05/07/09
This week all the students started serious preparation for the upcoming exams. Although it’s great that they all have such a good work ethic we unfortunately found ourselves with no older students to teach because they were too busy for extra classes. This means we have temporarily stopped work at the boys’ hostel all together but we have some work to do at the girls’ hostel. For the next few weeks we are going to be teaching the class 6 students who are typically around 12 or 13 years old. We have had to change the structure of our classes a little because some activities are a little too demanding for our new students. For example having hour-long debates is out of the question. Instead we have been focusing on dramas and games that encourage the students to practice their spoken English.
Joss also had three of her wisdom teeth taken out by Jason and Yeung Chen this week and is just about getting over the discomfort. For someone who has a fear of needles Joss did really well with the anaesthetic injections and the extractions. I think she found it easier having a friend remove her teeth because she was really calm throughout. I even got to play a vital role (haha) in the whole thing because the electricity went out just after the injections so I had to operate a very complex piece of equipment to keep the suction going - a foot pump.
After Joss had her teeth out she felt pretty woozy so she went home and I had to take one class of about 35 grade 6 students. The class went quite well although the younger students aren’t so shy around me anymore so they don’t mind getting quite hyper when they are doing fun activities. Sods law would have it that on the day I was teaching on my own the use of the study hall would be disputed. When the girls had just settled down and started performing their dramas about 20 older students burst into the room, didn’t realize I was there and promptly ordered the younger students out. This sparked a spirited argument that lasted about 5 minutes and eventually the older students realized the younger students weren’t just playing around and agreed to share the hall for the last 15 minutes of our class. Unfortunately after all the excitement it took a while to get back down to work! All in all it was a tiring class!
This week was also the famous Hemis festival which meant that, aside from my tiring class and sports on Saturday and a time slot that the boys were busy studying in on Tuesday, there was no school for most of this week. Mr. Tundup told us ahead of time that the reason for going to the Hemis festival, the masked dancing, is made somewhat redundant by the fact that it is always so unbelievably crowded that you probably won’t even catch a glimpse of the dance itself. Bearing this in mind we accompanied Jason, Yeung Chen, Yang Dol and Smanla (Yueng Chen’s nephew) to a masked dance in Choglamsar which was basically the same dance as in Hemis but with a much lower attendance. We really enjoyed the masked dancing and traditional music that went with it although we didn’t stay to watch the whole performance because it was such an incredibly hot day.
We were sad to say goodbye to Jason this week as he flew back to Alaska a few days after the masked dancing. We have really enjoyed his company over the last few weeks and it’s a shame he had to go so soon.
Tom Kemeny
This week all the students started serious preparation for the upcoming exams. Although it’s great that they all have such a good work ethic we unfortunately found ourselves with no older students to teach because they were too busy for extra classes. This means we have temporarily stopped work at the boys’ hostel all together but we have some work to do at the girls’ hostel. For the next few weeks we are going to be teaching the class 6 students who are typically around 12 or 13 years old. We have had to change the structure of our classes a little because some activities are a little too demanding for our new students. For example having hour-long debates is out of the question. Instead we have been focusing on dramas and games that encourage the students to practice their spoken English.
Joss also had three of her wisdom teeth taken out by Jason and Yeung Chen this week and is just about getting over the discomfort. For someone who has a fear of needles Joss did really well with the anaesthetic injections and the extractions. I think she found it easier having a friend remove her teeth because she was really calm throughout. I even got to play a vital role (haha) in the whole thing because the electricity went out just after the injections so I had to operate a very complex piece of equipment to keep the suction going - a foot pump.
After Joss had her teeth out she felt pretty woozy so she went home and I had to take one class of about 35 grade 6 students. The class went quite well although the younger students aren’t so shy around me anymore so they don’t mind getting quite hyper when they are doing fun activities. Sods law would have it that on the day I was teaching on my own the use of the study hall would be disputed. When the girls had just settled down and started performing their dramas about 20 older students burst into the room, didn’t realize I was there and promptly ordered the younger students out. This sparked a spirited argument that lasted about 5 minutes and eventually the older students realized the younger students weren’t just playing around and agreed to share the hall for the last 15 minutes of our class. Unfortunately after all the excitement it took a while to get back down to work! All in all it was a tiring class!
This week was also the famous Hemis festival which meant that, aside from my tiring class and sports on Saturday and a time slot that the boys were busy studying in on Tuesday, there was no school for most of this week. Mr. Tundup told us ahead of time that the reason for going to the Hemis festival, the masked dancing, is made somewhat redundant by the fact that it is always so unbelievably crowded that you probably won’t even catch a glimpse of the dance itself. Bearing this in mind we accompanied Jason, Yeung Chen, Yang Dol and Smanla (Yueng Chen’s nephew) to a masked dance in Choglamsar which was basically the same dance as in Hemis but with a much lower attendance. We really enjoyed the masked dancing and traditional music that went with it although we didn’t stay to watch the whole performance because it was such an incredibly hot day.
We were sad to say goodbye to Jason this week as he flew back to Alaska a few days after the masked dancing. We have really enjoyed his company over the last few weeks and it’s a shame he had to go so soon.
Tom Kemeny
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