First Day Jitters

Last week Wednesday was like the final exam for orientation. In three teams, the nine ETAs took over grades 3-5 at a school south of Patan, just outside Kathmandu. It was a time to get our feet wet in a low risk scenario since we’ll never see those kids again (which is actually really unfortunate since they were ADORABLE!)

If you’ve ever met me in person, you can probably guess that I was pretty stoked about the whole thing. My team (Virginia, Kelly, and me) wrote a great two day lesson covering some simple verbs, every day places, and directions. We had visual aids, interactive motions, and several exciting games planned for “no more than 20-25 at the absolute most” class four students.

In case you forgot, this is Nepal.

1.       Upon arriving at the school, we learned that the three groups would not be teaching in grades 4-6 but instead grades 3-5; which how our lesson slid down a grade to class three.

2.       Our classroom had 29 students clamoring for our attention, not counting the crowd that stood by the door until the school assistant shooed them away. Thank goodness I am always over prepared and just happened to have prepped for 30 students.

3.       Due to subtle differences between British English and American English, we were surprised when we asked the students to “skip” and all of them mimed using a jump rope. Fortunately, our lesson was flexible enough to allow for changing the meaning of one of the key verbs.

4.       Towards the end of our first lesson, I announced to all of the students that we would be back tomorrow to teach them again! But was interrupted by several students with confused wrinkles on their faces saying “tomorrow is holiday!” So our two day lesson was abruptly truncated.

Flexibility is an important disposition for any teacher, and a foundational skill for a teacher in Nepal. But even amidst what might sound like, and might have looked like, chaos it was a joy-filled afternoon.

The students were beyond eager; enthusiasm billowed out of them even more tangibly than the exhaust from microbuses in Kathmandu. When we tried to get them to respond silently by pointing at one of the pictures we hung around the room, many had to fight hard not to shout out the name of the place. But they listened to everything we said, picked up on how to play Simon Says and Four Corners really fast, and called out “Miss! Miss!” to show us their paper every time they drew another picture or wrote another word. It was beautiful and I loved it.

If you are reading this post on Tuesday August 20, 2013, know that it is the first official day at my placement school. I'll be meeting the students and teachers I'll be working with until March. I’m not sure exactly what my day will look like but the anticipation is building…just like the pressure between the Earth’s two plates whose fault line Nepal straddles so precariously :)