wash, rinse, repeat

Well camp numero dos is under way and after day one it became very apparent that I needed to change my teaching methods for small group time. On day one Sally, Wendy, Snow White ( yes, I know that's the real deal folks...no joking here) our translator Jonathon and I all sat trying desperately to find a way around ( or through it or over it) this massive language barrier but instead we sat reviewing emotions a concept they haven't quite grasped yet for a solid 20 minutes doing every possible activity I could think of with my laminated flash cards ( that they could see through apparently) and once those had thoroughly been exhausted we talked about their favorite things about summer, favorite foods, etc. ( every normally 2 part question- question and answer- very quickly became a 6 part question- Step 1- I ask English question, Step 2- Jonathan asks Cantanese translation of question, Step 3- one of them responds with Cantanese answer, Step 4 Jonathan gives me the English Translated answer, step 5- I repeat the word/words of the answer to everyone, Step 6 they repeat the word/words in an attempt to learn them) as you can tell conversing is a lengthy process....

After what seemed like hours( poor preparation on my part) small group time ended and my group and Maggies headed down to play squash ( yeah they expected us to teach the kids to play HAH!) thankfully today and for the rest of are time we have a table tennis room( the unfortunate thing about that is that about half of the kids totally wrecked me at ping pong today... on the positive I have a week and half to improve and they've already shown maggie and I how to properly hold a paddle..)

Today, in small group time I applied a laundry theory as I like to call it(yes I'm developing my own teaching theories i'm not quite ready to be published their still in the developmental and testing phases.)....the laundry cycle washes-rinses-repeats ( with some added steps of course) in teaching English today I showed a picture said a word repeat... we went through pictures and I said all the words they repeated... I showed them the words they found the picture that matched it they said the word repeat... We played the matching game and every card they flipped over they had to say the name of what it was... see the card, say the name, repeat . We then attempted full sentences which went surprisingly well. Tomorrow we have an outing including lunch at an American restaurant so phrases included "Please pass the______" followed by thank you. Also I like to to eat_____ and I don't like to eat____ Followed by What Do you like to it? What Don't you like to eat?..... I have this ball and on suggestion of laura I wait to pull it out until the end because it is a distraction but They had to throw the ball and ask What do you like to eat? or what don't you like to eat? and then if they got the ball they had to respond to question with I like to eat or I don't like to eat etc. ( it worked until one of them decided the game was better when she just threw it to herself.... so she threw it in the air to herself a few times and every time ask what to you like to eat I like to eat.... and that ended the game) All in all though a much more successful day than day one. Heading out to do some grocery shopping and wandering... Happy Tuesday!

Cheers,
Tina