Teaching for the First Time!

The weekend was filled with family activities. I spent it with another cousin named Paola and her family. We went to a small town near Barranquilla named Sabana Grande and had an amazing lunch at a restaurant/farm. I had a great time with the kids, they are so energetic, and once they pop they don’t stop. We also went to see the port called Santo Tomas.

After a relaxing weekend it was time to go back to school! I never thought I would be so excited to go to school. I went to the pre-school area that is attached to the big school and met up with the professor that I met last week named Steven. He usually goes in at 8 am and teaches three pre-school classes some basic English. Then he teaches children in second and third grade and then seventh graders in the afternoon. The seventh graders are a group of kids called "Semilleros", they are in training to become part of "Jovenes Forjadores". My role while I am here is to help him with the English classes in any way possible.

We entered the first classroom and some of them jumped off their seats just to come say hi to us. They gave me tight hugs and kisses on the cheek as if they already knew me. They call the teachers "profe" which is short for "profesor/a" or "seño" which is short for "señor/a". They were adorable! Some of them asked if I was the professor’s wife or girlfriend which was a little awkward. So innocent those little ones. So with the pre-schooler’s we just went over basic English words such as:

• Mother
• Father
• Grandmother
• Grandfather
• Sister
• Brother

Steven drew the characters on the white board (pretty good drawings I must say) and we played a game. We separated the class into several groups and had one member from each team come up. They were lined up on the other side of the room across the white board and stood behind a line. We called out a family member in English and they had to run to the white board and touch the family member that we said. We did this several times with different people from each group, we tallied the points and the winning team got applauses and high fives.

After pre-school, we went inside the main building and to the second and third grade classes to teach similar English vocabulary but a little more advanced. It all went well. We went to have lunch and then Steven decides to tell me that he has a doctors appointment this afternoon so I would need to take over the seventh grade English class! I was totally caught off guard! I spent my lunch preparing for the class. He kept trying to put me at ease by saying that it will be easy and not to worry. We went over what they already knew from previous classes. They use a very good English/Spanish vocabulary book from which they work with most of the time.

I waited in the classroom for my students to arrive and they were confused to see me there because not only was I not professor Steven but I looked too young to be a teacher. I had to reassure them that it was the correct class, English with professor Steven. I looked and sounded confident but I was so nervous inside. I know, it’s silly but it’s the truth. After some time, as they all spilled into the classroom, I started feeling comfortable. We reviewed what they had learned last class and explained the activity. They were to make a dialogue between two or three people with everything they have learned so far such as direction, food and ordering food. I recorded them of course so here they are!