Preparations and Past Participles – Teaching Begins | Adventures in life, travel and teaching

I began correspondence with the Foundation of Goodness about volunteer teaching opportunities back in October 2014. After completing an application with my credentials and motivations for volunteering I was accepted and we agreed on a 6 week placement starting on May 5^th the following year.

As my travels in Cambodia drew to a close I began to get increasingly nervous and excited about the next stage in my adventure. It had, however, been over six months since I had last taught and I was a little concerned that I might be a little rusty!

I spent my first week in Sri Lanka hunting down English text books and learner dictionaries in various bookshops across Colombo. I spent a very happy week in Kandy revising my grammar, classroom management skills and phonology in an effort to get my head back into teaching. I think I was probably the only backpacker in Sri Lanka lugging around 10 kilos worth of grammar books, dictionaries and student text books in my backpack. Another failure in packing light!

How not to pack light! A pack full of books and whiteboard pens!

Initially I had very little information about the resources available at the foundation and had no idea what to expect. I was used to teaching at St Giles International in London where I had a significant amount of teaching resources at my disposal together with the latest in interactive whiteboard technology. I knew things were obviously going to be different and I’d just have to be resourceful and flexible. The foundation however put me in contact with a prior volunteer teacher from 2012 who was incredibly helpful in providing me with the relevant background information and answering all my questions.

My placement started on the 5^th May and I spent the first two weeks observing lessons, talking to teachers, heads of the empowerment sectors and the management team. I wanted to ensure that my time was spent working in the areas that needed it most. The foundation has three local English teachers who teach the empowerment classes and we agreed that I should spend my time creating syllabi and lessons for students and staff that currently weren’t part of the existing English programme. My focus would be on teaching the staff at the foundation as well as the students in the Diving and Training centre.

Teaching conditions were good. I had a whiteboard in each of the classrooms I was teaching in together with a projector in the main classroom. Wifi was also available at the MCC and in the main classroom so connectivity wasn’t a concern unless there was a power cut. There weren’t any teacher or student text books so my purchases in Colombo were helpful, although most of my class materials and lesson ideas were either generated independently or from inspiration from some online teaching resources.

The volunteer office where I spent many an evening working on my lesson plans and class materials.

EFL teaching methods of student elicitation, peer correction, phonology drilling and free practice sessions were new to the students. However after the first lesson with each class the students became more comfortable with these techniques. Over the time of my placement I was delighted to see the students grow in confidence and ability.

The highlight of my time teaching was the surprise leaving party that my dive students gave me on my last day teaching. I had come prepared with a lesson (and cake) but was ushered onto the beach where the students were all waiting for me. Our lesson was spent singing, playing the drums, eating and chatting. Many of the students gave me lovely presents including fruits, spices and a beautiful painting. At the end of the party we had the obligatory class photos and selfies! I was immensely touched by their generosity and kind words and can’t thank them enough for being such a wonderful group of students.