Written in the AM: My first stint teaching English took place during my students’ midyear vacation. This means that the students were coming to class for 3 hours a day on their break…which is awesome. Their normal classes have recommenced and sadly mine have not. I begged, pleaded, prayed, and sacrificed a llama or two to be able to have my same place for the reminder of my time here. Did I get it? Nopecity! I have 5th level students, all around the ages of 15-17, but I will only get to see them on Friday. The other days I get to work with all of the other levels. Yesterday, I had the 2nd level, meaning I had to deal with too many 13 year olds with too much attitude. Blerg! It was awful! Of course, our support from Maximo Nivel is unorganized and convoluted. If I had the same class, I could be able to learn what they need most and they tailor my teaching to fit these needs, or even better if I solely worked with my same class from before then I would already know what they needed. But since I have a different level each day, I can’t accurate plan what to do with my students because I have no idea what their abilities are.
There is also the boys...I teach an all girl class and when the boys are outside they sick their heads through the window and whistle at the girls and do cat calls. It’s unbelievable how disrespectful they are. I need to find a way to get these boys to back off. Most of the girls yesterday were really good at ignoring them but some of the girls were egging on the boys. I am missing windows and I must find a way to close them off or put the girl sin the area away from the windows. I did not have fun yesterday. I need to alter my teaching style to better work in these situations. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that today goes a little better. I might ask if there might be another classroom where we can have a safer learning environment.
Written in the PM:
I have just come back from my second day on my new teaching schedule. My first class from 3-415 only had six students, and they are wonderful students. A perfect class you might say. During my second class, which tragically is longer than the first, after I have 15 students I sent the other 15 to a different class that only had 5 students. This decision made my day so much better. Instead of struggling to get them to shut up and work, I was able to get to know them better. I also started implementing some rules and structure and it was defiantly a big help. They still have a long way to go...but they are only kids and they can handle it. I know they can. I have some very smart girls. I was pleased that two of my students from last week ask if they could join and I said only if they got there on time, so they said they’d arrive early to make sure they’d be in my class. That meant a lot to me.
Random Factoid: I bought a cell phone. I got the phone and a month of service for $24
La Cultura Cura
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