July 26, 2015

We finally finished our time teaching at SLP last week. Our last day was Tuesday, July 21, and we were on a plane the next day bound for the US. So our last few days went by pretty quickly. It was a little bittersweet because I really enjoyed most of my students, and I wish we could keep in touch easier. It’s strange to be apart of their daily routine and then suddenly vanish.

Our schedule changed in March and I was no longer teaching a kindergarten class – only elementary and middle school. I was teaching a lot more classes, and the new schedule was wearing me out. So I am happy to finally get a break. Even though the school was disorganized and there were many days when I was frustrated with how it was run, the kids in my classes made the year worth it.

In March I started teaching kindergarten art class instead of science. It was a nice change, and generally we made pretty cool projects.

Orange Class – kitty masks

Apple Class – fans

Spiders!

With my new schedule I started teaching at 3. My first class was very high energy! I had taught a few of the kids in an afternoon kindergarten class previously so I already knew most of them. They were a lot of fun but I was really glad it was only a 30 minute class.

My next class became very small in March. From a class of 12 I retained only 5 students! (The other students were moved into a new class.) I taught all 5 of the students in this class my entire time at SLP, and I saw them everyday so it will be a little strange not seeing them again.

One of the classes I’ll miss the most is the one with my kindergarten kids. After they graduated and started going to elementary school in March, I still got to be their teacher when they came to SLP. I also inherited two students from another kindergarten class.  I have seen my Cherry kids everyday since I started teaching at SLP so I will definitely miss them.

Another class I taught the entire year began as a nightmare. It had lots of boys and only a few girls. But as the year went on it got better and better. I grew to really enjoy this class.

Another favorite class of mine was a group of 4th graders. We became a pretty close class (it was mostly girls) and I still chat with them on Kakao, a Korean messaging app.

Another class which I taught the entire year was a debate class. At its height there were 6 students. At the end, there were only 3! For the last few months we took a break from debate and just had discussions. It quickly became a class I looked forward to because the girls really started to exercise their English conversational skills. They were really eager to discuss all types of things from what school is like in America to Greece’s current financial woes. I also keep up with them on Kakao and email, plus I owe them a package of goodies from the US.

All in all, this year was educational for me. I learned a little bit about what it’s like to be a teacher. I definitely hope I made a small impact in my students’ lives, even if it didn’t have to do with the English language. And maybe somewhere down the road I’ll get to see a few of them again.