Teaching Anecdotes, Week 8

Words of the Day:
el batido- smoothie
el murcielago- bat
el capullo- cocoon
la oruga- caterpillar

This week was a weird week, because I only really taught half the classes I usually do for various reasons.  I did plenty of other things though, so I'm full of stories as per usual...

Meeting with the most entertaining interruptions thus far in Nicaragua: On Tuesday, I went with my counterpart teacher Xiomara to represent the TEFL program in a regional meeting between the Ministry of Education and Peace Corps in San Carlos. Things started off badly after Xiomara lost her cell phone when we went to get batidos. We went back to the batido place to look for her phone, and tracked down the taxi we had been riding in: this is how small of a city San Carlos is. No sign of the phone though.

The meeting might sound really important, and it was to a point, but it actually only involved 10ish people, and was held in a cramped office. Our presentation went really well, even though I was super nervous because I had to make it in Spanish. Some interesting points were made in the meeting. I definitely can't do everything they want me to do, like provide more support to further out communities (I don't own a horse, have an infinite transportation budget, or any free time), but I can absolutely improve my communication with them, which was one of the concerns that was raised. As the meeting went on, things got a little bit nutty: a bat emerged from the ceiling while the Small Business Volunteer from San Carlos, Matt, was presenting, several people kept answering their cell phones at once, and a four year-old child of one of the participants began running around and interrupting her Mom while she was talking.

Site Visit: My boss, Greg, came to visit to see how things are going, trouble shoot some problems, celebrate successes and chat everybody up. He met with all my teachers and 2 of 4 principals, so I think that was a pretty good percentage. It was great to have a chance to talk, vent and reflect on what's going well, which is most things. As an RPCV (returned Peace Corps Volunteer) from El Salvador, Greg totally gets what can be frustrating about service, and generally has good advice. From his visit, I realized how great my counterparts are: how dedicated and how talented. I feel more invigorated in my work from having someone to bounce ideas off of and I'm hoping to get the ball rolling on three more projects this month: English "Office Hours"  to help students who don't have the opportunity to have class with me to ask questions, get homework help or practice, (which really is just going to be an excuse for me to hang out on the dock to watch sunsets), an English night for profes to practice with each other and a community class for 8th graders (more details below).

Shortest class so far: Greg came to observe class in Las Palomas...for like 20 minutes. We arrived a little late to school, at 12:40, to have the principal inform us that the teachers would need to leave to attend a parents' meeting at 1. Our class was a little bit discombobulated for a lot of reasons in addition to that, but the kids got to interview Greg, which was plenty comical, and he got to see our World Map/What is she doing activity?, and had some great suggestions for how to improve the activity. He was shocked by how well the students behaved. Then, as we were waiting to talk to the principal, Christian, one of the 8th grade students, came over to us and asked "May I leave?" I thought he meant school, but he just wanted to get water. Then he came back by, and said "Thank you very much." Greg asked me if I had paid him off, which I had not, although I should probably do that retroactively. No, son bromas(Jk)... But maybe I'll gift him a platano or a mango.

English Club organized in one hour or less: During class, one of the chavalos in 8th grade in San Miguel asked me if I would consider giving an English class for speaking practice. I told him that I would consider it, but that he needed to find at least 10 friends first who were interested, figuring this would take him at least til the end of the week. I was helping a student with her English work while recess was starting, when he came up to me and told me that he had a list of kids ready. Then, on Thursday night, the day before class was going to start, he and his friend ran into me in the street and told me that he couldn't attend the first meeting, but that they already had prepared a list of topics, a letter thanking me for doing the class for them, and a contract of how they will treat me and how they expect to be treated. God, I love the kids here who are excited about learning, they make my job easy and enjoyable.

On Friday we had our first meeting. We had a good number of kids show up: 7. More expected next week, but I'm fine with a small class. We played a game called Chatty Penguin, that I learned during training, in which you have to hold a coin between your knees and walk a certain distance while telling facts about yourself. The kids tried to do it in English, which was a good diagnostic. Then, we set some rules for class and set a time. We spent the last hour and half doing reader's theatre (google it if you're not familiar, my internet is too slow to get a link) with the story "The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar," which was simultaneously a little bit hard for them and a bit juvenile, but I think they liked it, and it reviewed some vocab that as eight graders, they should know, like days of the week and numbers. We're going to keep working on it next class.

Something that could be really cool: Natalie, a health volunteer in San Carlos is working on a class to help health care providers improve health care quality by tapping into their interest in English, so that she can teach a class combining English and a curriculum about quality improvement for health care. I set her up with Peace Corps' Nicaragua's TEFL manual for some ideas, and we considered some topics/activities for the class. I hope it works out, because it would be really cool, especially since, according to Natalie, the need for better quality in health care isn't always recognized by caregivers or patients, since the system is free. It's nice to be in a country where we have such a high density of volunteers, for the social aspect as well as to have other perspectives from different sectors to inform your own work.

Who doesn't love vegetables?: Brought some "realia" to class to a lesson that was mainly about fruits and vegetables. The kids thought it was hilarious and paid attention.

Cross your fingers: I feel like we've finally made some headway with some of the more difficult students in my Saturday classes. Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I really want positive reinforcement strategies to pay off. Honestly, this might be a better legacy for me to leave at the school, because having English once a week for an hour if were lucky is not really going to help anyone learn much language. But I would love to influence the way teachers' approach classroom management. 

All of my eight graders in 8B did their homework. This was shocking to me because usually only a third of the class does it if we're lucky. They might have copied the answers from one or two students, but at least they made the effort to do that, which they usually do not. I made them give themselves a round of applause for actually doing their work.

I feel like maybe we've turned a corner with 7B too. This is the most difficult class I teach, because the students are older (some have kids), have jobs and real responsibilities, and yet are just starting school, so they feel like we are babying them or get frustrated easily with the material. Many of them have probably been told for their entire childhoods and adolescent years that they are necio, problem kids. Others students are from way out in the campo, and are terrifying of speaking in English. To top things off, we teach this class in a preschool classroom, because there is no space in the rest of the primary school where the other sections receive classes. The students crowd up to tiny desks or tables, in tiny chairs and the board is really worn out and difficult to write on. They are currently finishing a new high school building, and we can't wait to get over there. It's gonna be amazing in comparison. Today, though, one of the students who's usually super necio actually participated in a game. I praised the bejezus out of him, holding his behavior today up as an example for the rest of the class. Maybe it will continue to pay off. I savory these little victories, even if they are coincidences.

Taxi driver interaction of the week: I spend a lot of time with the taxi drivers on a weekly basis getting to and from work. On Monday, one of my favorite taxi drivers, who drives a tiny neon yellow car, randomly announced to our jammed car "Did you know that in her country they their kids out of the house when they turn 18?" This undoubtedly is one of the "facts" many people here find most surprising about my life. I tried to clarify by explaining that not everyone does this, and that I WANTED to leave, but I did end up having to admit that I left home at 18. Most of my attempts to avoid making generalizations about American culture are about this successful.

I speall rill good I swer: I've been noticing lately that I've been struggling really hard to spell homonyms (words that sound the same, but have a different spelling). It makes no sense to me why this would be the first thing in my English to deteriorate, but maybe there's an answer in linguistics or brain science. Aaaaaaaaa saber. (Who knows)