Making a Difference

Teaching this week has been the best. It took me a while to feel comfortable at school since it is so much different from a school at home. I am now a pro at walking in in the morning and finding out then what I need to prepare for the day. Surprisingly enough, it works for me!

Let me tell you why this week has been so great.

First, I spent almost the whole day Monday designing a bulletin board and putting it together. The best part?!? It was a Christmas bulletin board! My mentor teacher asked me to do the foreign languages bulletin board and design it for Christmas. I had a really good time doing it, and every time I thought I was done, I had to add just one more thing. As I was putting it together, one of my first graders came up to me, pointed at the bulletin board and said, "Teacher, çok güzel," which means 'very beautiful.' It's the little moments like that that make the hard work worth it :)

I feel like I am really teaching my students. They are retaining things I taught them in the beginning. They use English with me almost all the time. I actually pretend not to understand any of their Turkish (and sometimes I actually have no idea what they are saying) so that they feel forced to speak English with me. Which makes them learn. Tuesday and Wednesday I taught some first grade lessons. I taught one class on Tuesday and another on Wednesday. I like doing this because I can make changes to my plans and make a really great lesson even better the following day. I also usually teach alone because the kids will speak with my mentor teacher in Turkish when she is there, which distracts them and doesn't challenge them as much to use English.

Anyways, my first grade lessons went extremely well. I was so pleased with the students--I have never had a class of Turkish students behave so well. They were also sooo engaged in my teaching. Usually, there is at least one student who says "teneffüs" like ten minutes into the lesson, which means "break time." But the past couple days in my first grade lessons, none of the students tried to pull this one on me. I actually had to tell the one group of students, "Listen carefully...in English 'break' in Turkish..." and prompted them for a response. None of them knew what I was going for--they weren't even aware that it was time for a break, which is really unusual. So after a minute or so, I told them that, "'Break' in English is 'teneffüs' in Turkish," and they all ran out of the classroom as fast as they could. Go figure. But it was nice that they didn't notice it was break time.

I was in the middle of printing some things out for a lesson later in the day, and it was time for one of my second grade lessons to begin. My mentor teacher headed to the lesson to get started while I waited for the printer to finish. I walked in about three minutes late, and as my mentor teacher said that they were asking about me, the students started clapping and some of them stood up. I got a standing ovation from my second grade students! I don't know many teachers that have that happen--so right now I'm feeling pretty special.

I also got to go shopping last night with some of my Turkish friends and my roommate. It was suchhh a nice mall. I know that's where I would be able to find my mom in Istanbul. It was fun walking around the mall and comparing their stores and ours. In the basement of the mall (weird, i know) they have a grocery store. That was probably the biggest difference. The whole mall was decorated for Christmas, which was exciting! And before we left we had amazing dessert and Turkish coffee...soooo gooood!! I will really miss the richness of the food here.

I am definitely sad to leave. I have had a wonderful experience. I can't believe I only have a few days left!