Teaching English to refugees in Athens 

 Week 1:

I arrived in Athens on the evening of the 27^th of July. That evening I met a few of the volunteers over dinner at one of their houses. They were really welcoming; it was a great way to start my time here. On Sunday I had an explore around Athens and got ready for my volunteering starting on Monday.

On Monday I shadowed Camille - one of the teachers here - as she taught her class. I would be taking over her class so it was a good way to meet the students I would be teaching. On the Tuesday I led the lesson under Camille’s supervision. Usually this would carry on for the whole first week, being supervised by another teacher, but as Camille was going on holiday on the Wednesday, it meant I only had two days before I took my first solo lesson. I have some previous experience teaching but I was still nervous taking the class by myself. But all the students are really keen to learn and it went well. On Friday we had the monthly spelling bee. Students from all classes take part and a winner for each class is awarded a certificate. The students are competitive with each other and those who won were very proud.

The lessons were slightly disrupted as a few of the students were either ill or away. But on the whole it was a great first week. I’ve gotten into the swing of teaching and the students are progressing really well. There were some times where I struggled to explain certain concepts to them because they could not understand what I was saying. But with a bit of time, changing my language choices and using some examples the students came to understand what I was trying to communicate. It was also a good week in terms of  developing an understanding of the speed at which to cover new topics versus recapping previous topics. 

On the weekend all the volunteers went on a boat trip to a nearby island. It was great to get to know the guys here better and it was beautiful day out. I did get slightly burnt of course. The team here are a great bunch of people and really passionate about what they do. 

Week 2:

I have really got into the swing of teaching this week and the students are learning fast. I’m so happy with the progress they’re making. It’s a really enjoyable and rewarding experience watching their English improve in such short period of time so far. The big project for this week was designing a 5-day science workshop that I am teaching with one other volunteer in week 3.

I went through the old science curriculum with Steph - the lead teacher here. We spoke about changes we want to make in terms of topics to discard and new ones to include. We also chatted about practicals that we want to run within the science workshop. We only had the handouts as pdf files so I needed to rewrite these in a word doc. We also wanted to have PowerPoints for each lesson to supplement the handouts, so I have been making these as well. There was a lot to do in terms of making hand outs and creating the power points. I have been spending a lot of time around teaching my English classes creating these. And now they can be used in the future when the science workshop is taught again. Luckily for me, Steph sorted out getting the materials for the practicals so that was something I haven't had to worry about. 

On the Thursday it was the 8^th anniversary of the learning centre. We played some games with the students to celebrate it. This was definitely the highlight of my week. We divided the students into two team over a variety of games. The students are so competitive and really wanted to win. It was great fun to be a part of. Friday was back to normal teaching and the science workshop starts next week.