10-7-09

The real teaching adventure begins tonight. On monday I had planned on teaching emotions and working on the verb to be for the rest of the week, but when I arrived and asked them if they knew emoptions they of course did. So that was an oh shit moment, but we ended up getting by with a review of emotions and the alphabet. The officers are not very good at stringing lessons together, as I am sure I have mentioned before. The most frustrating thing with working with them for Luke and I was that they dont know the English alphabet well enough to use it in the classroom. So for about an hour we did alphabet review, I cant tell you how exhilarating that was ¨E¨, ¨No! the English E¨ yeah it was great. I think that I bored them into submission though and they will study theyre alphabet and use it to spell and help eachother in class. Alright that last sentence was a complete lie except for the boring them into submission part. By the end of the class I only had 2 students (not because I scared them away) there were only 3 to start with and the other person had to head out to El Castillo for the night.

So yesterday I wracked my brian trying to think of what I could possibly teach them, because my emotions study was going to lead into a deeper dicussion of to be (not in some exestential sense, purely grammatical). After 3 hours of searching through really terrible and counterproductive ESL websites I decided that I was going to do the irregular past tense. Luke and I had done this with the other group during a three day week because its mostly memorization (because its irregular, in case you were wondering). So I got my lesson plans all laid out for the rest of the week and even typed up worksheets for them to do in class or at home and then when I got to the station to eat I had one student. So we cancelled class and thus its been a pretty easy transition into teaching solo thus far. I really wasnt upset to miss class because I got to watch ¨Lost in Translation¨, which is a great movie, but slightly depressing when you are in the States and even more so when you are actually in a similar situation. No worries though I didnt let it get me down and I followed it up with that ever hilarious story of internationl comedy titled ¨The Constant Gardener¨.

Today has been hotter then hell, no clouds no rain, which is strange because we have had pretty regular early afternoon showers for the past two weeks. Tonights class should be good, and missing a day will insure that I wont run out of material for the rest of the week. I wish I could be there to watch the leaves change and get accustomed to the cold, everyday I dread the fact that I am going to be dropped into the subarctic temperatures of Iowa City in winter with no time for adjustment. Then I realize I havent even unpacked my pants here and all is well with the world. Pura Vida