching at Vientiane College is already halfway over. I have to fill out “Midterm Reports” for my sponsored students (whose tuition is paid for by their companies or private individuals), and this, along with all of the other assessment that I’ve been doing lately has gotten me thinking about what I’ve learned and experienced at work in the last six weeks. I’ve gone from total panic before my first lessons, to a regular routine (which, to be honest, still includes some moments of panic), in which I show up to work 1-2 hours before class, plan my lessons, do photocopying and then grade papers on the couch at night. Though there are still many times that well-planned lessons end up falling flat, I feel as though I have at least somewhat successfully established a rapport with all of my classes, and that I’ve managed to make my way through some of the first teacher trials: giving first tests, dealing with copying from the internet, first writing assignments, projects, attitude problems, and so on.
Posing with my young learners class on movie day.
My YLPRI3 class (mostly teenagers) has really surprised me as such an incredibly dynamic and enthusiastic group of students. TEFL training led me to believe that most students in Asia would be reticent, and hesitant to share opinions or think outside the box, but it’s not unusual for me to see at least half the class waving their hands to volunteer an answer, or coming up with creative responses to questions (in response to what they wanted to be doing in 20 years I got: an astronaut, a detective, an environmentalist, and married to a beautiful woman in Australia). In my other Young Learners class, I’ve finally harnessed the power of stickers (a valuable currency amongst the 8-13 year old set here), and just finished a time-consuming movies project, in which they had to write their own short scripts and perform for the class and a video camera. The process was a bit of a struggle, but the final products were comical and actually very well done for 9-year-olds acting in another language, so it was definitely worth it. In all of my classes, I’ve had to get used to the fact that I’m the one giving the grades now, and I have to be comfortable passing out papers that say F (when they’re deserved) as well as papers with A+, no matter how bad I might feel that all of the students aren’t succeeding. I’ve learned how frustrating it is when students don’t show up to class the whole time, missing important introductions to new material and throwing off on-going class activities when they do show up. Despite the frustrations, I’m thankful that every day is different, never boring, and moments like having students ask to take photos with me, compete to have me call on them, or get ridiculously fired up over fuzzy spider stickers (my Halloween prize) make it worth it.