We are experiencing fall weather for the first time in many many years. It was actually cold enough to see our breath when we walked the whole 3 minutes to our pick up point for our jobs. I’m not complaining,(this is Carol) just saying it’s really really different from Tucson. We are fortunate to live in an apartment that seems to hold the heat during the day because there is some kind of Turkish rule that says you can’t turn on the type of heat we have until October 15th!! We were prepared to experience this so we’re doing fine. Our heat is steam heat from a coal furnace. We have heaters in every room so we’ll let you know how it works. Showers are a little tricky. It’s working better for me to do an evening shower and jump into a warm bed, Jerry is still braving the morning.
We went on a peanut butter hunt today. We found a jar when we first came and stayed at the hotel but just ran out and our local “Migros” and several others around us didn’t have any. Turkey and other countries we have visited have another type of spread but it’s not like real peanut butter. Anyway, we found it at the store near the hotel where we stayed when we arrived. It’s near the Anadolu University so we decided it must be something college students buy that are here from other countries. I think I mentioned previously that Eskisehir has a very large Erasmus program or foreign student program from all over the world.
Some of you may want to know more about the teaching experience. Well, I have gone from being a CEO of a non profit agency to Potato Pals. My new pals for first and second grades are Dean, Daisy, Chip, Joy, Nina and one other that escapes me at the moment. In the first grade we are “Getting Up in the Morning”” and the second grade is “At the Store”. Each unit has a CD and a book with short sentences and a bunch of flash cards. The trick is to to see if they really learn the English or are just repeating the words in the song that they have heard and sung a “bunch” of times. My co teachers and I keep coming up with ideas on how to play the right games that will help them learn. Kindergarten is Teddy is Ready which is a new book that was just written and we just got this week. We’re not sure how well it will go over yet. I tried some boy and girl games with my kindergarten class that didn’t work. It did work in 2nd grade. You would not believe how competitive they were! I’ll try them with my other 2nd and 1st grade classes next week.
My 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes have really good books with reading, writing, and listening exercises. They have a lot of variety and it’s fun to teach from the books. They go from Starters to Movers to Flyers. I think I already mentioned that the challenge is teaching to the various levels in each class. A few know the words well and get the exercises quickly and a few don’t really understand what I am saying or asking for at all. It would be really good to group them by ability but then that becomes a scheduling nightmare so you just do what you can.
Well, this is long enough for now. Any of you teachers and former teachers out there that have ideas please forward to me at clittle1946@gmail.com. Thanks to Nancy Milburn for several good ideas. Jerry is using her idea to have his students select an English “nickname” and it has gone over very well. Keep those helpful ideas coming we need all the help we can get on this big adventure called “teaching”
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