First Class

5/29/2012

I taught my first class today.  The students are so eager to learn!  There were 15 (!) students in attendance.  I have asked for smaller classes tomorrow.  It is difficult to hear when there are so many. Some people have an easier time with pronunciation than others.  I found myself leaving out many students in order to work with those who were struggling. Class was held for 2 hours.

Most of the students in attendance have never spoken English.  Some have never heard English before.  Even the students that have studied English have accents so thick, I struggle to understand them.

Today, we covered how to introduce yourself and another person.  I spoke almost completely in English.  There were some times that Spanish could not be avoided, though. 

I used sheet protectors with cardstock inside as my whiteboards.  I had mirrors to help with pronunciation.  The students learned the differences between this is, that is, these are, those are, and how to ask what objects are in English.  Students also learned the basics in possessive pronouns.  We finished the class by every student saying one phrase that they learned. This gave me the opportunity for further error correction.

Tomorrow, Officer Carado (the head of the entire INGUAT police) will break the class into smaller groups.  He understands that I would prefer only 6 or 7 in a class.  I will teach in the morning and in the afternoons.  The officers here work for 7 days, then have 4 days off.  This presents a little bit of a scheduling problem that is still being worked out.

I will have the evenings free to prepare materials and explore the city.  I have been informed that this Friday is a day of vacation for me, as is the weekend.  If I need anything, I just need to ask.  I feel as if I’ve been offered the moon! Everyone here is so kind!