They inspire you

Our day began at breakfast with a walk down to the garden to watch Dimitri stamp on his grapes in the traditional way to extract the juice to make wine and wine vinegar. The leftover skins are then used to make raki. We were shown his vegetable garden where the wonderful salads we have eaten are grown. Such a variety peppers, auvergne, avocado, tomatoes, and okra, to name but a few.

At school it was a typical Monday, I would guess, and the children were, to quote Mary Sue, "squirrelly." We began the class with only three boys, but as we began to reassess our program for the day, some more children arrived and we ended up with eight. We now had three Manos and two Theodosis. Our first period was spent asking the children what they had done over the weekend. Some still struggle to comprehend the question and answer idea and even when asked to repeat a suggested answer don't seem to understand that they should repeat what we have said.

We then split into groups and using flashcards asked the children to identify the subject in sentence form like “This is a ...” Mary Sue was so pleased when one of the less able children shouted out “This is a...” for several pictures.

After recess we learned the true meaning of flexibility, which is one of the definitions we had decided makes a good volunteer. Our plan had been to talk about the different rooms in a house and what we do in each room, and for the children then to draw a basic floor plan. However, most of the children wanted only to draw their bedrooms, but this then led to the vocabulary of wardrobe, drawer, shelves, desk, and toy box. So whilst the lesson wasn't how we had envisaged, the children led us down a path of equal benefit and each in turn was able to describe to us on a one-on-one basis their own rooms from their drawings. If they didn't know the word for an item of furniture, they were able to tell us its use and we then could write the word on the board so that they could label their drawings.

The remaining two periods were split between whole class song and rhymes and smaller group bingo and reading. We have noticed that the children do tend to sit quietly and listen when being read a story. This is something we hope to expand on in future lessons. With such a range of ages and abilities it is sometimes difficult to keep the attention and focus of all whilst still making it fun, but it does give me a sense of satisfaction when the children respond well to a lesson and talk. Smaller groups seem to draw better, clearer responses.

In the afternoon we relaxed and planned some lessons for the following days. After yet another delicious dinner, Mary Sue showed us some of her impressive photos she had taken of Rethymnon and some of its citizens. We headed to bed early to read up on Knossos before our planned visit tomorrow.

Message for the Day: “They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you didn't know it.” –Nicholas Sparks

The "they", I think, could mean teachers or students.

Entry submitted by: Lesley