Imagine

Our time at the Migrant Learning Center in Chiang Mai has come and gone in waves of success and struggle. We have battled language barriers, blank stares, and teacher-less classrooms, but somewhere between awkward moments and Aha! moments, I believe we made a difference, Once the students and staff got used to a bunch of curious Americans (and one Australian) popping in and out of classrooms, the students really opened up to us. I think the students were happy to break up the monotony of a normal school day at the MLC, and who better to break up the monotony than a ukelele playing hokie-pokie dancing Australian and an English Lit teacher who doesn't really know how to teach the English language!

Overall, I am proud of our Pacific discovery group this week. We pulled together and came up with some really great games and activities that allowed our students to play with the complex sounds and patterns of our language. By using pictures and videos from home, we were able to spark introductory conversations with the students while creating a mental image of life in America. We used songs and dance to practice word sequence and directions while appealing to more kinesthetic learners. We used acrostic poems to illustrate word categorization, and played a fun game of Taboo to practice speech, pronunciation and descriptive language,

My favorite lesson this week was one led by our group leaders Scott and Ele that used John Lennon's song *Imagine* to get our Burmese Refugee students thinking critically about their future, and the future of our world. By the end of the lesson we learned that a monk can dream of teaching English, and a waitress can dream of returning to Burma to help women achieve a better life. I left the classroom that day feeling like anything was possible and i think our students did too. As a future teacher I am a firm believer that education paves the way for a brighter future. This week we created a kind of education that really defines our group as a whole, a little silly, a little quirky, but always full of heart!

Allie