I have been quite remiss in my updating duties, I’m sorry to say! Picking up where we left off:
Directly following Mark’s return home, my Mum became very ill and was in hospital. I was extremely worried about her, and this did have a negative impact on my teaching abilities. Thankfully, everyone was very understanding and caring. This also held true when I caught bronchitis from one of my students in April. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take time off school to recover, due to teacher shortages, but everyone took very good care of me and my grade twos gave me a standing ovation when my voice returned! Continuing the illness theme, I had one final bad one just before I was due to leave school: the dreaded bout of food poisoning/gastro. I was very disappointed in the powers that be, as I managed to get through almost the full year without anything too serious in that direction. I won’t give you any details, you know what it can be like!
The end of the school year was a very busy time for all of the teachers. We were frantically writing final exams, reviewing the year’s work (hoping that they had retained something), practicing for the Cambridge Young Learners English tests, and rehearsing for the English Speaking Contest.
It was quite stressful to write, direct and stage manage (or assist, in the case of 7A) all of my classes, but the Speaking Contest was very good. All of my students worked really hard to perfect their conversations and pronunciation. I had one major advantage in the primary school contest, namely that I taught all of the classes except for 1A and 1B. My only disappointment on the day was the absence of one of my grade 2 speakers. Little Vicky bravely stepped in for Tim at the last minute, but mistakes were unavoidable. Regardless, I was extremely proud of everyone! In saying this all this, I will admit to being frustrated with a few of my students. Instead of talking to me about wanting to participate in the Contest, they got very angry. There were tears over it, but when I offered them their own role-play, they decided that they didn’t want to do it, after all…
This year, GIS participated in the Cambridge English: Young Learners program. They have three levels: Starters, Movers, and Flyers. It is good practice for the students, as they are required to use all four language skills to pass the tests. As usual, however, I was focused on the speaking test. We practiced a lot of vocabulary and prepositions for primary school, while Movers had more descriptive and storytelling aspects. For most of the students who participated, I think the tests were a little too easy.
Following this, I needed to prepare the final English exams for my classes. It was very difficult to contrive tests suited to each class, as the levels of ability in each group varies so much. It is one of the drawbacks to teaching at a school, as opposed to a language centre, where students are grouped according to their abilities. Perhaps 80% of my students easily passed their exams, with the other children being marked after taking an additional test to assess them individually. Certainly there are some who have strengths in either speaking/listening or reading/writing, so I think it is important to take their personal strengths into account. In an ideal situation the struggling students would be together in a smaller class, so that we, as teachers, can give them the attention they need and deserve.
The final school-related thing to occur this year was the closing ceremony. There was singing and dancing, presentations and speeches. The standard stuff. I had to give a speech. It turns out that, no matter how much experience I have with speaking to people, and no matter how used I am to talking all day in class, standing in front of approximately 400 people and giving a speech is not really something I’m really comfortable with. I’m sure that you’re shocked to hear me say it! Nevertheless, I survived my short speech and the interminable photos, and made it down to the banquet lunch. Violet and I were at the young teachers table (where the most beer is consumed) and later joined everyone for karaoke, before meeting up with Simon and Tien. Photos can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/jessica.bryant.71/posts/10153037332039132?pnref=story
Overall, it was an exacting few months at school. I was quite exhausted and run down! I have to say that I might not have managed without Violet. She nursed me when I was sick, tried to teach me to Cha Cha and play the guitar, and was generally wonderful. I’m going to miss my Vietnamese wife!
Teacher Jess' Adventures 