Escuela Santa Marta

Is the official name of my school. It Is home to 28 students (six 1^st graders, seven 2^nd graders, four 3^rd graders, seven 4^th graders, three 5^th graders, and one 6^th grader), 2 teachers (not counting me), a cook, and whoever’s dog happened to follow them to school that day.

The school has a split schedule. Mondays and Tuesdays are días largos, meaning the school day begins at 7am and ends at 3:30pm, and Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are días cortos, meaning the school day begins at 7am and ends at 1 pm. 1^st, 2^nd and 5^th graders go for the first half of the day and leave after lunch, and 3^rd, 4^th, and 6^th graders arrive at lunch and stay for the remainder of the school day.

Unfortunately, since English is not a part of their regular schedule, I teach the students during their off time. This means that 3^rd, 4^th, and 6^th graders must come in early for me to give them their English lessons before lunch begins and 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders must stay later for me to give them their classes after lunch. As a result some students have ceased coming to English class. I’m not sure if it’s at their own behest or that of their parents, as well. I have lost three 1^st graders, and a 5^th grader. I would probably lose another 5^th grader if he weren’t my host brother and therefore obligated by his parents and politeness to stay. I don’t blame them, though. One of our WorldTeach orientation leaders likened it to your principal announcing that you had a traveling math teacher coming to your school to give you extra classes. I’d roll out, too.

The WorldTeach suggested teaching method is not what I expected to be. At orientation in Orosi we were asked to try to teach without using Spanish. Immersion classes are what we are going for. This means that we have to teach our students using modeling (acting out what you want your students to do), charades, a daily routine, almost excessive amounts of repetition, songs, drawings and pictures, and whatever else you can think of to get your students to understand you.

Here are some of my successes and failures with the aforementioned techniques:

Successes

Songs: I have successfully taught all of my children to ask and answer “What is your name.” The words:

Hi, my name is Kyra, Kyra, Kyra

Hi, my name is Kyra,

What’s your name?

The ABCs song was more or a less a success for everyone. For a while my 1^st and 2^nd graders would just sing random notes and sounds, but now they have a tune that has a good semblance to the melody so well-known and –loved by English speakers.

Pictures: I drew out different times of day to show when to say “Good morning,” “Good afternoon,” “Good evening,” and “Good night.” This worked for all classes except 1^st and 2^nd grade (see below).

Failures

Pictures: When teaching classroom commands, I had each command assigned to a picture. Repeat didn’t have a picture, but I hoped it sounded enough like repitir that the students would assume. I had a drawing of a book for “Read” but I later found out that they thought “read” meant “book.”

Physical Associations: After a day of incorrect responses when holding up drawings of different times of day, I tried to teach them greetings by assigning different physical acts to each.

Good morning: Arms stretched wide like you’re waking up

Good afternoon: fanning yourself because it’s hot out

Good evening: yawning because the sun is going down and it’s almost time for bed

Good night: use your hands as a makeshift pillow to sleep on; the students added in a raucous snore

Finally, I thought they’d got it! When I would do the motions, they would respond correctly. The problem is, I found out later that the associations gave them the wrong meaning.

Good morning: Buenos días +

Good afternoon: ¡Hace calor! (It’s hot!) -

Good evening: Estoy cansado (I’m tired!) -

Good night: Buenas noches +

I ended up correcting them in Spanish (it was at recess when I checked with one of my students to see if they could translate what they had learned) outside the classroom, and I every time I see one of my students outside the classroom I make sure to greet them in English so they get used to hearing the greetings used correctly.

 I’m learning that teaching is very much a trial and error experience.