Teaching English

So, I thought it was about time I posted something pertaining to the work I´m doing here. One of my responsibilities here is teaching English class. I have a 5th grade class, a 6th grade class, and a class of high schoolers and adults 3 nights per week. The fifth and sixth graders are on vacation for 2 weeks, but when they come back I will start teaching them alone. I´ve been helping Eric teach for the past 2 weeks, so the kids have started getting to know me, and I have gotten idea of how Eric ran the class. On the last day of class, we had a party! It was a U.S. themed party (since its an English class); we made Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and ate oreos (a pretty American combination). At first, the kids were really grossed out by the idea of PBJs, but by the end of the class period they were (literally, and with Eric´s encouragement) eating the Peanut butter straight out of the jar with their hands. See pictures (ps, I was taking the pictures, so I'm not in any)

The nightime class is a different story. They are older, quieter, and for the most part more focused. They don´t have to come, so they seem to be much more interested in actually learning when they´re in the classroom. There are definitely a couple of high school boys that goof off, but its a good group. I took over the adult class on Monday. Eric is out of town this week, so I had the opportunity to teach my first solo class. I spent a lot of time (maybe more than neccessary) preparing the lesson, and walked up the hill to the school. The system here is weird. They don´t make keys to the school, for anybody. Pretty much only the director and the janitor have them. So, every night before class I have to stop by the janitor´s house to get teh keys. Monday, she was out of town. So was the rest of her family. We had no place to hold class. I enlisted the help of one of the adult students, and she helped me find the janitor´s sister´s house (I think it was the sister). That was who told us they were out of town. So, we ended up sitting outside in the park reviewing for the test that I had planned for Thursday.

On Tuesday before class, I again went to get the keys; they were home! Yay! However, I was promptly informed that, since the kids are on vacation, we aren´t allowed to use the school at night time either. I kind of wished that someone had thought to tell me this before, but ok. Again with the help of Grace (the same adult student who came to my rescue on Monday) we tracked down the keys to the community center and held class there. Plus, Grace fed me dinner, which was nice. We held class in the Salòn communal, sans chalkboard or any other teaching device. I guess the upside of all these complications is that I had to move the test back, and they get more time to study. We played some FRUIT BASKET UPSET to practice making sentences (thank you drama class) and everything went pretty well. Today at the office, I wrote their tests, and even made a kind of study sheet summarizing all of the concepts we´ve learned- Don´t tell Eric though. He´s really big on being environmentally conscious and saving paper, and he´ll probably be mad to know I printed fifteen copies of the study sheet =)

I have also become somewhat of the family tutor. One of my host cousins (Anjoletta) is in college, and comes by some nights for help with her English homework. She´s really nice, and I´m hoping we can become friends. Also, yesterday two of my 9 year old cousins showed up at my door, notebooks and pencils in hand, saying ¨teach us English¨. I let them come in, and we had a little English lesson at my kitchen table. They can now greet people, say goodbye, and say a few polite words like ¨bless you¨. They´re really cute. They informed me that they´re not allowed to be in the same class in school anymore because Gerard got caught cheating and copying Frander´s work. Random people on the street are always yelling ¨Hello¨or ¨Goodmorning¨. They´re all very proud of what English they know. I think I´m really gonna like the teaching part of this assignment. They´re all so excited to be learning that its really hard for me not to be excited to be teaching them.