Week 4

Yesterday's class was about restaurants and grammar. The students seemed to enjoy the first part of the class that was about the restaurants and how to order from them. We had them read a story " Fast Cash" that took place in  a fast food restaurant, and then we discussed the story with them and completed some activities.

We also had some students come up and act out a scene where one student would be the worker and one is the customer. They were a bit shy at the beginning, but they eventually got excited after a few of them had acted.  

After this, we introduces the students to the concept of simple present, and how to use it in sentences. They were very eager to learn, and started to take down notes on everything we were telling them. They understood the concept quite easily, and they were able to complete the activities quickly without a lot of help from myself or the other teachers.

As you can see in this picture, the students have become more comfortable with each other and have made new friends. Siju (on the right) is one of our more advanced students, he likes to help his friends with the activities  since he finishes them quite quickly.

The students were very cooperative when it came to completing the survey,

and they enjoyed the class very much. 

Sara, Amna, ans Sakib.

Week 2 - Our first class at CMU

Our second class was on Wednesday, February 22nd, and it marked the beginning of our Language Bridges classes held at CMU. Although I was disappointed that we would not be able to go to UDC's camp near The Pearl, it was exciting to know that our learners would have access to a proper classroom environment. They would be able to sit in bigger classrooms and learn more effectively with the aid of equipment such as projectors, computers, and especially the Internet.

Half an hour before our class was due to begin, we set up in room 1190 and went out to the parking lot, ready to meet our learners. When the buses arrived, our learners jumped out, excited to see us and be in a new environment. As we talked to them and lead them to our room, it was easy to see they were in awe of CMU's beautiful building. Abaan and I took them for a tour of the building and showed them where we study, where we eat and hang out, where we have classes and lectures etc. Our learners asked us a lot of interesting questions such as how expensive it is to be a Carnegie Mellon student! Some of them even asked if they could bring their cameras along next week to take photos - we encouraged them to do so.

Once in class, we began with the Intermediate course materials. Our aim was mostly to encourage the learners to communicate with each other in English and be comfortable with using it as one of their main languages. As a result, Abaan and I got them to take turns reading out loud and even asked for volunteers to lead one of the comprehension exercises. Below is a video of 2 of our learners, Bikesh and Madan, role playing as "Mark and Mohammed" (you can also see me laughing after one of my questions gets IGNORED by everyone).

Before we knew it 2 hours were up and it was time to take everyone back to their buses in the parking lot. Even though the previous week had been a difficult one with the cancellation of classes and a change of location, week 2 turned out to be a success. Personally, I feel bringing the learners here to CMU is a better option than us going to the labor camps. Although it was a learning experience for us to be in their environment, I believe we offer them more by allowing them to leave their usual surroundings and experience something new!

~ Reham

Switching to CMU building

So far our classes are coming along really well. Aside from the week that was skipped, our classes are going smoothly and the learners are having a great time coming to the CMU building. Though we aren't able to go to the Pearl and teach, I believe that having the learners come to CMU is better for them since they are able to experience being taught in a phenomenal building. The first time that the learners came to our building, they really enjoyed it because we gave them a tour of our building. I'm very happy that none of our students have dropped out of the class. I look forward to teaching the learners further and being able to see the difference in their English level from the beginning of the program to the end. 

Week 3

Our third week of teaching was yet another learning experience both for us and our learners. To avoid this blog entry being mundane and repetitive of our previous blogs, I'll attempt to skim through our routine activities, and then move on to the more exciting aspects of week 3.

We started our day similarly to the previous weeks by going over the material one more time, before our students came in. Went picked them up from the entrance. Had a pit-stop by the restrooms. Took them to class. And then took attendance.

 Next we went over a the first half of the material, which we noticed they were grasping pretty well, however it seemed that they were starting to lose interest. So we figured we'd review what we did in our first class by presenting them with a scene from the British sitcom mind your language, just to give them an idea of the relevance of what they have learned so far, in terms of learning how to introduce themselves.

After the break we had another activity lined up for our learners, where we introduced them to the concept of a family tree, also teaching them the vocabulary associated with the topic. And eventually we asked each one of them to draw their own family tree.

Whilst working on their family trees, one of the students, J.P, came up to use and asked us if he could limit his family tree to only his brothers and sisters because he had 17 siblings! And for him to draw an extension from each one of them would take up the entire space allocated for the activity, then he told us about his family and how he had many elder siblings who were already married and had families of their own :).

All in all our class this Saturday was amazing. However sadly we learned that one of our students was dropping out, due to the fact that he was the foreman at the camp our students came from, and he had stay back and look over things.

How is your experince so far?

Teachers! Thank you all for your effort in making Learning Bridges Program successful. So far, all of you are doing a great job. Even though I didn't attend any of the classes yet but I can tell from the pictures and the videos that all the learners and the teachers are enjoying their time. I hope everyone is having a great experience.

Here are some pictures for the learners and the teachers during their teaching session at CMUQ, you can show it to your learners and don't forget to upload more pictures here and on the facebook page as well.

























If you think you want to share something, you can comment here or make a new post to share your experience.

I hope all of you had a great Spring Break. Good luck in your studies!

Training session pictures are here!! :D

Our great teachers are doing a great job in the Language Bridges Program. Here are some pictures from their training session!

Thank you guys for your wonderful effort and keep up the good work :)