We Made It!

After two hectic weeks, we are finished with our teaching practicum. It is hard to believe that it has already come and gone, but we are relieved. It was one of the most challenging experiences that we have had since we arrived in Mongolia, but it was also a great time of learning and growth. We came to teach English. Now we feel more prepared to do that.

We started our class two weeks ago with twelve Mongolian English language teachers. When we finished on Friday we had thirteen students graduate. It was quite exciting to not only have everyone come the entire time but to also have more finish than started. That is very unusual for many of the programs here.

Our students had a wide range of experience. Several had been or were currently Russian language teachers. Some had been teaching for many years while others had only been teaching for one year. Regardless of what they had done and where they came from, all of them were equally enthusiastic about bettering their English abilities. They were such a joy to teach and work with! We saw everyone improve during the two weeks that we were with them. They taught us so many things about teaching. Having been with them has helped us be more prepared for our real classroom next semester.

During our time together we not only shared a lot about ourselves and our culture, but we were able to learn a lot more about Mongolia and its customs and traditions. During two of the activities in our second week we learned a lot about two Mongolian festivals, Наадам and Цагаан Сар. For those of you who can't read Cyrillic, the festivals are Naadam and Tsagaan Sar. We were very excited to learn more about Mongolian traditions and celebrations. It was even better that we were learning about them from people who celebrate them every year. It is one thing to read about something in a book or magazine and another to hear about it from someone who really cares. We could see in their eyes what each celebration meant to them.

Overall, we had a lot of fun together. The curriculum in our organization is focused on making the students talk a lot in English. In order to do this, the program has many activities and games that get the students up and talking to each other. Many of the activities are so fun that the students forget that they are in a class. Such was the case in the picture above. We actually had to create the activities for the last three days of our class. To emphasize three past verb tenses that we had been teaching, we had each student wear a stylish vest with a verb on it. One student stood in the middle with a paper "bopper." One student in the circle had to yell their verb in the appropriate tense and someone else's verb in the same tense before the "bopper" had a chance to smack them. All of us took part and had a lot of fun. We practiced and reinforced what had been taught without the students even realizing it.

We were able to be an influence on our students and to be a part of their lives for two weeks. Many of them opened up and shared some very deep things with us, and we were able to respond with an open heart and a smile. In turn, we were able to share much of our lives with them. On the final day of class, after the party and certificate presentation, our students refused to leave. They all sat down and told us how much they had enjoyed the class and that they were not ready for it to be over. We have invited them all to our house for a Christmas party later in the month. The class may be over, but, with luck, we can still be a part of their lives.