Teaching Begins
This past Saturday ushered in the beginning of our Saturday English classes. The previous Saturday, we called in as many students as could come, and had an informal orientation to see who was interested in studying with us. We had a really good turnout. We are offering 3 lessons each Saturday on 3 different ability levels. We meet with our level 1 students at 10 am, level 2 students at 1 pm, and level 3 students at 3:30 pm, with each lesson lasting 2 hours. At the orientation, some students were so eager to learn with us that they signed up for all three lesson times.
Over the last 2 or 3 weeks, Dalissa and I have been planning the lessons for this “semester”. This is the first time we are trying a semester approach with our lessons, as we see quite a few benefits in keeping all the students in some sort of organized curriculum.
Dalissa, with her experience in teaching young children how to read and write, is working on the materials for our level 1 students. They need the most practice in basic English and every day conversations. The focus of their study is to improve beyond and correct the limited English they learned in their school system.
Level 2 students are studying out of a book we’ve prepared, called “Learning from the Past: An Overview of the Bible”. It is the same material we taught in our individualized classes last year, but with the addition of group study elements. The material starts in Genesis, at the creation, and moves through a lot of the major events of the Old Testament, continuing on to stories about Christ from the Gospels. This study introduces our learners to God’s nature, and His will for His people.
The final class on Saturday, our more advanced students, are learning from a new book entitled “Wise Words of Jesus Christ”. We’ve combined many of the parables of Christ along with some passages from the Sermon on the Mount to give the students a way to learn from the best Teacher who ever lived. I’m very excited to present these lessons to our students, because it is an excellent way to introduce them to aspects of true Christianity.
Along with our Thai students, many of the Thai Christians have joined the classes as well. This is a huge blessing for us for many reasons. With Thai Christians in our English classes, they can help with discussion, convey ideas to the group that may be better understood by our students, befriend our students, and, in general, be an influential Christian example to them.
And now, the numbers: the level 1 class had 15 students, the level 2 class had 17 students, and the level 3 class had 13 students.
There were a couple of highlights in the lessons that I’d like to share. In our level 2 class, we talked about creation. Before jumping into the text, as a game, we gave all the students some molding clay and told them to make their favorite animal. They then had to go around and guess the name of each other’s animal. I wish I had some pictures, but our camera is broken. One of the Christians snapped some pictures, and as soon as I get them, I’ll upload them to an album on this site. Another highlight was from our level 3 class. We were studying the parables of the Hidden Treasure and Pearl of Great Price. At the beginning of the lesson, we sent the students on a treasure hunt outside, around the church’s property. They worked in teams, and had clues written in limerick form. They had a hard time figuring out the limericks at first, but by the 2nd and 3rd clue, they were getting them on their own. The prize was a little treasure chest full of chocolates we found at a grocery store. Here are some of the limericks we came up with (I think they’re pretty good - see if you can guess them).
With 4 legs I stand up, quite able.
With three legs I’m very unstable,
Sit at me to dine,
I’m not hard to find,
I’m the next to the very last ____________________ .
To find me you’ll enter a room,
Whose floor you can sweep with a broom.
Inside is a shower,
But don’t take an hour,
Your next clue is in the girl’s ____________________ .
In a shady corner, you will find me.
I sway when the wind gets gusty,
I grow up from the ground,
And my trunk is quite round,
Your next clue is on the branch of a ______________ .
You only have less than an hour,
To find the thing bees like to devour,
These have a sweet smell,
Now say your farewell,
For your next clue is next to a _______________ .
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Hey! It sounds like you are having a lot of fun. I enjoyed the limericks as well as what you do in your classes with the hands-on activities.
What fun!