You will recognize how I use activities to teach.
I am convinced you learn a lot of language when you play, like "your turn" and "that one is mine"
which is not always clear from texts
We build castles and pirate ships, we did a marble race with a conveyor belt (you'd approve Brian)
and play the electricity game--a sleek modern version of the hand-made one we had some years ago.
As you may know, I have been teaching since I was called to teach primary when I was 12 years
old. I wasn't very good then, as I recall. Over the years I have taught a lot of different things, but I have found particular satisfaction teaching English, for immigrants, GED courses and in different businesses.
Now I am teaching for the Colombian military and that's a long story, but this is an interesting class.
The program selects from soldiers who have been wounded in combat in the war here, and when they
are recovered they begin a course to reach a certain level of English using the Defense Language Course (DLI)
and then are sent to the US to get more training then return to continue as language teachers in Colombia.
These guys all have stories and it's impressive how they don't seem to carry anguish with them, they
are upbeat and interesting, they also understand this is an opportunity to change their futures.
I invited this class to the house to practice their English and also to "get the vision."
I tell them English is not just a hobby (0r a mystery for some) it's connecting to the world!
