07 July, 2008

Some parting thoughts on Istanbul

My final column for the Turkish Daily News was published last week. I wrote it in the midst of my first day of teaching, which I did not expect to be my first day of teaching, which is probably why I'm sort of ho-hum on the outcome. See for yourself...

I have a new class of six children who are all more or less absolute beginners and of varying ages, but who will be attending the school this fall and need to be brought up to some sort of speed in the next two weeks. We worked on the alphabet today. However, as this is "camp" and not "school" they would prefer an hour of running screaming through the gym to an hour of lesson, but I persevered and I think there was progress. Tomorrow I devised a game that incorporates running screaming through the gym while reviewing their letters and some simple vocabulary. We'll see if they're fooled by my academic cheese on the broccoli trick.

Salaam.

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