Grammar - Small and Smallest

Teaching grammar - part of the core curriculum in Thailand.

This was more of a challenge for me than it was for the students.  Trying to teach grammar, with novice who have limited English skills...... however, the students did get the concept.

Drawing and English Vocabulary

Teaching vocabulary through drawing can be a very effective strategy to engage students.  Many of the novice at Wat Chetupon struggle with the academics, but when it comes to drawing..... they are fantastic!

Once I got the lesson started, Adam, an Autralian volunteer with Friends For Asia, stepped in and took over. Once again, I was in the mentor / coach role! 

Draw 5 mountains..... two rivers.... eight fish...

Ten houses, two cats.....



Eight ducks, five snakes.....



I thought I liked to "ham it up" as the teacher.... check out Adam in this video as he tell a story to go with the drawing!



The novice stepped in to help Adam and I with our drawing of animals....



Novice, like students in America, love to come to the board and teach the lesson.



When the novice took over the drawing of animals on the board, all the other students suddenly become totally engaged in this lesson.

  Here are just a few examples of the student drawings! 



One student decided, on his own, that Santa, his sleigh and the reindeer needed to make an appearance his drawing!  Oh... and check out the Christmas trees too!



How was the meditation retreat?

Following the meditation retreat the monks attended, I asked the monks to come up with adjectives that described the retreat for them.

The monks were to complete the following sentence:

"The meditation retreat was _____________________."

As the monks gave their descriptive words, I wrote them on the board:  good amazing, interesting..... 


All of this was going very well, until.....

One monk commented that the meditation retreat was "entertaining!"  That answer caught me off guard, as well as the other monks!

Peaceful, quiet, calm.... maybe even exciting.  But.... a meditation retreat being..... entertaining?

Needless to say, that response got more than a few laughs!