English classes

English classes - i wanted to take a slightly different approach to teaching the kids as the books they use seem to be ineffective. So i took a book from home and began following the order used in that book. As they learn fast and are enthusiastic it is a pleasure to teach them and they make it easy for me by doing their homework on time etc. I am also working on being more patient with them and feel i have succeeded. I now calmly explain what they have got wrong instead of getting frustrated, however i lose my temper when they do not bother to do their homework.The fact that some of them don't appreciate the fact that i spend my Saturday mornings trying to teach them a language they will definitely benefit from knowing in this country irritates me as i am not doing it for myself or my cas blog but for their betterment, and when they seem indifferent to that fact it annoys me.
Recently i taught then verbs and the first, second and third person singular forms-present tense-of some common verbs. they grasped the concept soon and i have asked them to fill in a table for homework. Another goal i had was to make the classes interesting. While i now understand how frustrating it can be to teach an unresponsive student and the importance of doing homework as a form of revision, i also know how frustrating it can be for a student to sit through a boring lesson. It makes the student hate the subject. Even if the subject is a students favourite, a boring teacher really knows how to kill the passion a student has for a subject by teaching it in a boring manner. i was determined not to do this to the kids i teach. I also wanted to encourage a little competition between them as i believe a little competition can really raise the standard of a students work. Co-operation between student is essential for a class to succeed but the student also needs to feel some pressure to do the work given to him/her. This is true for me as in the classes in school in which the students are competitive i feel my standards have increased and the classes in which the students are lazier, i am slacking. Another thing i am happy about is the fact that i have got some of the lazier girls to start taking an interest in the work. Nowadays in Sri Lanka, if a person wants a decent job with a good salary they need to know more than one language and being able to speak good english can really help with getting jobs. because of this i am happy that the few students who used to give up instantly if they didnt know the answer to a question now seem to be deliberating over the answer and actually giving me a response. I am teaching the students tomorrow morning and i am looking forward to seeing what they have done at home.

School Extra-Curriculars

Choir: We practiced a song in choir, actually 2 songs: 'i believe' and 'wouldn't it be nice' to perform at the Food and Fun fair. I was still nervous about performing in the prescence of an audience and was scared i would not be able to sing. We practised during lunch times and after school and on the day too. I was very nervous before performing but it was comforting to know that people wouldn't be as focused on the performance as they would have been if it was a concert. They would be milling around buying things or attending to their children etc. Also, after out performance, there was another performace by the dance group'natanda' and as their performance was quite impressive, i knew that even if the choir didnt perform that well, the attention of the crowd would soon shift onto the dancers. Miss Kithmini, our supervisor also wanted the choir to perform during assembly so that the rest of the student body could knew that a choir existed and knew that they could join it. That performance was a little more daunting as this time we would have the full attention of the audience. We sang 'I believe' and i think it went ok. I was a little annoyed at one of the younger students though, as she, being a soprano was in the front row and got so nervous that decided not to sing but to stand and smile through the performance instead. This affected the soprano/alto balance and the alto's were heard more than they should have been. This irritated me greatly as i suffer from stage fright too and i managed to sing so as not to embarass myself and the choir. Why would you join a choir if you dont want to perform in front of an audience?

I need to learn to be more patient. I realised that she is younger and that all people dont react to the same situations in the same manner as me. Another performance the choir wanted be involved in was the grade 12 graduation. This did not work out, however, as the evening already had a busy schedule and we were told that if we wanted to, we could perform while the parents and family members took their seats in the auditorium. We decided that we would decline this offer so as to give ourselves more time to practice for a more serious performance at a later stage in the year. We discussed performing at out own graduation this coming may.

Dancing-One of the teachers involved in tha natanda dance group asked one of the dancers of he could come to school weekly with another dancer as an assistant to teach some interested students some oriental dancing. I was one of the students that was interested as i had seen their performance at the Food and Fun Fair and i was very impressed with the style. I asked the choreographer if he ran an open class and he said he did. I was considering joining that but when this opportunity arose i was happy as it would save me time getting to the location of the class as it would be held in school. Also i was in desperate need of excersise. I went for some classes and about 5 minutes into the first class i realized how difficult it is to pull off the style and make it look effortless. So much strength and stamina is needed to execute the steps that alot of practice is required. However, as i am passionate about dance i think i can find the time to practice the steps enough to get them right when needed. A performance was to take place during the last assembly of the year, however that didnt take place as we had exams and didnt have the time to learn a routine.
My goals for dancing for this term are:
I learn all the steps and practise them at home at least once a day so that by the next class i can do them properly.
i learn to pick up the steps faster and develop my co-ordination skills
i develop my core strength and stamina
i learn some typical steps from oriental dance and remember them for future use in choreographing dances of that style
the dance group learns a routine and is able to perform in front of an audience

Targets Achieved on WWW

I was very pleased about my recent experience in Hambantota a few months ago. I think I achieved my goals regarding interacting with the children.

This is how I think I achieved these aims:

My first aim was to interact with the children in such a manner that they would feel comfortable around me (and the others in my group) as we were strangers to them. As mentioned before this was a weakness of mine i was aware of. It was important to me that they were able to enjoy our company for the three days we spent with them. As I do not spend much time around children in pre-school (or any young children for that matter!), and i am not very good at handling them or relating to them, i thought this would be a challenge for me. When i got there though, the children were so sweet and i did not feel uncomfortable or awkward around them at all. I found it easier than i thought to talk to them and i was happy to improve my Sinhala by doing so! I really enjoyed playing the games with them and surprisingly some of them didn’t seem as scared as i expected them to be which was nice to see. i usually find it difficult to work collaboratively with other people as soon as i meet them as i need to get used to them but I feel i achieved this goal to an extent as some children were scared and crying, however they had only been in school for a few months and were still not used to new people so I didn’t take this too personally! On the last day during the concert my camera attracted the attention of some of the children and two of the boys came and sat next to me and started looking at my camera and wanted their pictures taken1 I was very happy that they felt comfortable enough with us to approach us (even if it was for the camera!)




My next goal was to be co-operative and helpful to my team while working on our task. I thought the selection of people in my group was just right for a trip like this one as there were lots of people i was comfortable around and could converse with easily, but there were also a few i did not know very well and i thought this was a great opportunity to build new relationships and strengthen existing ones. I was happy that this happened gradually over the three days as i began to feel more at ease around people i previously felt awkward around. I think teambuilding experiences such as these are important to participate in, and i would like to do this again sometime.




Being someone who had only just learnt the skill of being organised i hoped that my team would be prepared to take up the challenge of getting so much work done in such a limited period of time, and be able to do it well. This needed organisation. Lots of it! An aspect of the task Mr Nimal had completely under control. If not for Mr Nimal’s planning and organisation, i do not think our task would have been completed half as successfully. Not only did we finish early, but we did everything so well and by the time we left, the school so different from it’s original state that i would not have been able to recognize it! I was happy about the way i was dedicated to one task until it was completed and i tried my best not to leave anything undone, so i was proud of myself for being able to keep up with the fast pace at which we were forced to work (we only had three days!)

Another goal was to be patient. Anyone who knows me knows that i am extremely impatient. I cannot wait long periods of time for things and i cannot do the same thing for a long period of time, as my mind zones out and i cannot concentrate at all!
This experience, if it was to be successful would require lots and lots and lots of patience! I needed to be patient while painting the school and the playground equipment as that took a long time and also i needed to be patient with the children, something i was nervous about. As i mentioned earlier, i tried my best not to half-finish a job and i do not remember doing so. I worked (along with everyone else) for hours on end, doing the same thing, and as i hate repetition, i found it a little difficult to stay focused on the task at hand. Yes, there were times when i lost my patience and felt like not doing anything but the thought of the children drove me to finish whatever i was doing and move on to the next task. I was extremely proud of all of us as we helped each other finish our tasks and we did so in such uncomfortable weather conditions!

Another goal was to not complain about things on the trip, whether it was the weather, the task etc. And i am happy to say that i think i achieved this goal! I did complain about it being hot etc but i did not make a big deal out of things i would normally have.

Overall, i was happy with my team and i was happy with myself and my contribution to this pre-school. it was such a rewarding experience and i really want to do more social work like that! :)

Week Without Walls-Reflection

On the first day we went to the pre-school, we played with the children as soon as we got there for about half an hour. This included working collaboratively in the activites we planned in our groups before we arrived. This is also an example of how we planned and initiated these acivities. The place was not in bad condition but it was abit of a mess so i was happy that we were going to be clearing it up and painting over all the walls.














Murals:









First we had to clear the walls. There were many things stuck on the walls for decoration like streamers stuck with stickytape, so removing all the marks from the walls before painting was tiring. Then we had to sand paper the walls to create a smooth surface suitable for painting. The paint we had had already been labelled eg. yellow paint for the outside wall, grey for the floor etc. Each of us picked a job to do and got the right equipment and started. I was painting the inside wall which was pink but we painted it cream which was a big improvement as it made the room appear more spacious. This is one of the examples of how i became aware of my own strengths and weaknesses as i realized how i get distracted very easily.However, my strength is that by the time i have finished (even though it may take a long time) it will be done well. Some people painted the playground equipment and others started on the outside walls. By the end of the first day i was sure that we could finish the whole school by the second day.

We were so cohesive as a group and we managed to work even with people that we did not get along with. This is another strength that i became aware (and happy) about.

On the second day we arrived at the school and gave the kids drawing books and pastels so they drew and coloured for half an hour. Each of us had to look after at least one child and we could see that they were less scared of us. I know that i am not very good with entertaining young childtren-one of the areas that needs developing and as a lot of people in my class are, it was more difficult for me to try to have fun with my children as others were doing a much better job and i was gettning discouraged. We got back to our work and the people who were working on the mural started and pretty much finished that day. The outside walls and pillars were finished and the floor was started on, I was painting the floor with two other people and we worked very well together to finish it. We then started on the outside floor but it started raining so we had to leave it till the next day. That night at the hotel some people from our group drew, coloured and cut out animals and stuck them on lolly pop sticks for the puppet show we would perform the next day.

I was very pleased with our level of commitment and our ability to initiate the planning of the concert.

On the third day half the group played with the kids and the other half continued with the painting. I was in the group that played with the children. We played duck duck goose with them and by this time more children felt comfortable enough to play however some were still very scared. I felt as though i had improved in the way i related to the children as they were having fun and this is something that i feel i developed as a skill over a very brief period of time. Everything was finished before the concert which started at two. The outside walls, the mural, the pillars and the doors and windows as well as the floor outside was finished. At 2, the concert started, and we all sat down with the children and their parents as well as the others who had come to watch. The children did many dances and sang songs and people from our group participated as well. Then we had a puppet show.

I was so happy that the concert was successful and everyone had fun.



Me with some kids:










Group Photo:










Concert:










Group Picture:

Week Without Walls

My targets:
1. to interact with the children as much as possible
2.to be co-operative and helpful while working on our task and collaboratiing with others
3.to be as organised as possible
4.to develop the skill of being patient
5.to follow instructions wihtout complaining
6.to be able to work for prolonged periods of time in uncomfortable weather conditions
7. To consider the global implications of what we are doing for other (underpriviledged people)

My new targets:

Creativity:
My piano teachers are having a concert in mid June and all their students re performing. He told me today that i have to sing. i have never sung before, alone. this will be with a boy but i don't know him and i don't know how well he can sing. I have to practice singing and sing at the concert, and as i joined the choir i will be able to ask those teachers to help me improve my voice. This will include collaboration as well as alot of perseverence to get the performance right. Also my piano teacher wants me to do the grade 3 theory exam before october this year. I will skip grades 1 and 2 as they are very simple.This is a new challenge i am undertaking as i have never studied theory and i will be sitting an exam in it soon.

Action: Track is starting in two weeks and i haven't run competitively in about 8 months so i really need to start running and improving my speed. my events are normally 100 and 200 metres but you need t be able to do three events-jumping, throwing running etc and i have NO experince with jumping except i did long jump once about 3 years ago so this should be interesting! My aim is to improve my time for 100 metres and 200 metres. This will also include alot of commitment and time and effort. The jumping will include a new challenge i will have undertaken.

Service: My friend's mother asked me to teach english to some girls my age from an orphanage she works with. They have just fininshed their O Levels and are waiting for their results so she teaches them english everyday and asked me to meet them.

I am one of the leaders of the Alzheimer's elective in school and i really want to do more than the last two leaders did. they did a good job but my aim is to do even better and be more successful with the fundraisers. This will include planned and initiated activities and working collaboratively with others.

Recently more children have started coming to the convent on saturdays to learn english so i have alot more people in my group. I have become aware of my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher through the reactions of my students and how they perform in their tests. i also know what the areas i need to improve in are regarding the effectiveness of my explanations. My aim is to teach them all the alphabet and get the more advanced kids to start writing proper sentences.

CHOIR

i haven't sung in a choir since i was about 13 so i thought it might be fun to sing in the secondary school choir because i really enjoyed it. i went with my friend after school today to see the teacher in charge and we did some scales for her so i hope i get in the choir because it should be fun.

I have never considered myself a good singer but i want to improve my voice. Also, if i hear the same scales over and over again my ears may become accustomed to these keys and my piano playing (playing by ear specifically) may improve.

Also, choir is a collaborative activity in which it is important that each person is perfectly in harmony with the others. Thus there is an individual commitment as well as a group commitment.