I have a HUGE ENLGISH CLASS....and I have never taught English before in my life. And I always appreciated the hard work that teachers do, but now I appreciate it a thousand times over. I almost cried last night because....some people just don't get it. I can repeat the same thing 100 times and some students are still confused. And I am not talking about repeating English words, I am talking about repeating directions. I will say in spanish "The first 5 questions are listening questions. Please read over the questions to make sure you understand. Then I will begin reading a paragraph and you have to mark the correct answers to the questions according to what I read." (And yes, I can say all that in Spanish.) OK, so I will repeat that 2 or 3 times. After each time I will ask if their are questions. THEN I WILL READ THE PARAGRAPH...and no one will answer anything. Then I will look at the group and say "Why didn't you mark any answers?" And they will look back at me and say "OH! We were suppose to answer the questions according to what you read?!?!"
THIS IS NOT AN EXAGERATION.
Anyways, I am pretty sure that God did not give me the paitience to EVER be a teacher. But I do hope to continue teaching this english class. The final exam is, Sunday, May 4th and those that pass the course will have the option of continuing on to the next level! Here is a picture of my sisters, Gaudy and Ivania, my cousin Derlis, and our basically brother too, Davis studying for the midterm.
3 comments:
An update on Kim's blog - pretty much the highlight of my life! Can you tell that I check this pretty much every day just to see how things are going with you?
Hi,
I'm considering joining the Peace Corps, and I was wondering if you felt safe where you are in Costa Rica. I'm a young female college grad, and I'm interested in what the PC does, but I'm apprehensive about safety. Do you find that young women in the PC are targeted for rape/assault? Do you ever feel in danger? I know these are pretty personal questions, but I wanted to ask someone who's there :) Thanks
Hi,
I found your blog from Abroad in CR blog...Anyway, i live in CR and have either taught English or helped others teach it, during most of the 3 yrs. I have been here.
I think you are dealing with Spanish literacy issues. The quality, esp., in certain areas of CR, of education is poor here. People do not know how to write and read properly in Spanish. And test taking, studying, etc... skills, are just not there for the most part.
I found myself needing to teach those skills more than the english at first. I needed at least 50% more time than expected to do each lesson or chapter... And, grades were lower. I used a curve. The course was designed for literate people and my students were not literate in the way you and I would define it.
My best students were ones who had their schooling in a city, vs. the countryside, and/or had taken some college classes. They got it much faster. But they were maybe 1/10 of my students.
You will do fine if you are able to slow it down and combine literacy, grammer, and class (instructions, study, note-taking) skills with the english lessons.
By grammer, I mean not expecting your students will know how to write a letter (or whatever the lesson is) properly in Spanish. If you realize this, it's easier to teach how to do it, and then teach how to do it in english too.
Good luck and keep it up:)
They will gain so much from your classes and the opportunity literacy and english affords them.
-Heidi
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