7:45- Leave the house and walk 20-30 minutes to the train station (depending on if it's raining or not)
8:15- Take the train to school
9:00 - 3:15- Teach lessons!
3:15-5:00- Write lesson plans and do other organizing/cleaning/whatever else needs to be done
5:30- Catch the train back
6:00- Crash on my couch with dinner and watch funny English soap operas. And/Or play banana grams with my fellow volunteers!
The lessons are all Literacy lessons, and are mostly phonics based, and go something like this:
1. Warm up routine - flashcards with different sound/letter combinations that they need to identify and then write in their exercise books.
2. Revise something already learned, such as y sometimes sounds like e, like in "party," and then think of other words that use that rule.
3. Introduce a new concept, like suffixes, and practice them with sentence dictations.
4. Reading! This is my favorite part, and the kids get so excited. One of my students is reading Esio Trot, and it's bringing back so many memories, I forgot how great that book is!
5. Revise high frequency words, as in words that we use all the time but you can't sound out, like "the," "was," "saw," and "again."
6. Play a game! They always win, and I'm not even trying to let them. Hmmm. I need to work on my "Guess Who?" skills.
It has been fabulous so far, and meeting these children has been amazing. Each of them brings a new challenge and a new joy. And today my supervisor asked me if I would mind classical music being played while the children had their lessons. Would I mind!?! Does she know who she's talking to? Naturally I made her a playlist with all the best pieces so we'll try that on Wednesday. Don't worry, Pachelbel's Cannon is not included.
In other news, London is wonderful! I get to see other YAGMS fairly often, and this weekend was no exception. Plus, the Pope was in town! I got to see him arrive at the Archbishop of Canterbury's palace, which is right across the street from my office. Pretty cool! I also was able to see a fellow Ole before he heads back to the states, which was wonderful. Like a piece of home! See the pictures below for what I ate :)
I miss home but am loving it here, I'm trying to update this every 2 weeks, but hopefully I'll get better at it and update it more often! Love and miss you all-
Erin
YAGMs in London!
The Springboard Full-time Volunteers :)
Massive. Fish. And. Chips.
(Also, they eat this with mushy peas. I have yet to muster the courage to try them.)
