catching up

the speed of light is sometimes how I feel things change in my life.

A drastic change occurred in my student teaching experience at Dalat when my cooperating ESL teacher resigned. That occurred in the beginning of my second week here. Today marks the third week of me teaching the ESL classes with a long-term substitute. The day she resigned, I took over the ESL program for the rest of the week, and a bit of the subsequent week until a long-term substitute was found. That time was very stressful, I was not supposed to have taken over yet, and did not know much of what the curriculum was, or the ongoing assignments that were left behind. I was at school late every night, trying to continue in the curriculum path I knew little of. The rest of the staff were incredibly supportive during this time, and still are. They helped make what could have been a tumultuous, awful time very bearable.

 Some changes in the subsequent weeks have been made, and I am (thankfully) no longer teaching the 7th and 9th grade ESL classes. The 7th graders were the most effected by the resignation, and were quite resistant to a new, green student teacher taking over their comfortable classroom and curriculum. They were my most difficult group. When it was time for me to give a few ESL classes over to the substitute, they were my first choice. In the beginning of my education classes, we had to observe 10 hours of a class. I had middle school, and it was AWFUL. It takes a special person to teach middle school, and that person is not me!

Along with teaching Grade 3, 6, and a 7-9 Word Study program, I am independently teaching Bible, and Social Studies to a mainstream class of 20ish students. While it is a "mainstream class" , most of the students speak English as at least their second language, and the official ESL students are also in the class. Teaching Bible is difficult. I don't like grading spiritual things, even though there is an academic side to Bible. I would much rather it be a pass/fail class. Social studies is easier to teach, content-wise. Though I am encouraged to "make my own style" of teaching these classes, I find it difficult. I have a slightly different teaching style than my cooperating grade 6 teacher, and I don't want to give the students whiplash with different rhythms. Stepping in halfway through a semester is more artificial, and I do not want to step on toes of routines that are already in place.

However, there is a bright side of those already in place routines! I have been introduced to the concept of a "Do Now". This is a little activity or task I write on the board before class starts. The students come in, and instead of me waiting for them to get settled, then getting them quiet and beginning class, they begin to complete the "do now" as they enter. This little thing has been excellent for the larger mainstream classes I have been teaching. It gets the students ready to learn, and gives me a little more breathing room to begin the lesson.


In summary, these events happened so fast, it has taken me this long to process, hence the lack of updates. I spent the 3 day Thanksgiving weekend in Langkawi, with my great aunt and uncle. This time was refreshing and exactly what I needed (if only it were a bit longer!)

Did I mention my Thanksgiving was also spent on a sailboat?

I'm planning on writing more, and more often so stay tuned!

A Day in the life of ME, at Dalat

Despite the fact that I'm living on beachfront property for the next six weeks, I am not at Dalat International School for a vacation.

Most of the classes I will be teaching are ESL. In the morning, I get to school at 8am, or a little before. SAT time starts at 8:15. SAT is not a test from CollegeBoard, but is a short time that is part of the middle school concept here at Dalat. SATs are small groups that meet daily that are lead by each middle school teacher. Having a small group allows students to be more vulnerable as they set goals, and explore emotional, spiritual, and practical life issues during this low pressure, early morning group time. I think it is fantastic.

Classes start promptly at 8:40am. The first class time, A block, is Bible. During B Block, Language Arts is taught. 7 ESL students from the two sixth grade classes are pulled out during that time, and go to a separate ESL classroom.  I go with them.

Social Studies is taught during Block C. This is another class I will eventually be teaching. This makes me a little bit nervous because it is not a dedicated area of expertise or study for me; but I am up to the challenge! Preparation will be key for this subject.

Now, this is where things get complicated. The mainstream 6th grade teachers have a large block of the afternoon for prep time and lunch, from about 11 o'clock to 12:40. ESL does not. On MWF, from 12:05-12:40, 3rd graders have their ESL pull out time. I do some of my copying and prep during the in between classes time. On T and TR, admissions testing and interviews take place. ESL teachers are a part of that, which means that I will be taking a role (tbd on how much) in testing, interviews, and admissions meetings.

Sometimes for lunch, I will walk across the street to SAB, an Indian restaurant and get "carry away" (how they say take out). I am LOVING the Indian foods here! Roti canai anyone?

7th grade ESL is at 2:20, and ends at 3:05.

While the rest of the students have what is called "X-block" time, (Elective classes on T/TR, Study hall on Wednesday, Group activity on FR), 7th and 8th graders have what is called "Word Study". Word Study takes place on MW, and is largely dedicated to vocabulary building. 9th grade ESL students have ESL class on T/TR.

Since last Wednesday, the 9th of November, I have been am teaching and preparing for all of these classes (except A and C block. But I will be taking over those at the end of this week).

"It is very easy to become consumed [by preparations and school]", one of my teachers warned me. The fact I am writing this at 7pm and am still at school is evidence of that. There is a danger here, certainly not danger of a lack of energy, but a danger of giving too much, and lacking boundaries between your job and the rest of your life. I suspect the rest of the staff has already learned this. Burning out can happen, and quickly. And within my first week of taking over classes, I am beginning to. Despite my need for success in student teaching, I need to set appropriate boundaries and goals for myself and this job.

Compare and Contrast: The Python Story

Here are some of my observations from the first few days I have been in Malaysia. Dalat School is very unique, and quite different from the American public school system. It is not ruled by state and federal standards, teachers have much more freedom to explore subjects and certain topics with their students. 

A glaringly obvious example of the differences between a private school in Malaysia and a US public school is an event that happened my first day here. An 11 foot python that had ingested a goose was found, somewhere off campus. The snake (actually small for a python) was gravely injured, and someone brought it to school. It died, and all the students were allowed to see it. Pythons aren't a common occurrence here on school property, but I suspect that the ability to take advantage of rare and exciting teachable moments such as these are more common, and encouraged. The high school biology classes got to dissect it the next day. That in itself was a marvel to me. It wasn't ordered from a lab, or snakery somewhere where the animals are prepared for dissection, it was fresh out of the jungle. No formaldehyde. No nothing.  The lesson and preparation for the dissection were mere hours old. Everyone in the school, staff and students, were psyched about the opportunity. Nobody blinked an eye. It was a learning opportunity for the film classes too, they are going to make a video of the dissection and put it on youtube.

I mentioned the event to my dad in an email, commenting that this would probably never happen in the USA. He replied comically, saying  "…you are right about it never happening in the USA.  We would have had some bizarre animal rights group protesting the dissection, and lawsuits from the ACLU asking if the python’s rights had been violated.  Meanwhile no one is protecting the rights of the goose (hopefully not the one who lays the golden eggs)".

In short, there are many opportunities here that would not be able to happen in the US. 

Like I previously mentioned, Dalat is a private school. This means students must apply and interview in order to even be considered to study here. Students here want to be here. They want to be challenged, they want to learn, and are eager to explore different subjects. Their advanced curriculum sticks out to me, especially in 6th grade science. They were looking at basic chemical reaction equations. They were looking at them, not solving them by themselves, but they were still there.  I don't know about you, but I don't recall doing those in 6th grade. It is only an introduction to them, and students are not expected to master them but the fact that they were on the board was a bit of a shock to me. Even in the ESL class, the ESL students are high intermediate to advanced. As a class, we went over a students' creative writing. Dare I say there was more interaction and constructive criticism than in my college writing class? Perhaps it is because of the age, nature, or comfort level of the students, but I was also surprised at the quality of the writing.

These will most certainly not be my last surprises, but I look forward to more!

Penang Arrival!

Quick update, more details and thoughts to follow later, along with photos!

I have arrived safely in Penang, Malaysia! I got here Sunday night, spend Monday fighting jet lag, and had my first day in the classroom today. Working on internet access.

Coolest thing of the day? Seeing the last part of a dissection of an 11 foot python that had swallowed a goose. I also learned that there are many, many more bugs in the world that I had originally thought.