First Official Week of Camp
Just as the title suggests, last week was the first official week of camp! I got my first real taste of what it is like to teach a class full of English language learners (ELLs). My impression of the experience? Well, in many ways I have been pleasantly surprised. Overall, I am shocked by how much I can communicate with the students although we hardly speak the same language. To me, this really testifies to the importance of non-verbal communication and the role that context plays in aiding comprehensibility.
The general layout of the camp is as follows:
9:00-10:00 free play outside and preparing materials inside,
10:00-11:00 routines (the games and other methods of explicitly teaching language),
11:00-12:00 workshops (a craft to reinforce the theme of the week),
12:00-13:00 lunch and water play,
13:00-15:00 settling back down and preparing for the students to go home.
Thankfully, Maria is very flexible and easy to work with in the layout of the camp. She allows us to spend time as we need and teaching what we need. This week we (meaning my partner teacher, Conchi, and I) taught the students about introductions, colors, numbers, a few animals, and bugs. There was also a bunch of direction based vocab, e.g. sit, stand, listen, look, write, ect...
For workshops this week we made t-shirts, name tags, and we started to make a days of the week calendar. I learned very quickly how difficult it can be to give clear directions when the students don't understand the language completely. The t-shirt making was a gigantic mess (we used a sort of fabric paint), but at least I know for next time what I need to do in order to prevent the giant, multicolored mess.
I also learned a ton from my partner teacher. Conchi had a great attitude that I think is a very important attitude for any teacher to have. When the t-shirt project turned out to be an utter mess she kept a cool head and continued to work diligently and patiently with the students. I really learned a lot from her input as she is not a native English speaker about what is too much and what the students can handle at this point in the camp. Overall, I learned a ton this week and got to spend the weekend sightseeing in Bilbao. I'll post pictures below!
-Lindsey
The general layout of the camp is as follows:
9:00-10:00 free play outside and preparing materials inside,
10:00-11:00 routines (the games and other methods of explicitly teaching language),
11:00-12:00 workshops (a craft to reinforce the theme of the week),
12:00-13:00 lunch and water play,
13:00-15:00 settling back down and preparing for the students to go home.
Thankfully, Maria is very flexible and easy to work with in the layout of the camp. She allows us to spend time as we need and teaching what we need. This week we (meaning my partner teacher, Conchi, and I) taught the students about introductions, colors, numbers, a few animals, and bugs. There was also a bunch of direction based vocab, e.g. sit, stand, listen, look, write, ect...
For workshops this week we made t-shirts, name tags, and we started to make a days of the week calendar. I learned very quickly how difficult it can be to give clear directions when the students don't understand the language completely. The t-shirt making was a gigantic mess (we used a sort of fabric paint), but at least I know for next time what I need to do in order to prevent the giant, multicolored mess.
I also learned a ton from my partner teacher. Conchi had a great attitude that I think is a very important attitude for any teacher to have. When the t-shirt project turned out to be an utter mess she kept a cool head and continued to work diligently and patiently with the students. I really learned a lot from her input as she is not a native English speaker about what is too much and what the students can handle at this point in the camp. Overall, I learned a ton this week and got to spend the weekend sightseeing in Bilbao. I'll post pictures below!
-Lindsey
Pictures from the first week of camp:
Pictures from my weekend in Bilbao:
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