Installment #4: The Adventure Continues!
Tuesday the teachers greeted us like long-lost friends. They are so friendly and so appreciative that it is impossible not to love them all. Several have good English so our focus for them is introducing interesting activities that require active participation. One of our theories is that students will learn more if they enjoy what they are doing and will remember what they learn if they actually do it instead of just being told about it. But it’s not just for fun: skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing are imbedded in the games and activities. For the benefit of those whose English is not so good, we present vocabulary lessons and model the activity beforehand so they learn new words and can see what they are supposed to do. We played guessing games: one with Alaska animals that was pretty tricky and one where they collected objects around the room and campus. It’s nice not to worry about them running off or playing hooky as we would do if they were our public school students.
On Wednesday the teachers all learned ways to teach their own students practical vocabulary by creating short skits. In this case they role played waiters-customers in a restaurant. Since they are teachers, they are clever and creative – it’s a lot of fun to see what they come up with, and the mistakes in English give rise to a lot of good-natured laughter. They also practiced interesting ways to improve conversational skills.
Thursday was “math center” day where the teachers learned how to have smaller groups of students rotate through a series of activities using hands-on materials. We had calculators, number lotto games, and play money which seems to be popular no matter how much English anyone speaks!
Friday was picture day so they were dressed up and ready for both individual pictures and the official group photo. Most of them prefer a serious look in so it’s always a challenge to make them smile. The rest of the big day was occupied with a simulated market. We all brought empty packaging and some real food items and then filled in with pictures of items. A few teachers were vendors and the rest were customers. Using the play money they bought and sold the items. It was great fun, except for a robber/shoplifter who got a little carried away with his role playing and the vendor had him on the floor threatening to punch his lights out. One of us called the “police” and the culprit was hauled off to “jail.” Whew! I took a video of the market which they thoroughly enjoyed watching. Some of them didn’t recognize themselves on film.
At the end of the week, we were all amazed at how quickly the time had gone by and how close the group had become. One of the teachers set up a city tour for us for next Monday, another said she’d bring pottery from her home pueblo of Guatajiagua, and another one arranged to guide us on an overnight weekend trip to visit a rebel war museum. We’re enjoying every minute of our time here!
Next Installment: The Trip to Perquin
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