Third and Fourth days of training

On Tuesday, we went through most of the kindergarten syllabus. It was a large volume of work to remember, but there were clearly defined steps and teacher's guides. Some of it was really difficult as I  had taken some "non drowsy" flu medication. Some of the time I was nauseated some of the time I was dizzy making it pretty hard to concentrate on the work. I found myself drifting off at times, while being taught by experienced preschool teachers who's job it is to maintain attention!

At the end of the day we were asked to prepare a preschool lesson, there was a clear teacher's guide for the lesson and we were told that in our teams of 4 we would have to present quarters of the lesson. There were sections on vocab and grammar, the alphabet, phonics and then songs and stories. But we each had to be prepared for the whole lesson as we wouldn't know who would do which section.

I had expected our group to realise it would be quicker and easier to do it together, but they all wanted to do theirs on their own! Which meant we each had to prepare the whole lesson. Renalda's group seemed to think exactly the same thing. In the end Renalda and I did our lesson together in our hotel room. We got to bed around 1am when we both felt we had enough...and we're about to crash.

We woke up at 5 with me feeling terrible and still somewhat nauseated. I had very little for breakfast and we got some fresh air walking to work. We got there early to get some practice in our assigned classrooms. Which at least allowed me to calm my nerves and think about how I would present my lessons. One thing I realised was that I should sit on a kiddies chair for definite!

We were then assigned our evaluator, our guy was a South African from the free state who had been working in Taiwan for the past 12 years! Big Afrikaans guy with a bit of a boep. He stated flat out that he absolutely loved teaching kindergarten!! What a contrast!

I got to go last and cringe through some of my classmates' nervous mistakes. You have to behave like a 'class' but I found myself trying to give them tips. I'm not sure if that put them off or helped them. I got the section presenting a song and a story book.

The most helpful thing I found myself doing was jumping up and down with the class shaking hands and feet to up the energy in the class and to get rid of some of my own nervous energy. So of course we did that at the beginning of my song. I thought the song went well and I got a good reaction out of the 'class'. 

I thought the story also went well, I sat down in front of the class and tried to craft a bit of a different environment by switching off the lights. I could also have gotten the class to sit on the floor, but I forgot. I got a pretty good review I thought. We had interesting feedback from our evaluator.

We then went back to the lecture theatre to finish the kindergarten syllabus and move on. The highlight of the day was when they brought a class of 4 year olds to sing to us and introduce themselves to us. They were so cute and innocent and keen. We were allowed to go talk to (swamp) the kids and give them some candy. I had to wait my turn, but got a little high five and fist touch in at the end. Sooo cute!

The rest of the day was mostly unremarkable, just more of the same and a Chinese lesson. After which we went to get some supper and headed to the hotel for an early night and some well deserved rest. And to hopefully feel a bit better tomorrow.

I'm reserving some of the photos of our more recent meals for a compilation.