Teaching English at the Consulate

In the past two weeks I have been staying busy by teaching English at the American Center at the U.S Consulate. I did five different sessions, the first had only 24 people, but my last session had 42! That made me so happy that each time more and more people came. The students are all around my age, most of them are enrolled in a University but some have just graduated. It was so great to meet a lot of new people and start to build close relationships with a few of them– I wish I had more time with them! In the two weeks I think I learned a lot about teaching English– like how DIFFICULT it is. It is so challenging to teach your native language. I think I would be a better Spanish teacher than English teacher!! But just looking at the difference in my first and last lesson made me proud of my accomplishments. The first day I just went into it with a lot of icebreakers and games to play, it was a very fun and jovial environment. But on the last day of class I was holding thought provoking discussions, monitoring some heated debates, and making the students share their opinions and thoughts with the whole class. I started spending more and more time preparing for each lesson and trying to figure out the best way to get students involved and make them understand. Many of these students are in the process of applying for scholarships that will help them study abroad in either America or Australia so I tried to teach them new vocabulary that they could use to wow admission committees, but without sounding too verbose. One of the classes was mainly a question and answer session on American schools and my experience applying and attending college. I put a huge emphasis on the essay portion of the application and tried to explain to the students what makes a strong essay.

 

My last day at the center!

I wanted this post to be a little more in depth, but I am exhausted and still have some last minute packing to do. Packing? For what? Well, I am ringing in the New Year in style– headed to Cambodia tomorrow morning and then Thailand on Tuesday until the 14th of January. I am only bringing a backpack meaning I packed super super light, like only three tshirts light. I plan on spending lots of time lying on beaches (okay so three tshirts and two bathing suits...) I am not bringing my laptop so there probably won't be many posts for the next two weeks. However, I am bringing a journal and will keep detailed accounts of my days and then have a massive blogging session when I return. So until January 14th, or well maybe before then but there just won't be any pictures.
Phnom Penh > Siem Reap > Bangkok > Phuket > ???? <- still don't know what I am going to do for my last few days in Thailand. Maybe meet up with Erika for some hiking.