During the camp we read several books and played tons of games to allow the children feel more comfortable with English. Some games worked while others didn’t. We found out that the kids really liked going outside to experience what we were learning. On the first day all the classes tried to know the kids better.

“After the Name Game was over, we would tackle the book at hand. We would read it with them page by page and make sure they knew each word. If they didn’t, we would translate it into Chinese for them. If they started to get bored, we devised games and experimented a bit to see what they enjoyed more, which turned out to be drawing them out. We brought out chalk into the hallways and wrote out extra material for them to learn and let them draw out objects related to the book. After the book was done, we would do a small activity for them to practice what they had learned.

Sometimes it would be Hangman and we had also done charades and similar games. We sometimes brought in some props that would help illustrate the subject of the book. For example, we once brought in a football for them to throw around while we were doing sports. Even to get them to open up a bit further, we decided to hold a competition. We separated them into teams and they would come up in turns, draw, and let the rest of them team guess what the representative was drawing.

Using the idea of outside classroom learning really helped because the kids were much more interested in learning. For example, my group had the theme of sports and we took the kids out for a game of basketball. The kids enjoyed being in the sunshine and receiving some exercise. We introduced some all types of sports and encouraged them to share their favorites in English. I taught the boys in my class American Football introducing them to the new sport. All of them enjoyed it a lot. Every day during the breaks they beg for me to play with them, this made me smile because I was glad they loved another culture so much. During the first few days the teachers shared their thoughts, things that went well and things that didn’t. It was helpful that we learned from each other although each group of kids was different, but we learned to adjust to them.

“Over the course of 5 days, our group (Alice Chen, Karen Chang, Annabel Chang, and Christine Wang) has learned a lot about educating young kids. We tried to use many games that would incorporate learning common English vocabulary words in order to let the kids have fun and learn at the same time. For example, we played telephone, where we thought of a short phrase that relates to nature--our theme at that time--and asked the kids to pass it on. Although the kids had quite a bit of trouble passing on the message and the final person usually said something that sounded like Japanese, at the end of the game, the kids had a great laugh and we explained the phrase by drawing on the board. Another game we played was charades: one volunteer would come up to a stage and act out an animal while the rest of the class guessed which animal was being acted out. At first, they were a bit squeamish and reluctant to come up to the stage, but after a while they warmed up. Through this game, they learned words like bear, dragon, deer, rabbit, and a bunch of other random animals.

Each class had its own problems and found a way to solve it. In my class we found we were more efficient when we split into smaller groups. It was easier to get to know each student better and the students were able to focus more as well. On the last day there was a big performance. Each class either sang, danced, or told a story through a skit. Everyone put a lot of effort into it. Classes that put on plays also had a series of crafting hours. The kids really enjoyed drawing their own masks and creating the sets.

「大家好！請叫我 Crystal 老師。」不，沒有那麼簡單，學生們要接受一個陌生人作為他們的教師可不容易。雖然俗話說：「三人行必有我師焉」而每一個人都是值得學習的，但感覺上，剛開始學生們並不認為。贏得這些一年級生的信任是一項極大的挑戰。因為大部分學生都不懂英文所以我們得用中文和他們溝通，而卻因此被某些學生和家長瞧不起我們的英文程度，半信半疑的跟我們學習。但在這短暫的五天內我們把英文融入日常生活中而把它變得更有趣。其中幾項活動包括踢足球然後用英文單字解釋足球賽裡的人物與規則。我們還不斷的教他們國外常玩的遊戲，例如 Four Corners, Hot Potato, Marco Polo, 和 Musical Chairs 等遊戲，帶他們進入不同的文化背景也讓他們輕鬆愉快的學遊戲裡的單字。數一數我們總共教他們十一種遊戲呢！最有趣的活動就是模擬停電了。因為我們有一個主題是停電，所以就請學生關燈做扇子和說故事，而教他們各個跟恐懼與停電有關的單字。這種教學方式讓他們跳過英文為一個死板課本教材的想法而真的「快樂學英文」。英文營終於讓我們了解教師們的辛苦和每一節課的細心準備也讓我大開眼界。這次體驗算是一個教學相長的好機會，讓我收獲許多。我懂得細心聆聽學生們的問題而臨機應變，絕對不讓課堂有沒計劃好的部分。我們看到學生從排斥的態度轉變為接受與喜愛英語，讓我們感到非常有成就感。 在五天英文營的尾聲，有一群小女生跑過來緊緊抱著我，這時我了解，我們並不需要成為他們的老師，最重要的就是要成為學生們的好朋友。快樂英文營也因此變得更快樂了！(10B陳宥瑄Crystal Grace Chen)

看著他們最後一天大膽地唱出英文的歌詞時，我心裡真的好感激能有機會跟這群可愛的小屁孩相處五天。明年似乎要把這個活動變成一個社團，讓我期許能增加跟其他國小合作的機會。(10B Ninnie Chiang)