Teaching again

It's wonderful to be in the classroom again. I wonderment extremely diverse group of students from many different countries: Albania, Kazakhstan, Moldovia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kalingrad, Ukraine, and Belarissia. Our first two days of discussions have been full of culturally divergent thinking. Since some of the students picked up the book and started reading during spring break while others picked it up the first day of class, most are in very different places--four or five finished and the remaining somewhere between 30 -200 in the book. So, I'm practicing some differentiation techniques on this class before I do some training sessions at AHS. We start off each session with discussion based on the loosely knit question-What are you thinking at this point in the story or some have even chose quotations from the story that have got them thinking. Then, we move to vocabulary, letting them choose what they wish to define. Everyone needs to participate in the discussion, everyone needs to provide a written summary with some analysis daily, and finally everyone needs to choose two of the 20 theme responses given to them the first day of class. So far, so good. Reading and responding to the journals every other day keeps me in tine with individual thoughts and feelings as they read. Also, it allows me to individualize the writing focus for these students. As one can imagine, the writing proficiency is all over the board. But I really enjoy the class and each session seems to fly by quickly...I modeled paragraph writing today. We'll see how their answers are tomorrow. All their work is done in a blank notebook I supplied them. when the unit if finished, each student will have his/her own journal.
After classes at LCC on Tuesday, I took food packages to the Needle exchange, a social service organization in Klaipeda that The Vineyard community helps out. I went with Robin, my LCC language director and friend, to meet with Lydmuella, who works at the exchange. We went in the first set of doors and entered a small room with two more doors. We chose the only open door and found another small room but with three doors this time. After knocking on all three, only one door had a person behind it...Lydmuella was there behind a desk with boxes of syringes, needles, ointments and alcohol swatches. She greeted us with hugs after telling her my name (along with Kel and Sharon's names). She was a wealth of information, telling us about the girls who come in for needles who have small children and ask for the food. It's really quite sad, but Lydmuella said she has seen many success in recent weeks--where people who have not used for a while come back just to visit with her and tell her of their successes. But she also said it's a long and hard journey for most of the people. Most she knows only by number until they become frequent visitors.
After that, Robin and I went to have coffee and pancakes before she went back to school and I left for English classes at the orphanage. Every Tuesday night, Ieva and I go to the Rytas orphanage and give language lessons. This is Ieva's idea, and I just show up and help where needed. Last night, for example, we role played interviewing for jobs, along with describing pictures from a book. Ieva does a great job, taking the initiative to plan and direct each lesson...She's a third year psychology major at LCC.
Then off home to grade papers...something I don't really miss about teaching...but necessary and rewarding when I see their growth.

Location:Vingio gatvė,Klaipėda,Lithuania