So today was the first day of my last english camp. Awesome. And as I said before, I decided beforehand to have a good attitude for the week regardless of how ridiculous things end up being.

It was a little funny, because after I decided to be positive, everything negative started flying this way. Ha. But oh well…

First, I decided that I needed to set my expectations to that of a summer camp, rather than that of an english classroom. So I did. And it worked out great for me today. Although I still and probably always will very much hate screaming and any kind of chanting competition, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I kind of enjoyed the dancing around today. It was slightly fun… Just slightly. It was even more fun for me because I saw that my class was enjoying it.

There were the usual types of inconveniences and disorganization, but it didn’t seem as big of a deal since I was expecting it. Also, the girl in charge of this camp, Angel, was also in charge of my first camp. Although there was a lot of things that frustrated me, I will say, that I already see her learning from things that didn’t work so well at our first camp. Specifically some of the ‘concern’s we teachers brought to her attention at the end of camp as far as how we can make things more effective. And that’s REALLY encouraging.

All that being said, I love my class. I was quite nervous at first when I found out I would have the youngest group out of 6 groups. The youngest/lowest level of english is always called the ‘Rabbits’. And the rabbits at the last camp were all ages 5-7, didn’t understand much english, and had pretty bad behavior. And there, we only had 4 groups. So, I was nervous…

BUT. Good news. I love my class. They are actually the same age as my last class (8-10). The only difference is they don’t speak much english. Over half of them couldn’t answer the question “How old are you?” But they are SO sweet.

And I love that age. 8-10. I’m so glad they’re not 5-6 year olds. Because at that age. Not only are they learning a whole other language, but they’re also still learning to sit at a desk and follow directions. So it’s like a double whammy. And I can’t imagine how exhausted I would be. But, my students are really sweet. And we DO have a classroom, and I do actually get to teach lessons each day. Some are bookwork, and some are more situational.

It seems there is a more appropriate balance this time between the amount of time spent on songs and the amount of time spent doing other productive things. For example, before we would spend one hour on a song that only takes 10 minutes, and one hour rushing through a situational lesson on ordering food at a restaurant. Things have been slightly amended to spend 30 minutes on that song, and an hour and a half on the food situational. Totally better. And like I said, it’s really encouraging to see them trying to make things work better.

Also, I love my TA. Her name is Anna and she just finished her first year of undergraduate work. She’s really sweet. Really helpful. And really competant. Which is nice. We seem to be on the same page about most things, so that’s really cool.

I also have an extra TA. He’s actually an american that’s been teaching in Vietnam who got stuck being a TA because there were too many teachers. I’m being positive this week, so I won’t say too much more about that.

And. I got done working today at 8:30pm. Which was glorious since I was told I would be working from 7am until 10pm. So, an hour and a half early. Heck yes, I’ll take it. And, the day went by really fast. The first 2 weeks that I worked, each day we were pulling teeth to fill the hours. But this time, everything seemed to flow much better. And before I knew it, it was over! Awesome!