This was my first day teaching at Moraketiara school, and after hearing tales of hair-raising journeys, it was with some trepidation that I boarded the bus. At first, clinging on for dear life as we hurtled around corners was, in a way, fun, but this enjoyment did not quite last for the entire journey… Nevertheless we all arrived in one piece, and with enough time for a refreshing ice cream before our class was due to start!Today’s group were between 12 and 14 years old, and were predominantly girls. They all seemed eager to have us in their classroom, which was a very welcoming start to the session. A teacher also sat in on the lesson. We began with some general warm-up activities, introducing ourselves and asking the students to do likewise. The focus of the lesson was music and singing, an area which had been previously discussed with the principal, and which had received his full encouragement. We used the song ‘Ironic’ by Alanis Morrisette, and began by listening to the song whilst following the lyrics on the blackboard. The children then had to fill in the blanks, and with our guidance were able to correctly spell out most of them too. This activity truly caught the attention of the class, and it was a real joy to see their faces light up as they recognised the missing word. The whole group then joined us in singing the song, which again was a really positive (if not always tuneful!) experience.To avoid the lesson becoming stale we moved onto language games, such as hangman and a pronunciation game. These went really well as we had gained the children’s interest through the previous activity. For the last half an hour we took the lesson outside, where we played duck, duck, goose and a quick-response question and answer ball game. Helen Mooney also practised some traditional Sri Lankan dancing with a group of girls, whilst Jane and I encouraged small groups in conversation practice and Emma C played cricket (what else?) with the boys.The afternoon ended on an encouragingly positive note, as we all came away full of ideas for future classes.Rachel Walters