Wow. Welcome to another edition of Poco a Poco, likely the most significant post yet. I slacked off and made excuses for myself last week, but there was A LOT going on. Let’s start with the swearing-in ceremony. As of Wednesday, August 14, we are officially volunteers. We spent the rest of that week chilling and training in a fancy hotel in Queretaro. On Friday, we dispersed to our respective sites throughout Central Mexico. On the way to Puebla, I visited the massive Mexican capital of Mexico City. I spent the weekend in Puebla at great hostel with an awesome host and left for Tepexi one week ago. This week has been full of positive experiences.
Let’s start with the students, 51% of the reason why I am here. They are amazing. All of them are at least willing if not eager to learn English. As always, we share the responsibility of motivation. Teachers need to make class interesting and engaging, and students need to reach for the hand that’s being extended to them. I don’t foresee motivation being a problem as long as I continue to improve as a teacher. And I’m already noticing areas that I need to improve.
It’s difficult to give directions to people in a language they don’t understand. After working on an information sheet about themselves, I asked students to practice speaking by sharing what they wrote on it. I modeled what I wanted with the student who spoke the most English, told them to pair up using exaggerated hand gestures, and wrote “partners” on the board then pointed to pairs of people. In short, I did all I thought was necessary to convey a message and assumed it was enough. Wrong.
Students continued working individually on their information sheets though I wanted them to be speaking (they truly want to do good work and were worried about not finishing it). So I got their attention and tried again to get them talking, and again they kept writing. Now, classroom management is self management, and at this point I realized I was getting frustrated.
They’re ignoring me because they’re afraid. Unbelievable.
That wasn’t the case at all. They simply just didn’t understand me. And that’s not their fault; they don’t speak English. It was my fault. So I tried it again, maintaining my cool, and finally they understood and began timidly chatting with each other in their basic English. Sometimes language teachers need to give directions three or four times before students begin to get it. It’s vital we stay calm and confident in our students’ abilities and intentions. To quote the maestro of classroom management himself, Dr. Thomas Starmack, “If you want it, teach it,” and that’s what I continued to do.
With that same class, the very next day, I was giving a diagnostic test. “I,” I began, pointing to myself and speaking slowly, “need to know,” pointing to my head, “what you,” pointing to each of them, “know,” pointing to my head again. “This is not,” shaking my head, “an exam.” I wrote “exam” on the board and crossed it out (exam is examen in Spanish, so I figured they’d get it). Then I wrote common Mexican grades on the board--10 9 8 7--and struck each of them out. Heads nodded, they understood it was not for a grade and relaxed. Next I had to make my life easier by teaching them what I wanted.
Teachers have a lot of work, and grading is a big chunk of that work. TEC doesn’t have scantrons or even internet in the classrooms, so that makes even more work for teachers. I’m grading the diagnostic tests by hand, the old-fashioned way. The first class numbered their papers any which way (there’s also little paper for printing here, so I used the projector to display the questions). Because the students numbered their papers differently, the key I made matched up to few of their papers, which meant they took longer to grade. Problem. Solution: if you want it, teach it. With the next class, I wrote on the board how I wanted them to number and answer the questions. Some got it right away, others later, and even some way later, but eventually they all got it. These are the strategies that ease the difficulties of life as a English teacher in Mexico.
OK, now for some fun stuff to temper the boring pedagogical stuff. To end pre-service training, we had an event called Mex Factor. Peace Corps staff and trainees performed acts such as juggling, dancing, an ad hoc discussion of whether robots should have rights, and of course, singing. Rob and I, with very little practice, sang an original song titled, “Mi Esposa” (My Wife). Below are the lyrics in Spanish and English.
Verse 1
Mi esposa es bonita -- My wife is beautiful
Ella tiene un buen trabajo -- She has a good job
Conocimos en una cantina -- We met in a cantina
Y ahora deseo yo nunca vi ella -- And now I wish I never saw her
Verse 2
Aquella noche en la cantina -- That night in the cantina
Ella me estudió con ojos de una gata callejera -- She studied me with the eyes of a street cat
No pude negar la mira en sus ojos -- I could not deny the look in her eyes
Y yo supe ella será todo un viaje -- and I knew she would take me on a trip
Chorus
Si tú siempre en una cantina -- If you’re ever in a cantina
En una noche mística -- On a mystic night
Correr lejos, muy lejos -- Run far, very far
De la mujer con ojos verdes y grandes -- From the women with big green eyes
Verse 3
La noche estuvo mágica -- The night was magical
Larga y llena de pasión -- Long and full of passion
Ella dijo que me ama -- She told me she loved me
Y mi corazón gritó, mi mente susurró -- And my heart screamed, my mind whispered
Verse 4
Volvimos al norte, mano en tentáculo -- We returned to the north, hand in tentacle
Su belleza escondè muy bien -- Her beauty hid very well
La decepción en su alma -- The deception in her soul
La boda tuvo un castillo inflable -- The wedding had a bouncy castle
Chorus
Si tú siempre en una cantina -- If you’re ever in a cantina
En una noche mística -- On a mystic night
Correr lejos, muy lejos -- Run far, very far
De la mujer con ojos verdes y grandes -- From the women with big green eyes
Verse 5
En mi ciudad natal, feliz y estable -- In my hometown, happy and stable
Ella tuvo my mente, cuerpo, corazon -- She had my mind, body, heart
Pero ella quiso lo que no pude dar -- But she wanted what I could not give her
Una vida rica y famosa, encima mi humildad -- A life rich and famous above my humility
Verse 6
Ella salio un dia nublado -- She left on a cloudy day
Con un hombre, cara blanca -- With a man, white face
El carro estuvo pequeño -- The car was small
Su nariz, grande y rojo -- His nose, big and red
Bridge
Él estuvo el mejor payaso en la escena -- He was the best clown on the scene
Yo nunca tuve un oportunidad -- I never had a chance
Sus zapatos eran muy grandes -- His shoes were very big
Chorus
Si tú siempre en una cantina -- If you’re ever in a cantina
En una noche mística -- On a mystic night
Correr lejos, muy lejos -- Run far, very far
De la mujer con ojos verdes y grandes -- From the women with big green eyes
And now for the random wrap-up. In Puebla City, people like to talk...A LOT. I sat at a table after some chiles en nogada and listened to a table--two men, four women--talk for SEVEN HOURS about politics mostly. I contributed little (I don’t speak a lot of Spanish and I don’t even like talking politics in English). I ate dead crickets earlier this week, not bad, food of the future, some say. I wasn’t prepared for my first class on Tuesday and no students showed up :) I ate more chiles en nogada with Tepexi big wigs while 90s soft rock played in the lobby (Linger, Cranberries; Shiny Happy People, REM), eleven of us in a pretty small room, with little talking, embrace the awkwardness. I sat and listened for another three hours while some stalwarts of Tepexi talked politics and were served sandwiches, tarts, and horchata by women employees of the university. Are you still reading this? Thanks. My host family has six kids, and the oldest, Lulu, 10, is already taking up a motherly role by telling her cousin Kiki, 6, to eat his vegetables. Yesterday I played basketball in a pick-up league with coworkers and students of TEC. Basketball is not my sport, but we won with little thanks to me. Yesterday I also attended a baby shower which was much more exciting than those in the states. There was an MC, games, guests attacking an entire table of dulces (sweets), a presentation of gift-giving in which the givers got to draw on the faces of the parents with lipstick. A lot going on hahaha.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a good week, and I’ll see you next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment