Oh, how things can change.
Let's start with the young adults because this is the first class we met with. They are a diverse mix of people with varying degrees of English speaking ability. A couple of them are guides here, one is a masseuse, several work the desk for the hotel. There are also a handful of non-employees, locals who live nearby and heard there were English teachers in town. They only have a teacher when there is someone here volunteering. We found out they hadn't had an instructor in two months. I could go off on a rant about how back home, kids 'hate school' and here people clamor for education. But I won't - maybe later. We'll see.
Anyway, on our first Monday we thought we'd do a more casual class - chat with the students, get a sense of what level they were at, learn about them and why they wanted to learn English. But only a few people showed up. Word had not yet gotten around the village that we had arrived! So we had a very informal bull session, which was a lot of fun.
The next night, however, we had a pretty good crowd and we 'officially' became English instructors!!
(a brief pause while the applause dies down)
For historical reference, our very first lesson was about food. No surprise there. We presented some new vocabulary (hamburgers and toppings), did a listening comprehension exercise and did a mingle activity where students had to interview each other to find out what people did and did not like on their burgers. I tell you this in case it comes up on 'Jeopardy' some day:
Marla, a bank teller from Gary, Indiana: I'll take 'Dave and Bex!' for $800, please.
Alex: Dave and Bex! used this theme for their first ever English lesson at a bilingual school in Nicaragua in 2013.
Marla, still a bank teller from Gary, Indiana: What is 'food', Alex?
Alex: You are correct and that gives you the lead!
We immediately enjoyed these students. They're smart, fun, witty, forgiving of our inexperience and - most importantly - eager to be in class. They are very thankful to have teachers and are excited to make the most of the opportunity. Another thing we've noticed - also severely lacking in the US: here, teachers are respected. They wave whenever they see us out and about. They point us out to family and friends as their teachers. They stop by to ask us questions. They thank us for our time and for being here. We had one entertaining night in the common area, too, with several of the students asking us about English slang. We turned it around on them, asking them the Spanish slang for anything they asked about. Turn about, fair play and all that.
And now the story of the high schoolers or, more accurately, how we ended up teaching these guys. Before we arrived, we had Skyped with Alvaro and exchanged many emails as we worked out the details of our stay. Most volunteers come in and do only the two week minimum that he requires for people wishing to help out at his school. He was excited that we were committing to six weeks! This was a little self-serving for us because we wanted to get some real teaching experience prior to looking for paid work elsewhere. For the school here, it's great because they would have six weeks of continuity, which is so helpful and important for the students.
In one of the emails, Alvaro informed us that he had scored the ultimate volunteer - a retired teacher from the US who was committing to a full year in Merida!! Between this guy, named Dave Matthews (no, not THAT Dave Matthews) (sorry) (I know - wouldn't that be sooo cool?!) and our extended commitment, Alvaro was extremely excited, of course. With visions of all of us working together to develop a real actual curriculum, building out the future vision of the school, it had us pretty amped up, too. We figured we could get a little mentoring from this guy, pick up some solid advice and get some feedback on what we were doing. Win-win-win!
As mentioned in the last post, Alvaro was out of town our entire first week here. When we arrived, we were told that Dave Matthews had gone to Managua for the weekend and would be back Tuesday. Okay, cool. No problem for us. Except... Tuesday came and went. Wednesday. Thursday. No word from Dave Matthews. Friday. Nothing. We had never even met the guy and we were getting worried.
Alvaro returned Saturday. Dave Matthews did not. We sat with Alvaro and Esther and discussed the possibilities - 'shanked in Managua' was a popular assumption. Alvaro was going to give it until Monday, then call the US embassy to see if they knew anything. As it turned out, he didn't have to make the call.
While we ate breakfast Monday morning, powering up for the kindergarteners, Alvaro walked over to our table. "I have some good news for you guys!" Uh oh. He had received an email from Dave Matthews - the teacher, not the musician (sorry again) (I know - it would be totally awesome if THE Dave Matthews had your email address, right?) stating that he had actually decided to leave and not come back. Yep. He said he'd do a year, ended up doing about 7-8 weeks. He said he was homesick and needed to go home. He also told Alvaro to keep everything that he'd left behind. Keep in mind he had just gone to Managua 'for the weekend'. He only took a small backpack with him. He left clothes and a large number of books for teaching. Score for us.
The 'homesick' excuse is a little suspect only because this guy had taught English on a tiny speck of land in the Marshall Islands in the south Pacific, an island of about 80-90 people total - for 17 years!!! Maybe Merida was too busy and happening for him. Who knows. I'm sure he had his reasons. But like I said, people here are excited to learn and were thrilled to know they had a bonafide teacher for a whole year. Basically, he disappointed a lot of people who don't have much to begin with.
We told Alvaro we'd discuss the situation and meet with him later to work it out. He left us with the initial suggestion to just drop the young adults and teach the high schoolers. Well, we weren't going to disappoint our very first English class by telling them 'No more class! Sorry! Wait for the next volunteer.' Like everyone here, learning English can help pave the way to a better life for them and their families.
So after kindergarten was done, we sat down and reworked our schedule to give the high schoolers the same amount of time they were getting from the dude who bailed out (two-45 minute classes a week) (and by the way, I am NEVER buying one of his CD's ever again!). We had to cut the young adults back to three nights a week, which isn't ideal but still gives us time with them. Now out schedule looks like this:
Kindergarteners: M-F, 8:30-11 AM
High schoolers: T & Th, 5:30-6:15 PM (sometimes we fudge this and run over)
Young adults: M, W, F, 5:30-7 PM
The high school kids are fun and becoming more engaged with each class. They are mostly beginners, with little exposure to English. So, we're figuring it out as we go. Just like the young adult class, Bex! had the idea to put together a full curriculum for our time here. She loves her some spreadsheets. This has been great for us. We know what we're teaching each week and it follows a natural progression for the classes, building on previous lessons as we go.
One game the students in both classes have really had fun with is Bingo! Keep in mind we have very limited resources here - no printer, mainly, so any worksheets we do are hand written for each student. Woohoo.
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| Backwards? This must be my POV when we hold this up for our students. |
So there you have it! We're teachers!!
when you do a review session, try this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPIA7mpm1wU
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