After School Classes

Today was the first day of after school classes. One of the new English teachers, Mr. Kim, asked me how many I wanted to teach, how many students, and what kind of materials. I decided on three times a week, 20 students or less (but an even number) and that it would be called "Advanced English." The class is grade 2 only, which is great because they're all my kids from last year that I don't see too much of this semester.

Going into it, I only knew of boys that were in the class. There are a bunch of grade two students that I taught last year who come in to the EOZ during lunch time and they've been asking about it for a few weeks. I had an attendance sheet, but I still can't tell if a person is a boy or girl just by looking at the name. I was pretty relieved to find that the class was evenly split, 10 boys and 10 girls.

However, the class might as well all be boys. What I mean by that is, the boys are at their loud, obnoxious stage. The girls barely say a word all class, they just sit in the back of the room and try to hid behind their thick bangs. I'm now used to teaching my first graders, who have yet to go through their growth suprts. The kids still look like they are in about 5th grade. It's pretty strange being in a classroom now with boys my size or larger- I swear they all must have grown 3 inches from last winter!

I'm really excited for the classes, I've got lots of fun things planned. I feel much more confident this semester with my teaching abilities, and I know my co-teachers can tell I am also. I basically can teach whatever I like in my normal classes (like this week I taught about the life cycle of frogs) and I can do the same thing for after school as well, though there is more paperwork I am required to turn in. What I'm looking forward to most is the "Wallace and Gromit- A Close Shave" lessons. It will span 6 lessons and it's only a 30 minute video (each period is 45 minutes). I found an excellent website with an amazing movie guide filled with grammar, vocabulary, and extension activities. I'm not planning on telling my school how many copies exactly I'll be making because it's pretty long ^^

Anyway, I'm pumped for things to get going in the next few weeks. After school classes were my favorite part of last semester, and I hope they are again this semester also ^^