This time I actually met the people before the course started. I'd been in contact with one girl prior to travelling up to Oban who facebooked me telling me that everyone who was here was in the backpacker's 'common room'. So after sorting all the stuff out in my room (which was again private as I wasn't quick enough in snapping one of the dorm beds) I met some of the Japan and Thailand volunteers. It was fab - we played jenga and added each other on snapchat :)
After a few more people had arrived some volunteers who had just got back from their training course introduced themselves and warned us that training was very very very intense. Of course this did nothing to calm our nerves :(
As the evening wore on a large more and more volunteers arrived (most of whom were for Thailand) I still hadn't found my partner and all sorts of thoughts were going through my head like : 'what if they don't make it up to training and then can't come with me?' or 'what if I don't even have a partner, what if I have to go to Thailand by myself?!'
Anyway the next day we all walked to the ferry together which meant an early start to catch the 7AM ferry *groan*. The ferry crossing was rough and a lot of the volunteers, including me, spent the entire time in the canteen with everyone groaning every time we went over a wave.
On Coll we were greeted by PT representatives and driven up to the centre. As we were staying up at the centre this time we were all assigned rooms with our partners and another pair. That meant I finally found my partner! Her name is Alex and I had met her the night before but she just couldn't remember the name of the place where she was going!
So anyway, after getting settled into our rooms we were given a welcoming talk and given out some booklets to fill in over the course of training. That day we filled in the first part of our booklets which were our hopes and fears for the year and how these fears can be overcome. After lunch we went through insurance and some extra tips on fundraising for people who hadn't completed it yet.
Before dinner we all went down to the beach. Alex convinced me to run in the sea, which was a BIG mistake it was so cold!!! After dinner each day we have free time to either sit and chat or go outside for a walk. This was a good opportunity to meet everyone - even though I had about 2% chance of remembering their names.
The next day we got an introduction to teaching and how to plan a lesson - which was a big help as classroom management and planning a lesson were two things I was super scared about. After lunch we got a talk on culture shock, we filled in the second part of our booklet (Understanding your Community), learnt about the rights of a child, filled in the third part of our booklet (Problem Solving) all before dinner. After dinner we were all super busy planning out 10 minute lesson for tomorrow which we were to give to small groups and a PT representative.
On the Monday we had to give our lessons first thing. My lesson was on shops. As a starter I mimed out different types of shops and got students to repeat after me what they were. Then I would mime that action and the students would shout out. For the main part of the lesson I taught the students how to say 'where are you going' and 'I am going to the ...(shop name). I got students to say this collectively and to each other. I then pointed to flashcards and students shouted out what each shop was. At the end the students shut their eyes and this either thumbs up, down or in the middle to see how confident they were.
After lunch our talks and lessons were centred around safety and security whilst abroad which included filling in the fourth part of out booklet. In our free time that evening after dinner we had to plan our 20 minute lesson which we were to give the next day. A lot of time went into this lesson as I needed to fill up more time, and I had pointers to work on from my 10 minute lesson.
The fourth day was the day we all had to give our 20 minute lessons. I did mine on daily routine. As a starter I got the students to do some star jumps and exercises before asking them to quickly write down as many foods they can think of. Which I then wrote on the board. As the main activity I put some flashcards up on the board and said them out loud to the students, e.g 'I wake up at 6 o'clock'. Later I pointed to flashcards and the students had to call out what they were. I then gave each student a task to write a paragraph about their daily routines with the option to either just use simple sentences or use sentences with connectives. I then checked their work, checked the objectives of the lesson had been reached and used the thumb up/down/middle technique to see how the lesson had gone (thankfully I got all thumbs up!).
After lunch we were given a talk on health and how to stay healthy. There was another talk on the media and how we present ourselves online. We then had to complete the fifth part of our booklets entitles 'Roundup and Expectations' where we had to write down how prepared we felt and what we wanted to achieve from out year out.
After tidying up and having a talk with our project leaders about any questions we had we all went to go and get ready for the leaving ceilidh! The ceilidh on selection was fab so I was so excited about this one!
Before the dancing began we all sat down to a fancy 3 course meal complete with wine, after which we all gathering in a main room to socialise, drink champagne and take lots of pics! As it was such a nice day loads of our pictures were taken outside.
The ceilidh was so much fun! We didn't do as many dances as we did on selection because a returned volunteer had joined us with his wife and children who persuaded all of us to join them outside for a game of Frisbee!! The dances that we did manage to do were great - even though quite a few of us messed up a lot (me included) it was a great laugh and a great night.
Wednesday was leaving day :( It was a mad rush in the morning to make sure rooms were clear and that everyone was washed, dressed and fed before being taken down to the ferry port. Waiting at the port was none other than my host from last year Lisa, along with her daughter!!! Some other volunteer and I talked with her until it was time for us to leave.
I left Coll feeling prepared and excited about my upcoming adventure!! I can't wait to go!
I'm so unbelievably grateful to everyone who helped me - especially my parents who were a huge support! Love you guys xx
I can't wait to start my adventure, it will be an amazing time with amazing people! I will try and keep this blog updated as often as I can, but it does all depend on accessibility!
No comments:
Post a Comment