In the Classroom

The Teaching Life

Many ask to describe what it is like to be a teacher overseas, especially when they hear that 75% of my class are learning English for the first time. Normally teaching primary kids requires a special level of ingenuity and patience, perhaps even a little more so when 90% of the time you get the "deer caught in headlights" expression whenever you ask a student a question.

There are many miscommunications that happen like one student complaining that another keeps telling him that he is stupid only to discover the child was actually telling him "stop it!" ... stupid ... stop it I can see the confusion. However it never ceases to amaze me how quickly they learn and make connections.

Cute Things the Kids Say

My days are full of these and if only I could remember them all! I've started to write them down when they happen so as to not forget.

Miss R: God can understand us no matter what language we speak. Whether we speak English, Korean, Dutch or Portuguese God understands.
Student Blurts out: "He even understands Canadianese!"    

While learning about careers and jobs people do, I ask one of our student's, whose mom works at our school: "What is your mom's job?"
Student: "She does the laundry and makes us dinner."

Talking about how we will learn our memory verses in no time I get this response:
Student: "Miss Robinson that is impossible."
  Miss R.:  "Oh I think we will be able to do it."
Student: "No Miss Robinson! It takes time to do anything! We can't do anything without time!"
They got me there!

Indeed teaching the little ones takes a load of patience, and creativity, finding dozens of ways to teach the same thing over and over. Playing pictionary, charades and using google translate and google images to get the ideas across. Yet those moments when you hear them singing Jesus loves me when washing their hands in the bathroom just makes me smile with a sense of success knowing we will get there!

Staycation

Long weekend = Travel

Usually for our fall break I plan a trip somewhere to get away. However, since we have a conference in the Spring I am saving up my travel pennies and decided to hang around Prague this break. Though, there are many places nearby that beacon travel adventures so my flatmate and I hopped over to Germany for some exploring this weekend.

I was rather proud of myself for finding us cheap train fare. I had to keep asking the lady if there was a cheaper route to take and in doing so saved us 500 kc. If you just say you want to go to Rathen they will type it in and the first price that pops up on the screen is what they tell you. Travellers tip:  ask for day passes, include that you have a local transit pass and any other discount cards you may have.


Our travel adventure highlights included seeing some interestingly clad people; getting to hold a stranger's dog on the train while she put on her hiking pack; missing one of our connections and playing charades with a train steward to find out when the next one would come; entering a small town train station welcomed by flashing lights and a DJ playing 80's rock.

It was a gorgeous day with a ferry ride across the river, a stroll in the leaf carpeted woods, serenaded by a German classical vocalist and taking in some breath taking views. Also got to play the point, smile, and nod game in order to buy ice cream. Wishing that I had learned German when I was a child.

 

So our destination was to see Bastei.

The Bastei is a rock formation towering 194 metres above the Elbe River in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains of Germany. They are situated near Rathen, southeast of the city of Dresden and are the major landmark of the Saxon Switzerland National Park which extends over the borders into Bohemia Switzerland in the Czech Republic. 

 

The Bastei has been a tourist attraction for over 200 years. In 1824, a wooden bridge was constructed to link several rocks for the visitors. This bridge was replaced in 1851 by the present Bastei Bridge made of sandstone.

 


It was quite fascinating to see the stone work seemingly sprout right out of the rock.

<--  Our self portrait. The funny thing is I think we were both smiling for this photo :)

 

The rock climbers were everywhere and it was fun to watch them scale these amazing cliffs with such agility and speed.

 It was fun to travel with someone who took as much time to stop and take photos as I did.

Thought this car's take on the evolution theory was funny :)

 

<-- Hummels! You couldn't buy them in the shop but they were advertising to buy them online. Made me think of my mom.

Hard to believe it was the end of October! Around this time last year we were battling snow and now this year I am pulling out short sleeves!


   

What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.

Thanksgiving Round III

The Event of the Year!

Canadian Thanksgiving! This year we had over a dozen people come to celebrate a time of thanksgiving, food, fellowship and fun! It is always an adventure shopping for the traditional thanksgiving fixings in another country. Since buying a whole turkey bird is expensive (and I didn't want to risk ordering one too big for my oven) I decided to go with turkey breasts along with selecting a chicken which I believed to be a nice plump 2kg bird. However, when I got home and lifted the bird out of the plastic there were a set of legs left behind. I was confused for a moment as to why the bird was cut in half at first only to realize she was not cut in half but rather had been packaged with an extra pair of legs! Contemplating our mutant bird I reread the packaging to discover it indicated it came with an extra set of legs. Surprise!

We decorated the house with a little Canadian flare, enjoyed Tim Hortons, pumpkin oreo cheesecakes and Maple cookies and played a wonderful game of Canadian trivia. I was impressed with some of my American friends' proper usage of the term EH and we learned a little Canadian history by watching Part of our Heritage video clips. Fun was had by all and I really enjoyed this time to share some of my Canadian culture.

  

  

     

    

I am so thankful for the amazing group of friends that God has blessed me with here in Prague and that we were able to share this time together.

Happy Thanksgiving!