My typical day

I have been waking up ridiculously early because of jet lag, but around 6am I eat my breakfast and start to get ready for the day. I attend the morning meeting at 7am, where the students pray in unison, sing the national anthem, and listen to a homily from one of the teachers. Then the students head to class and I go with the teachers to the lounge. We take our leisurely time getting there, chatting, and usually they share some food, then 5 minutes or more after the first bell rings, we head to classes. Depending on how many teachers are absent that day, I will either observe a class or teach one for each of the 8 periods. If I teach, I take one of the following approaches 1) I ask the students what subject they should be receiving, then ask them what chapter they are in, then do my best to lead the lesson. Everything is very traditional here, so it is not too complicated. Basically you read a sentence, the students repeat it, then you ask a simple question about it. And repeat. And repeat. Then have them write something in their books. Alternately, 2) I might engage them in a song or tongue-twister to improve their English pronunciation, or sometimes 3) I focus on mental math, either by handing out playing cards and having them play a kind of war game in pairs where the first student to calculate the answer keeps the two cards in play or by playing a class-wide game called Buzz Bang. Another option (usually the most requested) 4) I show them photos from my life in the U.S. and answer their questions, highlighting new vocabulary words and then reviewing them afterward.

After classes are done for the day, I come back to my room to eat lunch and take a short nap. Then in the evenings I seek out students in their classes for more review, to play chess, or to read a book together in the library. Sometimes students come find me and ask me to come to their class. Grades three and four are particularly vocal about asking me to come, but I always make it a point to go by the kindergarten class to visit the students who are the most behind because due to class size and teacher inexperience they get so little attention. I also spend some time visiting with Poonam, and she usually has a million questions about life in the U.s. Then at some point I get her to leave and I am able to type up my notes from the day, read my book, and go to bed.

Oh yeah, and at least once a day the power goes out. Thank goodness for my mini Maglite. Usually it’s only some of the power, and then the generator kicks on to start it back up and it sounds like my room might take off. I especially dislike when this happens while I’m sleeping. Also, on good days it rains partway through the day to cool things off, but some days it just stays hot, muggy and hazy.