Friday, May 20, 2011

We have been to an elementary school the last two days, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. On Wednesday, I read books and played games with two students in the special needs classroom. They were very friendly and very eager to help me with my Spanish! After we finished our books, I taught them some colors in English. It was hard for them to remember the words, but they really wanted to learn more. By the end of the class, they were able to remember green, blue, and yellow. I think yellow was the easiest for them to say, so that also made it easier to remember. They wanted to give me a tour of the school, so we walked around for a while, and they told me what every room was. They seemed very proud of their school and eager to show it to me. Today (Thursday) when I was at their school, I saw one of the girls that I worked with yesterday. She ran up and gave me a hug, and she wanted to tell me the colors she remembered from yesterday. It was exciting to see the waterfall and the volcano, and I am sure that I will enjoy all of the sightseeing; but it is moments like that mean the most.

Today I worked with sixth grade and third grade. Even though it was hard to communicate with them, I felt like our lessons were successful, and I they seemed to really enjoy them. I found that I liked working with the students in small groups more than teaching in front of the entire class. I definitely see how challenging it would be to have an English language learner in my classroom. They really need extra help in order to understand a lesson. I think it went well because we had five people in each class, and we were able to give each student the individual attention they needed.

I have really enjoyed my Spanish classes this week, and I hate that I have to leave my teacher! She makes our learning so much fun, and I feel like I have learned so much from her in this one week! Having Spanish class with her makes me think that I would really like to teach English as a second language. I am excited to take more ESL classes next semester, and I am excited about my field experience for those classes. I find that learning a language can be more fun than many other classes. I like it because a lot of the learning takes place through talking and listening. I enjoy talking with my teacher, and I like to hear her stories as well! Profesora Lucy has made me much more excited about teaching ESL in the future.

We went to the mall last night, so I did not get a chance to tell my Mama Tica that we had a change in the schedule and I would have to leave earlier than planned this morning. I told her as soon as I woke up this morning, and she was very worried that I wouldn’t have time to eat my breakfast. She started cracking eggs as soon as I told her about our schedule change, and then she insisted that I take some bread with me on my walk to school. She is so sweet and motherly, and I know that I will miss her when it is time for me to leave.

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