Words of the week:
dar de alta- to be in outpatient care (hospital term, not describing myself at all, but a counterpart's family member)
la tarima-stage
What a bizarre and surreal week. I think that any week which starts with you and a friend coining the fake hashtag #kidneyinfection and ends with a teacher training and a trip back to the United States is bound to be full of new and interesting surprises. Asi es la vida...
Given the circumstances, I didn't do much teaching this week. I'm going to America for my sister Addie's graduation and missing 2 weeks of class, so I'm not going to see the kids for a while which is unfortunate. It should be noted, however, that the second week of school that I'm missing includes "Teacher's Day." Chances are that there will be more celebrations than school and I will realistically only miss like a week of classes. So I feel much less guilty.
On Monday, I woke up feeling like I had been punched in the kidneys, which was sort of true. I walked a couple hundred yards to get some medicine and food, which tired me out so much that I was essentially useless for the rest of the day. I watched Love Actually for the second time this month, which is extremely pathetic and seasonally inappropriate, but I needed some cheer and eye candy to keep my spirits up and my food down. By evening, with my spirits no doubt buoyed by Colin Firth's doe eyes, I finally felt not horrible.
Tuesday was more of the same. I slept a bunch and planned some things for a teacher workshop and watched a Mexican movie called Amores Perros (Love's a Bitch) for the second time this month. You know I'm in a bad way when I prefer to watch a movie I've already seen rather than read.
On Wednesday, I felt ok, so I decided to go to school in the afternoon. Since my counterpart and I couldn't plan, I observed some of his classes (which was perfect for me since I wasn't really up to planning and then co-teaching). He's improved his teaching so much since I've been here- it's been amazing to watch it unfolding. It's fabulous when motivated people are able to connect with opportunities; thanks to a grant from the American embassy, he was able to get a TEFL certificate at a program in Costa Rica, which has helped him enormously. The 8th grade class did a listening class and then created a shopkeeper/ buyer dialogue. 11th grade reviewed human rights, and invented some interesting ones that we did not teach, such as the right to sleep and the right to walk. I wish the right to sleep was a real right because it is pretty frequently violated here by chickens, boom boxes and firecrackers. After watching 2 hours of classes in the heat, I was pretty much exhausted. I left early and went home to finish some things for the workshop and sleep.
On Thursday, I planned with my Saturday counterpart Xiomara in the morning. Since the students were doing an environmental project in Las Palomas, I didn't go to class, but used the opportunity to write a report in Spanish on what we've been doing this semester for the delegado (the superintendent type figure) and the principals of the schools where I work, and finished some materials for the workshop. We also had teacher class, in which we played MadLibs as a warm up to practice parts of speech, and then talked about the topic of "collocation," words that commonly appear together in a language, practicing words that commonly appear with the verbs "do," "make," and "take." These phrases, such as "take a test," "take a trip" and "do the homework" can be difficult for Spanish speaking English Language Learners because in Spanish, they commonly appear with different verbs.
On Friday morning, we had the workshop for teachers, on the topic of communicative activities that the teachers can use to teach each of the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. We only had 7 participants, including 4 of my counterparts, which was a little disappointing, because many of the teachers who live in the small, rural communities and need more support were not in attendance. I think it's going to take better planning, communication, and perhaps some transportation funds to work with them effectively. At the same time, everyone who attended participated enthusiastically and I hope they learned a lot of ideas for class. I'm so blessed with really great counterparts, who are excited about English, and eager to learn strategies for helping students too. Overall, it was a good experience for me to put on a workshop here and get an idea of how to do it effectively (assume things will start late, don't try to do too much, give powerpoint outlines and make sure there is water and soda). It's cool to track my own growth as a teacher and learner through the course of service; everything I learn becomes something I get to share and discuss with at least four other amazing teachers. It's a beautiful thing.
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