English Speech Competition

I guess when having an English speech competition it would make sense that the only native English speaker there would be the judge…aka me.   At first I was nervous that I was just going to pick my favorites no matter how good or bad their speech was…but don’t worry, that didn’t happen.  The speeches were amazing and their English is so unbelievably good, especially the older kids.  

Judges Table

Prashna -Class 3 on the topic of "My Mother"

  

  The topics of the speeches ranged from "Why is Science important?" to "The importance of the English language" to "My family" and "My mother."  The little kids got quite nervous and some of the them could only spit out a few words,  but it was an awesome competition followed by some Nepali dances and the guys doing some break dancing. They requested me to do a song, but I kindly refused since I'm not on tour right now.  :)

Awshika class 3

Class 3 girls a little nervous for a singing performance :)

I've tried to add a few videos since it helps to get a better picture of some of the kids.  Hope these work....and enjoy!  The Kids are SUPER cute and the videos are only about 40 seconds.  :)

Class 3 girls Dance:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7HSHYEVr0Q&feature=youtu.be

Class 10 guys break-dancing:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N8meha6Y8U&feature=youtu.be

Little tikes gettin' low
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Je1Bfh1Yxg&feature=youtu.be

Another event we recently had was a science fair.  Even the little kindergarteners participated...which was probably the cutest thing of my life.  They had a few different types of leaves on some paper and told everyone what types of the leaves they were.  Awesome.  Their favorite were the mango leaves. :)

Don't mess with them...they mean business

The first graders showed us a plant and a plastic bottle of coke explaining that the little plant can eat, drink and breath and the coke bottle cannot.  Hence a living vs. non-living thing. 

 

Class 1 - Living vs. Non-living thing

The older kids did their project on things like the periodic table, atomic elements, amoebas and a few other things that I definitely do NOT remember from high school. Yikes.  But go them...

They had real slugs. So gross.

Wish I remembered this stuff

Why We Love Life

Being the nice teacher that I am, I decided to give the little kiddos a project.  And to my pleasant surprise, they actually all began cheering when I announced there would be project work.  I guess I should have given them one earlier?

The project was called "Why do you Love Life?"  I've never seen kids so happy to have a project to work on...but maybe they were all so excited because I was taking their pictures..?

Their reasons for loving life ranged from "I love my life because I love lunch meat" (my favorite) to "I love my life because I ride my bicycle very fast and nicely also."  :)   After we finally got their papers and pictures on the wall, they all had to read their "reasons" in front of their classmates.  :)  And yet, even with a little public speaking thrown in there, they were still ecstatic.  :)

Class 6 :)

Sulav is apparently bragging about how great he is on his bike.  :)

"I love life because I'm a good man.  I love life because I love lunch meat. " And this is why he is my favorite.  :)

Ranjan class 2 :)

Class 3 :)

Jishank reading his paper :)

Kushum  - Class 5

Sudikshya reading Why She loves life :)

Class 5 :)

Class 3 has already started asking for another project.  :)

The lil tikes of Nepal

ATTEMPTING (key word here) to teach English has definitely been keeping me on my toes these last 6 weeks.  After never having taught before and getting thrown into working with over 55 kids, I'm pretty sure everyday for the first two weeks I was so exhausted I felt like I had ran a marathon.  Or maybe that's because my commute is quite the adventure in itself as well. Or maybe it's the 90 degree weather and no AC ANYWHERE.  I"m not quite sure.  But either way, I now feel a little more in teacher shape.  :)

My commute is about an hour each way... which includes nice long walks dodging bulls, falling bricks, hopping over cable lines, and trying not to get hit by a motorbike.  And of course a nice, crowded,sardine like bus with no air-conditioning.

My walk home

This is one of the nicer piles of bricks.

I really hope no one needs to use the internet

To sum up the Education System in Nepal, here is yet another quote from my 96 year old roommate...
"The Nepal education system is like a blind man, wearing a black hat, groping around in the darkness."   Which basically sums it up.












The kids here are soooooo eager to learn, it's unbelievable.  Before I even ask a question, all their hands are raised shouting for me to call on them.  I then call on one and they say "Teacher you didn't ask a question."  And then I say "Well you had your hand raised." They all shyly smile, sit down, and we continue on.  :)

Rishav- one of my favorite second graders :)

Jishank- my favorite 3rd grader...and yes i have favorites :)

The other day, one one of the 4th graders didn't think I was watching so he threw garbage out the window.  I then gave the class a 3 minute lecture on littering.  Most of them knew it was wrong, but then they asked me if there was garbage on the streets in Milwaukee.  When I told them no, they all looked around at each other in complete shock and couldn't believe it.  I think a garbage clean up project is soon in order....lucky them.  :)

Class 4

My class 3 kids saw a rainbow reflected on the ground in their classroom because of the reflection of a ruler.  I have never seen kids sooooo excited for a little reflection like this.  It was like they seriously just won a million dollars. They finally decided that it was really good luck to see a rainbow (after one of the girls announced that it was) and there were LITERALLY fist pumps flying through the air from excitement.

Part of Class 3 on the day of the rainbow :)

Both Nepal and India are known for the all too famous head bobble And what is that you might ask?  WELL.  Basically, if you ask someone a question and if the answer is yes, they shake their head no.  And it's not just a little shake, their head LITERALLY goes back and forth a few times in the direction we would consider no.  So OF COURSE this left me a little confused in certain situations.  For example, when I ask the kids if they understand.  They all shake their heads no, but say "Yes, teacher." But sometimes they just shake their heads...which takes me a few seconds to realize that really means yes. :)

4th grade boys

AFter 6 weeks, I've finally learned that to keep the second graders under control, stickers work great.  I've also learned that they don't always have to go to the bathroom when they say it's urgent...let's just hope nobody has an accident in my room.  :)

Class 2  :)