Miss Elena´s first days on the job.....

I have now taught two days worth of classes. I´m still alive. The kids are still alive. And I think they know some more English now, so you know, that´s good too....

I start out the morning with 5th grade. It turns out the classrooms ARE separated after all (you know those crinkly dividers?) so I just have the 30 kids to myself without any distraction. These fifth graders are angels. I have never been around such a well-behaved group of children before. Not exaggerating. They sit in their desks and are quiet when I ask them too, they are excited to play games, they sing with me, they volunteer to answer questions, it´s ridiculous. I was expecting chaos, but it´s a REALLY fun group to teach. None of them have had English classes before, but they´re picking up what I teach them quickly. This morning the teacher was late (by about 40 minutes) so even though I was scheduled to do 6th grade first, they put me in 5th grade to watch the class. I think this is a very happy way to start the morning. 

Something happens between 5th and 6th grade. Maybe it´s the whole "Big fish, little pond" thing. Maybe it´s the fact that there are 12 more students in a smaller space. Maybe it´s that the teacher runs out of the classroom when I arrive, but 6th grade is hard. I don´t feel like the students are trying to be hard, they just don´t stop talking/shouting. I think that´s what happens when you put more than 40 high little 11-year-old voices in a small space, a few regular volume conversation makes a LOT of noise. When we were singing- they were engaged and paying attention, and when I ask specific children to please stop talking, it works for a little bit. But I´m not quite sure what I´m going to do, because no one can hear anything when there´s talking, and I don´t want to spend an hour asking kids to be quiet. I tried the clapping-call-and-response thing and that seemed to work. So....maybe that will save me....

They are still really fun though. Sixth grade has a lot more questions than 5th grade, so I have designated 10 minutes at the end of class for "Random Word Time". They just ask me how to say a lot of different things and I write them on the board and we practice saying them. This is of course, when the real teacher walks in. She probably thinks I have no lesson plans whatsoever. Today she walked in as I was writing "Conejo= Rabbit" right next to "Amante celosa= Jealous Lover" "Animal=Animal" and "San Pedro= Saint Peter". I´ve realized that if I don´t do this, the kids will never be able to practice asking each other what their names are without "HOW DO YOU SAY SQUIRREL????" coming from somewhere in the classroom. It´s better to bunch the randomness.

What we´ve done so far:
-We start the class with conversation practice in partners (Day One: Good Morning, Afternoon, etc.) (Day Two: What is your name? My name is_____. How are you? I am________)

-They have English names (one girl´s name is Nube: Cloud. I also have a boy named: Rosalindo. Don´t tell her Rosalind is a girl´s name.)

-They know: Happy, Sad, Angry, Surprised, Worried, and Sick (And can sing them too!)

-Words like Please, Thank you, You´re Welcome, Excuse Me, and No Worries (I couldn´t resist. At least I didn´t ad "Man" like I wanted to.)

-The sixth graders have a bunch of completely random vocab that they may or may not remember. Both groups want to learn Animals next.

-I want to tackle things like Numbers, Colors, and days/months before I start doing other vocab, but I have had both groups vote what´s interesting to learn, and animals win by a landslide.

I have been using a game where you pass around an object saying please, thank you, and you´re welcome. For the "conversations" I say they are at a party and have to talk with four people before they can sit down. They learned the "feelings" words by having groups of kids come up to the front and make faces and having the group guess. One of my more dramatic Fifth graders demontrated "sick" with an elaborate coughing scene, eventually ending with him passed out on the floor and moving untill the game was over. We are having a good time!

Singing is a little trippy :) The song "If you´re happy and you know it" is pretty do-able, except for that line: "Then your face will surely show it". It comes out more like: "Dane shwa washshwahshwa  OH EET". We switch out "Happy" for other words and clapping for other actions. After one verse of surprised gasping, sad crying, or angry stomping we go back to being happy.

I am really glad to have these classes! On Monday I will be up to four hours (4th Grade and 3rd Grade) So I´ll let you know how those go. For now- thanks for the prayers. Also- any of you that actually are elementary school teachers or are going to be elementary school teachers have my respect. LOTS of respect. Even fun and easy groups are really tiring! I´ll try to post again (a less detailed blog) on Monday.