Work update!

September 23, 2009

I’ve started teaching again! Or co-teaching, at least, which is one of the three big things I’ll be doing down here for two years, the other two being helping teachers create (and learn how to create) teaching materials from readily available items, and community outreach (teaching English to people not in school, educating people about health/environment issues, and anything else I have time for when not completing those first two goals).

I’m really enjoying being a part of Profe Tania’s classes. So far, I’ve mostly been used as a model to demonstrate the pronunciation of words in English, though I’ve done a little bit of teaching/leading activities and walking around to help students. The kids are so respectful in her classes for the most part, and especially got into repeating the words after me when they heard me say them. It was exciting, and a little unbelievable to be teaching to kids who were really geeked to be doing the things I was asking them to do.

I’ve also started teaching to a “youth group,” which is really an abandoned afternoon English class at the instituto where we teach in the morning that was left bereft of a teacher when she got a scholarship to study in the States. Yesterday when Laura and I taught, we were presented like substitute teachers, which we’re technically not allowed to be; needless to say, it was kind of awkward for both us and the kids. Tomorrow, we’re going to present the “class” as something optional, only for the kids who want to learn, as our program director told us we should today, and it’ll hopefully be a lot better.
EDIT: it totally was; even though it was still mandatory, we did the hokey pokey, and it turned the whole class around in terms of attitude. Everyone was so happy!

Tomorrow is also our group’s last formal Spanish language class. Because our Spanish is already above what Peace Corps requires us to be able to speak at the end of our training, we get the next 8ish weeks to work with Tania and our youth groups, getting a feel for the work we’re going to be doing in our sites eventually. Next week, we’ll get one two-hour Spanish class that’ll be focused on our questions about the language, instead of the 6 hours per day four days a week we’ve been having the last 3 weeks. The classes have been great, our facilitator was always kind and full of good ideas for things for us to do, but I’m definitely glad for the freer schedule I’ll have the rest of the way.

Speaking of the rest of the way, last week I got to meet/interview with the person in charge of deciding where I’ll be living for the next two years. It went really well; it was the first time I’d really gotten to go into depth with someone about all the stuff I did with the Obama campaign last year, and it felt really good to say out loud the reasons I had for volunteering for him and for the PC. She told me, that since I’m one of the five trainees that already has real teaching experience, and I already have decent language skills, that I’ll probably be in a site where instead of working with one or two Nica teachers, I might be working with a big group of them, and will also be able to observe other volunteers, and give them feedback on how they can improve their teaching. It got my hopes up, I’ve got to admit, for the possibility that I’ll be in a pretty big city and will be close to other volunteers.

In other news, it just rained here, and it was so loud falling on the corrugated tin roof of my house that it completely drowned out the Bone Collector (dubbed in Spanish). Which was fine, since I was writing this entry, anyways. Now that the rain is done, I’ma go back to watching it :)