For the last few weeks, I have been instructing English Immersion Camp (EIC) to 4th and 5th graders. This has been a great experience, and has allowed me to teach some subjects other than English!The whole premise of the EIC camp is exactly as the name describes, to "immerse" the students in the English language. No actual "English" classes are taught, but all of the classes are taught in English. Thus, for the last two weeks I been teaching: music, culture, roleplays and phys ed (and no, I'm not making another joke about how I'm bad at sports because I dominated those 4th graders in dodgeball last week). The goal of the camp is to get the students speaking and learning English while having fun!
Here is a video of a relay race I had the 4th graders do during PE class.
Some of the students are extremely funny, others are really strange, but most are extremely shy, especially about speaking English. Also, not all of the students have the same English ability. Some have advanced conversational skills, while others don't even know how to read. This is a particular challenge to me, because I have to walk a fine line between boring the advanced students, and leaving behind the beginners.
The most interesting part of the camp for me has been observing the behavioral differences between the male and female students, especially when it comes to arts and crafts. For example, the other day I was teaching the kids about Christmas in the US, and one of my activities was to have them design a new sleigh for Santa. They could make the sleigh look however they wanted. Now, all the girls spent alot of time coloring elaborate pink and yellow sleighs with cute flowers and catchphrases such as, "Lovely Christmas." The boys, however, almost always drew Santa either weilding some sort of weapon, or riding in a rocket jet engine sleigh. Usually, it was both. One kid just dismissed the whole idea of a sleigh, and instead drew Santa riding a tank dressed in camoulflage with a machine gun.
