"They is running....they ARE running" Teaching English in the Czech Republic

As we reach the halfway point of our time in Prague, its hard to believe where the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday we were all arriving, trying to settle into this new lifestyle and meet new people. Now, I personally have found my niche, met some amazing people and had my life changed. Reflecting on all that has happened this week I find myself feeling fortunate, and extremely blessed with the opportunities that presented themselves to me. Tuesday evening, Taylor and I were preparing our lesson plan for Wednesday, after class and were struggling with what level of English we should be expecting. Per a prior discussion in class about Piaget’s equilibrium process, we knew that we wanted to challenge the students without causing them to withdraw from the situation. We designed a “MadLib” called A Day at the Doctor. This way, the children would be exposed to reading English, choosing an appropriate word (or funny word if they preferred as long as it was the correct grammatical choice), and hopefully learn some new English words. Once Wednesday morning rolled around and the overwhelming grogginess went away, we were all very excited to be given the chance to be in a Czech school and see the different cultural aspects of daily life. It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the city, but it was refreshing to see how children who live in rural communities are just like us in America. After touring the school and observing an English class it was interesting to see how the children struggled with sentence structure and proper tenses. The teacher had an authoritative but approachable style that created an environment in which the children respected and befriended the teacher. When it came time for Taylor and I to teach the 6^th grade class, I was nervous that they would already be familiar with all of the words we were going to present. We made a PowerPoint presentation of pictures and words that dealt with health, body parts, and nutrition, as well as some extra words that would make their “MadLibs” funny. They knew basic body parts but referred to both toes and fingers as fingers. Because they are learning British English, I think they maybe have been exposed to the word phalanges, for both fingers and toes. After going over the words with the children, we presented them with the “MadLib” worksheet and walked around offering assistance to any of them that needed it. The class did a great job with understanding the concept after we explained the first few blanks and how to categorize the words based on if it was a person/thing, place, etc. After some of the students (or pupils are they are called) began to finish, we had a few of them read aloud their stories. Both pupils did a great job of reading the English words, and we noticed how they break down each word syllable by syllable. I know that when I am trying to pronounce a word in another language, like Czech, I tend to just try and make the correct letter sound and making it flow rather than pronouncing each syllable perfectly. Overall the children seemed to enjoy the activity and we really enjoyed the experience of being able to see a day in the life of a Czech student. I considered the day to be truly humbling and a bonding experience amongst all of us.