I honestly cannot believe I have already spent a week in this beautiful place, and I am so glad that I have one more week here. I have really gotten used to my family, and I am excited to spend more time with them. We learned how to salsa dance at school on Thursday, and I think we all had a blast. I love learning cultural things like dancing and cooking. I think the total immersion is what has made this trip so incredible.

I am very impressed with both teachers I have had so far at CPI. They know how to make learning fun and exciting, and everyone stays interested. Honestly, I was not at all excited when I first heard that we would be taking four hours of Spanish every day. Four hours is a long time to be in one classroom learning one subject, but somehow the professors make it fun. It never seems like four hours to me. I have to admit, I do look at my watch from time to time, but I am never bored! Sometimes I think I won’t make it through my fifty minute classes at UNCW, but with the teachers at CPI, four hours is nothing. I want to take a lot of their techniques into my classroom. We usually begin our classes in general conversation, which is really good practice for us with our Spanish. I am always amazed at how easy it is for us to have a conversation with our teachers when they speak hardly any English at all. Sometimes we have to do some acting or some drawing, but we always seem to end up understanding each other. Then we usually move on to go over our homework, and we always go over it aloud together. This is something that I definitely want to do in my classroom. I think it is important that everyone understands their homework and gets a chance to ask questions. After going over our homework, we usually start our main grammar lesson of the day (and I have to say, somehow our teachers have even made grammar interesting!). We always end the day with a game, and I really like doing that. It gives us something to look forward to, and it is a good learning tool. Learning games are something that I want to use in my classroom as well. It keeps everyone interested, and games really are helpful in learning.

We went to the primary school again yesterday. This time we observed two English classes, and then we taught our lesson on letter writing. The classes were very short, and they did not have time to learn very much information. I feel like there was some miscommunication in the things that the she taught. I know that I was confused about the family tree she drew on the board, and I think some of the children were too.

As much as I admire the teaching methods used by both of my Spanish professors here, they cannot keep us from struggling with our Spanish. I began to understand this more yesterday during our education class. Struggling comes naturally during the learning process, and I have definitely experienced that. Yesterday during Spanish class I felt like I hit my max, and it seemed as though I could learn no more. All I wanted to do was speak in English. I was tired of having to think so hard before everything I said. Moreover, after class was over I knew I would have to go home and continue to use my Spanish. This was a terrible feeling for me, and I cannot imagine living in a world like this all the time. I am here for only three weeks, and I have friends that I can talk to in English. Our English language learning students do not get to go home in three weeks, and many times they have no friends to talk to in their first language. As teachers, we have to be there for these students. I think that yesterday was the first time I truly understood what this trip is all about. We have talked about it as a group, but I didn’t really get it until I experienced that feeling myself. I now understand firsthand how this trip will help us have empathy for English language learners in our classrooms.