An Educational Adventure in Prague

So last weekend we got back from our travels to Italy. We visited Venice that was more of an extended weekend stay (mostly due to our flight reservation difficulties). Since we were gone we had a hard time coming back to school and having a lot to make up.  However, the trip was well worth it.  The first day we spent the day simply wandering the streets of Venice, kind of just getting lost in the city.  The second day we went to a nearby island, Lido, and spent the day on the beach.  The rest of the time we spent visiting Italy’s tourist landmarks (S. Mark’s Basicalla, ect). Other highlights included authentic Italian pizza and pasta and large quantities of gelato!

After our amazing time in Italy, I would have to admit I was a little disheartened coming back to Prague. However, we did have a pretty hectic week ahead of us.  We had a lot of work in our classes and planned and taught our first lesson in a Czech elementary classroom!  Kayla, Sarah, and I worked together to design an English lesson that focused on verb vocabulary and usage. However, once we actually got inside the classroom and began our lesson, we quickly learned that the students’ English level was actually

much higher than we anticipated.  In EDP this week we talked about metacognition and learning strategies.  Since I had the first portion of the lesson to teach, I introduced the lesson by asking some pretty simple questions. I reminded them of some of the English they had been learning so far this year. I also asked them what kind of verbs they remembered. At first, the students seemed like they had no idea what I was talking about. However, after I provided an example of a verb and explained that a verb “is what you do”; the students immediately rattled off numerous verbs they remembered. This is an example of the students’ ability to retrieve relevant prior knowledge.

I encouraged the students to think about what they already knew about the topic- and they took it from there.  Although the lesson w

as obviously not in the range of their ZPD because it was not challenging enough for them, I think the students had a good time because our activities were so interactive.