In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago that I was sitting at the Lao cafe next to Vientiane College quietly panicking about standing up in front of a classroom for the first time. Yet in others, in seems impossible that ten weeks have passed already and it’s time to say goodbye to my first classes. The momentum of the end of term began about two weeks ago, as the deadline to submit reports (final grades) drew closer. We have to give each student a grade on several different skill areas (attendance, participation, speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, homework), so the amount of grading and assessment necessary to fill out the reports is quite high. The idea of giving out actual letter grades was pretty daunting at first. As a recent graduate it seemed strange to suddenly be the one making the grading decisions, and I realized both how tedious and difficult some things can be to grade (reading and grading 20 single paragraphs takes me forever…I can’t imagine grading multi-page essays). It seems like every time I think I’ve worked out the perfect system to fairly grade an assignment, the students do something unexpected that forces me to try very hard to be subjective.
All in all, the term has been incredible. The learning curve was steep and I feel so comfortable in the classroom now that it’s hard to imagine the stress of the first few days. My students have been frustrating and hilarious. Somehow this job has managed to be both easier and more difficult than I imagined at first. The parts that I thought would be hard (standing in front of a class for an hour and a half, planning lessons, improvising when there is extra time to kill, managing young classes) have proven to be a lot more natural than I expected. Other things (grading/assessment, working with adult classes, giving clear instructions) are much more difficult. I’m looking forward to returning to new classes next term, and hopefully doing things just a little better, using the experience I have now.
Today I have my very last classes, after concluding the other two on Wednesday. I did an activity on American slang with the older of my young learners’ classes on Wednesday (we were wrapping up a unit on talking about foreign languages), which ended with an activity that may have been more fun for me to watch than for them. Each of them had to perform a short skit using the slang they learned, and most went something like this: “Hey dude, what’s up? Want to hang out? Don’t be totally lame.” (Except with a few more grammatical errors thrown in). I’ll have this class again next term, which they don’t know yet, and I’m pretty excited to get to see them progress to the next level. In the two adult classes, I’ve ended the term with review Jeopardy. I remember having a lot of fun with this in high school, and they seem to feel the same way. Tonight I’ve have my final young learners Pre-Elementary class, which promises to be a frenzy of barely organized chaos–highly competitive review games (every game is highly competitive, especially if stickers are involved), candy, and stickers galore. I’ll definitely miss this class next term, but I know that I can look forward to a “Hellooo teacher!” every time I pass them in the halls next year.