Hey all,
It's been a busy few weeks so there hasn't been much time to write, but now I have some breathing room, and have gotten out the camera again. We returned around August 1st, and despite giving ourselves plenty of time to get ready for school, seemed to be working flat out from that moment until this weekend. I have a feeling that experienced teachers can relax a bit more, but for me it takes a bit of work still to get ready for the beginning of school, especially when I want to change things. They always say that the beginning days of school are the most important of the year, and there's a lot of truth to this, so as best I can I do try to do it right.
There were a lot of rumors about my class, the upcoming 5th graders, most of them negative. So I wasn't sure what to expect when they walked in the door. But this is Myanmar, where in general, if there is a behavior problem, it's on the level of lack of self-control, rather than because of disrespect or lack of interest in education. So we're working on it. I do have one student who suffers from selective mutism, which means that although she can speak just fine at home, anxiety freezes her up at school and she is not able to communicate verbally with teachers and other students. She will interact on a non-verbal level though, and does write, so we will see what we can work out together to help her progress. In the picture the class is playing one of our math games, factor captor, and they have been quite focused and into it. The second picture is on its side, sorry! It's Thurein, deep in the mysteries of the "Ghost in the Mirror".
Supermarkets in Yangon are always interesting. Items are a bit hit or miss, so whenever we find something we like (like cereal, or canned tomatoes) we buy it, and usually more than one, even if we already have some at home. Since the largest bill in Myanmar money is 1000 kyat, which worth less than a dollar, the cash register is always a bustle of activity. This was a large bill, 57,000 kyat, so Todd was counting away to get the right number of bills, and I was careful not to disturb him. The Burmese people seem quite skilled at shuffling through the money quickly, but we just haven't figured it out yet. You should see the pile of bills we get when we change $100! It makes me feel a bit like a gangster, walking around with these huge wads of cash.
That's all for now. Much love to all!
love, Meghan
3 comments:
cool have you tryed to trick them yet?
Trick my students! Never...well, I did do the classic following directions trick, where they're supposed to read all the instructions, and the last one tells them not to do anything else on the list. If they don't notice that instruction, they have to do lots of embarrassing things. But that was important!
I mean put a picture of you and a picture of me at the same age trick
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