School

So I typed a full post and then accidentally deleted it, so we will see if i can re-create it.

So this week was my first week of teaching here in Ankara.  I have really enjoyed it so far.  This week was not easy by any means but it was successful.

So I teach two classes.  I am the primary English teacher for the Green class.  The Green class is a pre-K class of 22 5-yr olds.  I teach them 16 blocks a week.  Each block is 40 minutes long.  The first two blocks of the day I work with the Turkish teachers to teach sports and then do stations.  Every day we do two Turkish stations and two English stations.  Then I teach 6 other English lessons a week.

I also work with another English teacher to teach the Purple class.  The Purple class is a K class of 22 6-yr olds.  I teach them 8 blocks a week.  I teach everything from sports to drama to reading to writing to math.  We have an integrated curriculum so the students learn everything in English.

This week has been full of planning and preparing for all of my classes.  So far the most challenging part is filling up a 40 min block with sports, but I know that eventually this will be easy too.  I am really looking forward to tomorrow being Friday, it is my easiest schedule of the week.  I will hopefully be able to get a lot of planning done tomorrow in order to have a more relaxing weekend.

I consider this week successful for a number of reasons but two bigs ones are that in my Pre-K class we sing this hello song everyday and it is a pretty catchy song, well while I am in the classroom sometimes I catch the kids singing it while they are playing with other toys, it brings a smile to my face.  And in my K class my students have started to call me by my name :) I'm so excited they remember me haha.  It's so nice to hear Miss. Mandy again :) Although I must admit sometimes I start to refer to myself as Teacher Mandy as apposed to Miss. Mandy (I guess thats what two years in China does)

Well sorry if this post is a little choppy I'm pretty tired, it's been a long week, and I had to type it twice.  But I did put up a few photos of one of my classes.  Hope you enjoy.  This weekend I'll try to take more pictures of the city.