No More Pencils, No More Books...

… no more students dirty looks!

After an entire school year of teaching here, we finished up all of our classes!  Can I get a 'woot woot'!  Thank you.  Bex! had the great idea of ramping them down slowly, a couple each week, so that we could teach the last session of each group together.  The plan worked terrifically, too.  We sit them down over a three week period. 

We'll go week by week here and hit the highlights.  

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Week One Wrap:  
First class to end was our high schoolers.  We showed up with some games and prizes, assuming we'd play some Hangman, Pictionary, Charades using vocabulary from the entire year.  Well, they surprised us, bringing a cake, balloons and a big ol' bottle of Coke!  We played games and listened to music and had a blast!

Mmmm… cake.

(clockwise from lower left) Ericks, Edar, Paulina, Kori, Jhony, Zacarias

(l-r) Priscila, Levis, Paulina, Kori

Marili and Profe

Priscila, Javier, Paulina

This class was probably our most challenging of the year.  Attendance was hit or miss, although there were a handful that showed regularly; the students' experience with English varied greatly, with advanced beginners and true beginners in the same class.  Varying degrees of maturity (theirs, not ours) were an issue at times, as well, with some kids coming just to hang out with their friends and with no intention of trying at all.  We figured it out eventually and had some great classes with them but we also know we'd approach it differently if we had it to do again.

Best part of the night, though, was the speech they made - in English!!!  

We truly love these kids and wish them the best of luck with their education in the future!!

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This was the week we also finished up our morning class.  This class was unique - only two young ladies consistently showed up at the 7 AM class time.  But as we've said before, if even one student shows up, we teach!   These two made the class worthwhile for us.  I am not a morning person but having this class to look forward to made getting up easyier.

Good luck to Adele and Maria!!

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We administered an English test to our OBS first graders, a 'final exam' - some animals, emotion identification, Q&A.  They all did great and we were very proud of them.  I ran an activity with the kids and Bex! took them out one at a time for testing.  All of the kids save one were oblivious to what was happening.  Cute little Dulce snuck over to see what exactly Teacher Bex was doing and when she realized it was an English exam, she quietly took a whiteboard marker and wrote a warning to her classmates.

"Today there is an English test!"  Seriously, Dulce will rule this country someday.

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This next 'last class of the year' wasn't expected, not this week anyway.  We had been told that the bilingual school was having their last day on Thursday 4 December.  As it turned out, this was actually the last day for the teachers to finish and submit grades.  The last day for the kids was a week earlier - 27 November.  Yikes!  We weren't really ready for this but we made it work and it turned out great.  Thank goodness we were informed ahead of time - by a 6 year old.  Yeah.  Remember Dulce, from just up the page a paragraph, the little girl who warned her classmates about the English test?  She told us.

Bex! was walking by her house on the way to teach one of our night classes and Dulce came out to inform/remind her that 'mañana es la ultima dia de escuela'.  Tomorrow?!  The last day!?  We confirmed this with Esther.  Sad, because we had some cool activities to do with the kids the last days.  But… like we've done all year, we figured it out and had a great sendoff with cake and a piñata and lunch with the kids.  We also gave the kindergarteners and 1st graders some gifts - crayons, coloring sheets, colored pencils, regular pencils, stickers.

Esther and Julia, the party planning committee.

The butterfly piñata filled with candy!

A couple of videos for you:

The first is a little mashup of the kids and the unlucky piñata.  You'll hear them shouting "Terminamos!" in unison.  It means "We're done!"  Very cute, right?!

This second clip is of my dear wife's first Nica piñata experience!!!  The kids love it when we the adults get involved in stuff like this.  If you want to know more about her previous piñata-ing, ask her Uncle Ted.

All the OBS kids enjoying their special lunch together!

We love all of the kids!  Each of them has a place in our hearts and we will miss them all! 

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Week Two Wrap:
We had a high schooler who had to drop the regular class for personal reasons but we were able to find time to hold classes with him one-on-one twice a week.  We finished Yasir's class and wished him luck.  Hell, it was a bonus for him - he was one of the more advanced high school students so having one-on-one sessions gave him the opportunity to learn more than he would have in the regular class.  After we finished his last class, I preached to him about staying in school, even though he was close to earning his certification as a guide.  He is at the age where the need to help the family or simply the lure of money can take precedence over education.  Yasir is much too smart and driven, and has a brighter future ahead if he gets his butt to university after finishing high school.

He resisted Dave's attempts to make him smile.

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And we also closed up the rancho on our evening youth class.  This group has been amazing!  In the beginning of the year, figuring out how to teach these kids was a struggle.  Abilities and ages were all over the map and it was tough to plan.  The roster settled in to an energetic group who attended regularly and were willing to try.  And we figured out how best to teach them.  Once these two things happened, this class was a pleasure to teach each week!  I think in the beginning, we aimed a little too high, then a little too low.  Once we hit our stride, it all clicked.

We had parting gifts for everyone and did an awesome Christmas vocabulary review via Hangman and Pictionary.  As teachers, it's a huge win when students get their notebooks out to help them figure out puzzles and games.  I know it sounds weird but we saw it all year:  students will take notes but never flip back a few pages to refer to them.  Odd.  So we drilled them over the year, repeatedly, to 'use your notebooks' - and in the end they did! 

We were playing Hangman using Christmas words and phrases, and once I put the blanks up, they would count the blanks and then look in their notebooks to find the word(s) that fit the spaces!!  After a few rounds, I knew they knew it was all holiday stuff.  So I threw them a curveball and put up 'Happy Halloween'.  I almost had them, too, but rockstar Edwin figured it out and solved the puzzle!  Argh!  Foiled again!

(l-r) Edwin, Donaldo, Fanor, Bex!, Edgar, Keylin, Yasir (from HS class; he was hanging out because we taught this class at his family's house), Maria, Ashley

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Week Three Wrap:
The third and final week of ramp down was for our two adult beginner groups.  One class we've held all year, since we started waaaay back in February; the other class we started in August, when we realized there was enough demand to crank up another session.

We love both of these classes!  They have come so far this year!  The newer group received sort of a high level pass at basic grammar and verb tenses, a whole bunch of vocabulary and plenty of opportunity to use the language in dialogues, role plays and games.  Plus a regular dose of homework on top!

The full year students, though, are our pride and joy.  These adults came into class way back on 6 February and stuck with it all year long.  They are all-stars, each and every one of them.  They are able to have basic (or better) conversations in English and have worked hard all year to improve.  It's hard to learn a new language as an adult.  Trust me - I know!  It's embarrassing to mess up, it's harder to find the time to attend classes.  But this group was incredible.  We are so proud of them!!

To cap off the year, we had both classes over to our house for a party.  We taught them how to play Cornhole, enjoyed snacks and drinks, and just hung out together.  We talked in English and Spanish, and had a great time together.  We will miss these people very much.  

Wilfredo and Luis David 

Juriel and Alcides

(left side of board) Jairo and Wilfredo as Team Mystics; 
(right side) Berman and Alcides as Team Smaller

Juriel!

Three wise monkeys?

"See, it's an odd numbered Thursday, so Fizzbin rules apply and that's 7 points."

Berman, contemplating his Cornhole technique; Alcides and Profe.

A great time was had by all!

We had prizes for the winners along with pencils for everyone.  We also strongly encouraged them to continue holding classes after we leave.  We presented them with all of our resource books, full of plans, worksheets and instructions for continuing to work on Beginning English.  And between them all, they are knowledgable enough to figure it out and keep moving forward.

We wish all of them, and all our students from the entire year, good luck!!

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And so the metaphorical sun sets on this chapter of our adventures.