Teaching

Our first class of the morning is with the little folks...1st through 3rd grade. We nearly "dance"as we teach to keep them engaged. We learned our first lesson when we tried to make name plates for their desks the first day and discovered that most cannot print their name without help from the teacher. They do a good job of listening and repeating but making connections between the spanish and the english is much harder. They are lively, enthusiastic and great fun to work with.

The second class in Munoces is with the upper elementary...4th through 6th grades. There is a great difference between the abilities in this classroom. Some are soaking up English as fast as we can present it and others take a lot longer. We try to find a balance and are constantly revising our plans as we go along. We tried a dictionary exercise and discovered that some in this room hardly read. At least they discovered that Spanish is in the front of their dictionary and English in the back so the time wasn't completely wasted. The range in age from about 10 to 16. It's not unusual for students to still be in elementary school in their mid-teens...for whatever reason. They work hard, show us respect, and always do their very best.

After the 4 hour school day we make the 20-25 minute walk back to the old truck for the hour ride back to Berlin. Some days the truck is waiting for us and other days we wait for the truck. I don my lovely bandana to try to keep some of the dirt out of my hair and to keep the sore on my head clean.

After an hour or two of rest we teach our final class of the day at the Casa Pastoral in Berlin. This class was open to any and all comers. We began the week with 2 students, went to 3 the second day, then to 7, and we ended the week with two days of 12 students....not the same 12 each day, though. This is the one class with which we are using Pimsleur ESL. We suppliment with about a half hour of conversational skills and review of terms used in the Pimsleur lessons. Our students range in age from about 10 to about 35. They have been really fun to work with and several have not missed a day!

We are always ready for an early bed so we can get up and do it all again the next day!