It has been so fun to teach English classes in the church. Three days a week we teach niños (children) and jovenes (youth) 2 1/2 days a week (3 days one week and 2 days the next week). "Youth" here is defined as anyone who is not married, so most of the students in our "youth" classes are between 18 and 30.
The niños are all different ages and levels, so we split the group into two classes. I teach the younger and students with less of an English background, and Marie teaches the older students or students who have more experience.
The class of jovenes is a blast. We make them do many of the activities we do with the children in the school, songs, games, you name it! The students are so willing to try these activities and seem to be learning little by little. :)
The other day when we were teaching, the lights went out in the entire church. No fears! All the students had a cell phone, so even though it was pitch black, class continued on courtesy of the flashlight and illumination feature on their cell phones! It's one time teachers definitely don't mind for their students to have cell phones in class. :D It was quite a fun adventure!!
We have also been making videos for our students with pronunciations of words. Have you ever tried saying each letter of the alphabet, the sound it makes, and a word that starts with it while making sure to emphasize necessary sounds mouth movements? Not as easy as it seems. :) Good thing we can laugh at ourselves!
We laugh a lot in these classes as Marie and I navigate our way through learning Spanish while teaching English. It sure does make for some interesting experiences and stories. :) For example, the other week Marie told her class, "¡Hasta tomorrow!" Phrases like this are very common in our language these days, but our classes get a kick out of them!
As always, prayers are appreciated as we teach. We definitely have fun doing it though and we hope our students are learning something!! :)
Love and warmth from Guatemala!
No comments:
Post a Comment