St. John's Missionaries in Slovakia: Teaching at Evanjelicka Základna Skola

I teach English in lessons following the Content Language Integrated Lessons (CLIL) format. This is method that is used all over Europe where teaching a new language. In CLIL lessons the content is more important than the language taught. The content may be geography, math or science. It is to be “real subjects applicable to real life.”

The day begins at 7:40. There is sharing time, followed by prayer time. This prayer time is mainly the students praying, with a small addition to the prayers by the teacher. Then each class has 45 minute classes followed by 10 minute breaks. In the breaks, the students can eat, have a drink, play one in the classroom, read, use the WC (water closet). The students get loud and rowdy in some classes, but there seems to be enough of a break that the students keep their attention on the following slesson. There seems to be no outside recess in the mornings.

In the second grade, I have been teaching the names of different fruit and vegetables. I began o with real fruit and vegetables. I introduce pictures and then names to be paired with the “real” examples. Then they get to color their paper with examples. We make our own Bingo cards and
Play Bingo. I like to have the students draw the fruit so they can have practice saying the names.

Here is a picture of some of the second graders on their break.

In the third grade we have been working in math. Specifically, we have worked on odd and even numbers, greater than and less than, and rounding up and down. We have practiced ordering numbers, saying if their number is greater than or less than their neighbor’s number and deciding how we “round numbers.” An interesting game we have played is to have a number put on their backs and they have to ask questions (that can be answered with yes or no) to see if they can discover their number.
This is the inside of a third grade classroom.

I like the idea of having nets on the wall to display work or decorations in place of using bulletin boards.

In the fourth grade we have been working with compass directions and maps. The classroom teacher teaches the students about Slovak geography, using maps. I taught about geography in California. We read a map of part of California, finding cities by following instructions that include compass directions. We made a map of California, with mountains, lakes, rivers, bay, ocean and cities. Then the students played a similar game with California locations on their back and they ask yes and no questions. I like this game because it gets the students to use the language rather than just hear it. The final activity with maps was to have a student tell three items about a location in CA and the others try to guess that location.