Summary of Teaching In Guate

Wow! Time has flown by!!

I have completed my time of teaching the police officers in the capital of Guatemala.  I have enjoyed this so much!  Below, you will see pictures of the various activities I conducted with my students.  After every class, I walk away knowing I was born to teach.

Teaching here has very unique challenges.  Every day, I had different students.  The schedules of the officers are not only tiered throughout the week, but also throughout the day.  Some officers work nights and others work days.  Some switch back and forth between days and nights.  Some work for 11 days straight and others work for 5 or 7 days.

To add to the scheduling difficulties, part of their job duties often include going out on patrol to places far from the station.  So, sometimes they had planned on coming to class one day, but had patrol duty that went longer than expected.

Many of them also play on a soccer team.  When there were games, classes were cancelled.  I made the most of my time with them, but it turned out to be very little.  I hope that I will have a little more consistency in the next cities.

When I couldn't teach English, I practiced my Spanish.  Sometimes, I have trouble thinking in English now.  I translate from Spanish to English instead of from English to Spanish!  I can't yet decide if this is a good or bad thing.

The following pictures are from my first class (with 15 people). 

 
It was very difficult to teach 15 people.  There was so much time between each student's speaking opportunities!

My succeeding classes had less people: Usually 4-7.

I used sticky-notes to help me remember the names of my students as they worked on answering the questions, "Who are you?" and "Who is he/she?"

My students learned how to ask and answer questions using "this, that, these, and those."  With this, they acquired classroom vocabulary such as: pen, pencil, book, chair, light, window, mirror, notebook, paper, as well as the plurals for these words.  I worked hard to help my students with their pronunciation: the difference between this/these is very difficult for Spanish speakers to create.

Sometimes, due to the officers' schedules, I brought my teaching materials to the front desk at night.  Those who were on duty were often bored, so I "taught on the fly."  The officers had so many questions and wanted to learn it all at once.  In these spontaneous lessons, I managed to keep them focused on one topic such as learning numbers or learning a particular set of phrases.

In my structured classes, I also focused on learning the numbers in English.  Most of the officers could count up to 10 in English, but got stuck after that.  I helped them with their discrimination between and pronunciation of the "teens" and "tens" (fifteeN vs. fiftY).  To do this, I wrote the word form of the number next to the standard form.  Under the word form, I used Spanish phonetic spelling to assist in the pronunciation. I am so glad that I know enough of the language to be able to do this!  It was a HUGE help to my students.

I taught the Alphabet Song with a print-out of the letters of the alphabet for each student.  I even had them sing it without me. (They were so off key, it was painful, even for a tone-deaf person like me!)

After they learned the letter names, they played a game to practice.  It is like Go-Fish.  The cards have the letters of the alphabet on them.  The object of the game is to get the most pairs.  The students learned the following language, "Do you have the letter __? No, I don't have the letter ___. Draw a card. Yes, I have the letter ___. Give it to me. Your turn. My turn."  They also learned turn-taking and pragmatics through this game.  It is one that I will definitely use again! (The cards are actually supposed to be used for phonics.  They are from Sue Dickson's Sing, Spell, Read, and Write curriculum.)

A class or two after learning the letters of the alphabet, I taught various jobs.  We worked on the structure of "Who is a ___?" and "You are a ___." "He/She is a ___." "I am a ____."  "Construction worker" was a very difficult word for them to pronounce!  With many of my students, I would pull out a compact mirror and have them mimic my lip position.  Their friends thought this was hilarious until they themselves had a difficulty!

We worked on greeting each other with "How are you?"  I taught them words besides, "Great, good, and fine."  But I also taught them that words beyond those are the beginning a conversation between close friends.  We worked on various ways of taking leave, as well.

In the middle of the classes, I went to Xela (pronounced Shey-la) for an extended weekend (5 days) with one of the officers whose 11-day-shift was over.  When I returned, I gave a review of this, that, these, and those to my students.  This time, however, I let them draw pictures of vocabulary they wanted to learn.

This was very beneficial to them.  Unfortunately, this was my last class with them.  Today, they had a soccer game, so class was cancelled.  Tomorrow, I am going to the beach for a day of fun. Saturday, I am connecting with some other missionaries. Sunday, I go to Antigua and will start all over there.

I had hoped to bring this group of students to the point that I could teach the simple present tense.  Due to scheduling, however, I barely was able to teach the present form of the verb, "To be."  My goal is to work out more of these kinks before the ball gets rolling in Antigua.  We shall see, however.

Whenever I see my students in passing, they use what they know to communicate with me.  It makes my teacher-heart proud.