Witches & Wizards

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The Witch Doctor Dance

Witches and Wizards--Thriller

Hello everyone,

These pictures are from the 2 Two-Week Programs we had at English Village back in the summer. During these programs, all the teachers were divided into "houses" and we prepared ourselves for intense competition once the students arrived. (Well, Larry and I ended up winning the award of "The Most Competitive Teachers," so maybe we were the only ones REALLY preparing!!) The theme of these programs for Summer '07 was "A World of Fantasy," and so all of the houses/teams were appropriately named. There were the Hobbits, the Werewolves, the Elves, the Pirates, etc....our team was "The Witches & Wizards."

Anyway, besides teaching our regular One-Week Program classes to these students, we were able to do so much more since they were with us for a lot longer. Lots of competitive games and events took place, most of which were held on the weekend - when Larry and I worked. Some of these events included:
- "The Campfire Competition," in which every team had to get on stage and perform some sort of scary story
- "Sports Day/Field Day Competition," about 4 hours of water balloon tosses, 3-legged races, tug of war, and many more
- "Poster Competition" and "The Coat of Arms Competition," where the artistic kids could really shine
- "Song Night," our kids sang L-O-V-E and it was seriously too cute for words!

and my all-time favorite...

-"Closing Ceremony," the BIGGEST competition of them all! In this competition, held on the last night of their 2-weeks at E.V., house teams could perform ANYTHING for 5 minutes on the stage in our Concert Hall in front of all the teachers and students. So, of course, I HAD to teach our students a dance!! (Not an easy task to teach 60 5th/6th graders a choreographed routine, all the while doing so in a foreign language to them....but I think we did a great job!) Our first Two-Week Program we taught our kids a dance to "Witch Doctor," and the second program we stepped it up a notch and taught our kids "Thriller" - exactly as it was from M.J.'s original music video! We've attached the videos for your viewing pleasure!! Both times the students placed in the TOP 3 of all the houses for their dances...

At the end of these programs, our kids went home really happy and not empty-handed...since our students won 1st place overall for the first program and 2nd place overall for the second program, they got to take home really nice goodie bags - which was a nice reward for all of their hard work! It made us happy as well, and especially proud to contribute to their wonderful time and memories with us.

Some of the students really touched us as well, and we still keep in touch with them to this day.

We hope that you all enjoy these pictures and videos, and that you will see how rewarding our foreign jobs have been (and continue to be...!) 😊

Love,
Melanie & Larry

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Comments

[Barnaby Ralph]

You guys look pretty serious here - this stuff is great. You seem to have found a comfortable, fun niche there that lets you both use talents that might otherwise lie dormant. I wonder how long you plan to stay! Then again, after seeing Larry in that wig, perhaps it is time for you to get out of the country...