My schedule is very interesting as it is the end of the school year and my counterpart has mostly senior classes at the vocational high school. The seniors have not been showing up for class and Gazmend only has two junior classes. Fortunately, he is filling in at the gymnaz and we have six 40-minute classes there. Last Monday morning, I contacted Gazmend to confirm the schedule for Monday. He let me know that he was out of town for the week at an international conference. He had no classes on Monday (as these were senior classes). He said that on Tuesday, I would work with the student teacher at the gymnaz to do the four classes in the morning and then at 4:20 pm, I would have one class at the professional school. On Wednesday, I would have just the 4:20 pm class at the professional school.
On Tuesday, I walked over to the gymnaz and went to the staff lounge. Pranvera, the student teacher, was there in the lounge with her mentor English teacher. We talked about the classes and we agree that she would do first, second, and fourth with me. But it was her last day and she really wanted to do her regular 3rd hour class.
In Kosovo, in all grades, students stay in their classrooms and teachers come to them. Teachers spend the time in between classes in the teachers lounge. There are small lockers in the lounge for teachers to keep their materials in and whatever belongings they bring to school. Teachers also wear school jackets over their clothes when they are teaching. At both schools, these jackets look like lab coats except they are maroon instead of white. Gazmend, Pranvera, and I don't wear jackets at the gymnaz as we are not regular teachers there. Gazmend does have a jacket when he teaches at the vocational school.
At the gymnaz, students have a 40-minute English class three times a week. On Tuesday, the students we are working with have two classes each of English. We see the same group of students 1st and 3rd and the other group 2nd and 4th.
The first class is always a challenge as students don't participate a lot. Only about half the students had their workbooks and were participating. The other students were talking with each other. While students with workbooks were working on their first assignment with a partners, I walked around to the students without workbooks and asked them to get out a notebook and something to write with. I told them that they should write a paragraph in English about anything they wanted. I gave them directions in English and they said they understood. They all started writing and then I went back to the front of the room with Pranvera. We continued lesson with the students who had their workbooks. Later, I went back to check on the paragraphs that students had written and all but one student, had written a paragraph. They all choose to tell me about themselves and they were all very well-written.
Towards the end of first hour class, the students told me that they didn't have English third hour today, even though I was sure they did. When I got back down to the staff lounge, I checked the schedule and it showed that they did indeed have English 1st and 3rd on Tuesdays. They were just trying to see if they could get out of 3rd hour English because Gazmend wasn't there. Second hour went better than first hour. Most students had their workbooks or could share with a neighbor. Students participated more and we got through most of the lesson.
I went to third hour on my own without Pranvera and when I walked in, there were only six students in the class. I asked where everyone else was and they told me that they went for coffee. They thought I wasn't going to show up. The six students that remained, asked if we could just have a discussion in English. So we did and it went really well. If they didn't understand something, one member of the group that did would translate, but that didn't happen very often. In fourth hour, Pranvera was back with me. We finished the lesson and it went pretty well.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I went to the vocational school for the one class of juniors that Gazmend has. These students are in the auto mechanic area of study. I was heading to class, when some of the students saw me in the hallway. They asked me to cancel class since Gazmend wasn't at school. I told them I was here and I came especially for the class. When I walked into the classroom, I realized that about half the class had already left and didn't even wait for me to get there. I did not have the textbook for this class, so I decided to try a game. There are less students in this class with good English speaking skills. Those with better English skills are really good at helping the others to understand.
I divided the class in half and told them that we were having a car make or model competition. The teams took turns naming makes and models of cars. If a team couldn't name one, then the other team got a point. The blackboard was full by the time we were done (photo below).
After that, we did the same thing only with the name of parts of cars in English. I have learned that the students in auto mechanic area need to learn English, because car computers and diagnostics are in English. We continued on until the end of class. On Wednesday, I had the same group of students at the professional school and this time an English teacher that I had not met before, offered to come with me and fill out the plan book. Students did not leave early and most were present. After making sure the book was filled out, she left. We played auto part hangman in English. I started with a the word "transmission", which they got before I finished hangman. After the first round; students took over and I just watched. They played hangman the entire class time. At first, some students hesitated to take their turn, but after a while more students began to participate.
I enjoyed my first opportunities to spend time with students in class on my own.
I feel as if I was there. Great write up. Isn’t it fun when you figure out how to get involvement going? I’m going to remember your hangman idea. Good job Teacher!
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