Teaching English and Community Organizing
To teach English, play games.
It's less work for me and more fun for the class.
Done and done.
My Wednesday morning English class spent the hour running to touch things that were red, green, blue, black, etc etc, then made up actions for each color and won points for being the fastest group to do the action when I called out the color either in English or Spanish. The afternoon class got super competitive making animal sounds and actions until we had to end the class because I thought they might attack each other when I called out "lion."
My Tuesday English class is a group of eight, the youngest being 10 years old and the oldest 28. They come every week without fail, actually participate when I ask them to, without fail never do any homework, and give me blank looks when I ask if they know what verbs and pronouns and nouns are. I guess they don't cover that in grades 1-9 in the Salvadoran education system? I am really really glad I grew up in Colorado and read books and watched schoolhouse rock, is all I have to say to that.
This past week I decided to scratch lesson plans and just make flashcards with all of the numbers and letters. They divided into two teams and had to put the letters in alphabetical order by sound or play matching games with numbers. When they thought they had it right, they had to say everything out loud in English to work on pronunciation. It was great for the two new kids who missed the first few classes and good review for the others, and they were grinning by the time we left. Also, I totally did the entire thing again with Edwin when he got home, because he's just the best little brother ever.
Next week I have cut up conversations they have to put in order, family trees they have to build, and descriptions they have to match with objects and people.
This post is chronologically backwards, but it makes sense as I was thinking about English today, not the women's group. On Sunday the women's group met to elect a governing board. I could have hoped for a higher turnout, but it meant that the seven who came all benefitted from an intimate talk about leadership, they all realized that they can be leaders, and they all became part of the directiva, or governing board of the women's group. I was thrilled that the woman who is the most dynamic and educated in the group refused to accept the role of president, forcing another woman to step up to the plate. We worked together to define their roles and responsibilities, and agreed to make a year calendar at the next meeting, followed by a session to teach those who don't already know how to do embroidery.
We are also incredibly close to getting the sewing class approved. My awesome project managers spent the day calling Insaforp to clarify the extra materials we need to provide in order to get approval and writing and editing cartas de compromiso to assure Insaforp that I actually will follow up with the women when they complete the class and I will find seed money for them to start a small business. That means all you family and friends who read this may be getting a letter/video sometime soon asking to help out with materials or a donation to get these women up and running in the community making bags and clothes and whatnot. I'm hoping like crazy that Insaforp follows through and the women don't flake out on me.
Other news:
I miss Chile all the time, and even more now that it has been in the news twice in as many weeks. The first was an earthquake that rocked the entire northern coast, then this week Valparaíso, beautiful Valparaíso that I love so dearly, went up in flames. The hills lost a dozen people, thousands of houses and over 10,000 people have been left homeless from the blaze. It reminds me of Colorado all over again. All of my friends are posting about the fire and the relief efforts, and it is amazing how quickly everyone there banded together to help out, clean up and rebuild. University students trek out en masse to clear debris and volunteer firefighters (all firefighters in Chile are volunteers) worked 28 hour shifts trying to hold back the flames. Despite the disasters I wish I could be there living in the city I love, helping to rebuild.
We made cheesecake brownies with my host family and another PCV. It was their first time tasting cream cheese. Every time we make something, I ask which they liked best, and every time they tell me "this one." I guess we're on the right track.
It's less work for me and more fun for the class.
Done and done.
My Wednesday morning English class spent the hour running to touch things that were red, green, blue, black, etc etc, then made up actions for each color and won points for being the fastest group to do the action when I called out the color either in English or Spanish. The afternoon class got super competitive making animal sounds and actions until we had to end the class because I thought they might attack each other when I called out "lion."
My Tuesday English class is a group of eight, the youngest being 10 years old and the oldest 28. They come every week without fail, actually participate when I ask them to, without fail never do any homework, and give me blank looks when I ask if they know what verbs and pronouns and nouns are. I guess they don't cover that in grades 1-9 in the Salvadoran education system? I am really really glad I grew up in Colorado and read books and watched schoolhouse rock, is all I have to say to that.
This past week I decided to scratch lesson plans and just make flashcards with all of the numbers and letters. They divided into two teams and had to put the letters in alphabetical order by sound or play matching games with numbers. When they thought they had it right, they had to say everything out loud in English to work on pronunciation. It was great for the two new kids who missed the first few classes and good review for the others, and they were grinning by the time we left. Also, I totally did the entire thing again with Edwin when he got home, because he's just the best little brother ever.
Next week I have cut up conversations they have to put in order, family trees they have to build, and descriptions they have to match with objects and people.
This post is chronologically backwards, but it makes sense as I was thinking about English today, not the women's group. On Sunday the women's group met to elect a governing board. I could have hoped for a higher turnout, but it meant that the seven who came all benefitted from an intimate talk about leadership, they all realized that they can be leaders, and they all became part of the directiva, or governing board of the women's group. I was thrilled that the woman who is the most dynamic and educated in the group refused to accept the role of president, forcing another woman to step up to the plate. We worked together to define their roles and responsibilities, and agreed to make a year calendar at the next meeting, followed by a session to teach those who don't already know how to do embroidery.
We are also incredibly close to getting the sewing class approved. My awesome project managers spent the day calling Insaforp to clarify the extra materials we need to provide in order to get approval and writing and editing cartas de compromiso to assure Insaforp that I actually will follow up with the women when they complete the class and I will find seed money for them to start a small business. That means all you family and friends who read this may be getting a letter/video sometime soon asking to help out with materials or a donation to get these women up and running in the community making bags and clothes and whatnot. I'm hoping like crazy that Insaforp follows through and the women don't flake out on me.
Other news:
I miss Chile all the time, and even more now that it has been in the news twice in as many weeks. The first was an earthquake that rocked the entire northern coast, then this week Valparaíso, beautiful Valparaíso that I love so dearly, went up in flames. The hills lost a dozen people, thousands of houses and over 10,000 people have been left homeless from the blaze. It reminds me of Colorado all over again. All of my friends are posting about the fire and the relief efforts, and it is amazing how quickly everyone there banded together to help out, clean up and rebuild. University students trek out en masse to clear debris and volunteer firefighters (all firefighters in Chile are volunteers) worked 28 hour shifts trying to hold back the flames. Despite the disasters I wish I could be there living in the city I love, helping to rebuild.
We made cheesecake brownies with my host family and another PCV. It was their first time tasting cream cheese. Every time we make something, I ask which they liked best, and every time they tell me "this one." I guess we're on the right track.
Comments
Post a Comment