Teaching Observations

Over the past few days, Dr. Perrotta, Dr. Shultz, and Dr. Wright have had the opportunity to visit with students at their assigned schools and observe their teaching. Overall, we have been greatly impressed. The lessons the students worked on in Hua Hin have worked well, though many found they had to make major adjustments once they met their students and determined their English proficiency levels. Most have found the levels to be much lower than they thought. Nonetheless, they have been able create lessons which have students actively involved. For example, Angie had a great activity where students role played shopping at a store. Priscilla's students were racing to the board to draw parts of her face on the board. Patricia's students were in the shifting lines formation as they shared with each other the animals on their picture cards. Shereen had her students singing and acting out the song "This is the way we Wash our Face," and Robin had her students singing and acting out "If you're Happy and You Know it, Clap your Hands." Ryan's students, after learning about his family, walked around the room and asked each other about their families. Meghan's students learned the colors and played games using their color vocabulary. At Renee's school, we found her the center of attention at a school-wide assembly, where she was telling the students all about Texas. Later, she joined Dr. Wright and Dr. Perrotta on stage to sing the American National Anthem and a couple of Karaoke songs in English (a rousing rendition of "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing."). We're looking forward to observing the other students and seeing more great lessons.