We were up this morning at 6.30am for our first day of school. We felt very nervous and it was so warm that we were soaked with sweat by the time we arrived for class at 9.00am.
We are working with grade 6 +7, similar to P7, but ranging in age from 10 to 18. Coming from a different country it was very difficult to know what to teach. We were aware that some migrant schools were introducing critical thinking strategies and felt that it would be good to promote this as an alternative to rote learning.
Our focus this week for our classes is learning about decision making, sharing opinions and forming arguments. In addition to critical thinking we are using a range of teaching strategies and activities which illustrate active learning.
The first thing that we learnt was to slow down!
The second thing was that our Burmese students are not as forthcoming as our Scottish ones!
We had made a book, in Scotland, about life at Campie and the lives of our pupils.
Our new students were fascinated to learn about life in Scotland.
We played the Robert Fisher game 'How Many Questions?' where children asked many questions about the book. Our new students came up with some fantastic questions, many of them trying incredibly hard to work in English.
Our partner teacher was also on hand to support us and the students.
Tomorrow we plan to play some of the 'English Speaking Union' games - promoting opinion making. We are not sure how this will go!
Home Time!
We are working with grade 6 +7, similar to P7, but ranging in age from 10 to 18. Coming from a different country it was very difficult to know what to teach. We were aware that some migrant schools were introducing critical thinking strategies and felt that it would be good to promote this as an alternative to rote learning.
Our focus this week for our classes is learning about decision making, sharing opinions and forming arguments. In addition to critical thinking we are using a range of teaching strategies and activities which illustrate active learning.The first thing that we learnt was to slow down!
The second thing was that our Burmese students are not as forthcoming as our Scottish ones!
We had made a book, in Scotland, about life at Campie and the lives of our pupils.
Our new students were fascinated to learn about life in Scotland.
We played the Robert Fisher game 'How Many Questions?' where children asked many questions about the book. Our new students came up with some fantastic questions, many of them trying incredibly hard to work in English.
Our partner teacher was also on hand to support us and the students.
Tomorrow we plan to play some of the 'English Speaking Union' games - promoting opinion making. We are not sure how this will go!
Home Time!
Looks absolutely amazing and what an experience! Hope the teaching continues to go well and I am sure that your pupils will be really interested in all your experiences when you get back. Have a great trip.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic experience for you all. Great photos. I hope trying new ideas continues to go well. I wonder how this will impact on your teaching when you return.
ReplyDeleteHi Shona and Caroline, thanks for your comments, glad you are enjoying the blog. We have Burmese teachers coming over in October and we hope to have them speaking to parents and those interested, the date will be on the Campie blog. We'll definitely be focusing on Burma on our return. Hope you keep reading!
ReplyDelete