Student Work

Maribel, my enlace

2nd grade girls in Computer class.  This is the Teachers' Room during recreo.  I have my "locker" in this room.  I station myself here in the mornings to accept money from the parents for English books.

Thankfully, tomorrow is the planning day that's not so mandatory for me.  I'll be there in the morning because on Monday, the Principal said he'd like me to be there.  I've planned all week to use that time to organize my drawer ("locker") and make lesson plans for the next few weeks if possible as well as copies.  Also, at 8, they're bringing breakfast.  That'll be interesting and fun!

I'll feel better with my life in order.  Today, my life got close to in order.  More and more students have books, I got the CD player to work (except with 1st...their CD only works with a computer), and I felt a bit more in the groove with what their work is like (the 

workbook layout, etc).  Wednesdays will likely be my favorite day.  I only have 2 preps: I teach both classes of first before recreo, and after recreo I teach 4th and 5th who are in the same book.  It felt very easy and required little thought!

During recreo today, Maribel (enlace) came to square away the book situation.  She brought me more books that I needed, took my money, and we balanced what we had with what we should have had.

The first unit for first grade is greetings 

(Hi, Hello, Good morning) as well as asking and telling your name and family vocabulary.  Since on the spot, I couldn't get the CD player to work (to my credit, it had worked in the computer lab with another disc, it just didn't work with 1st grade's CD), I had about 15 minutes of class work to make up on the spot.  I'm tellin' ya, the change from 30 minute classes to 50 minute classes is a big one!  Kids (just like adults, or maybe more than) get tired of hearing the teacher talk.  They want and need to be involved and active in their learning.  Also, repeating in language is so necessary, but can be so boring if that's all you do.  I decided to let the first graders stand up and act out what was on their workbook page.  The scenario was a teacher and student having an introductory conversation.  

Good morning, what's your name and how are you?  After I read it to them, pretending to be both Miss Emilia (by standing normally and speaking in my voice) and Diego, who is learning English in an American school (by squatting and speaking in a higher voice), I let them come up and act out the parts.  There was also a minor part of a friend saying good-bye to Diego.  Sometimes there were three people acting it out, sometimes there were two.  By the time I got through 3 rounds of it, everyone wanted to participate.  

Even Lucano (left), who tried to walk out of class as I was walking in mumbling that he didn't understand and didn't want to stay.  Success, I say!

After that, I also asked them to walk around and greet 5 people saying either Hello, Hi or Good morning.  We've sung a good morning song every time I've been in their room, so they're pretty comfortable with that.  After the skit (with me telling them their lines and letting them repeat), they felt comfortable with Hello and Hi as well.  Comfort is a major player in language learning.  Once the anxiety level builds, it's hard to get anything from them!

Then there was a little time for them to work in their workbooks or on the copies I had made.  While they were working, I went around taking pictures of all of them.  Mostly, I want you to see how adorable they are.  The secondary reason is that I think it will help me with their names.  I'm going to conquer this goal!  I'm currently attempting to upload the pictures to Kodak Gallery and when I do, I will email them.  If you don't usually get pictures from me, but want to be added to my "Mexico Pictures" list, email me or comment on the blog with your email address and I'll be happy to add you.  It's taking forever to upload.  My internet signal is very low in the afternoons (quite often actually) so it's refusing to upload even slowly at this point.  Ever the soldier, I'll press on and get them up!

4th graders working on their colored clothing

During recreo, like I said, Maribel came and we got our book situation settled.  That took the whole time, so I didn't get to make copies of something I wanted for 4th and 5th, but it wasn't a necessity.  Also, their classes are only 30 minutes until October, remember, so I wouldn't have gotten to it anyway.  With fourth grade, I introduced some articles of clothing.  The book is great; it comes with CDs, workbooks and homework books.  I really have nothing to do in preparation.  That's the nice thing.  It leave little room for creativity, but I plan on making room once I'm comfortable with all the preps, etc.  After the CD introduced the 8 items of clothing, I had them color a sheet of those items the colors I told them.  Of course there were some who chose not to listen at ALL.  They began coloring right away.  Even after I told them that they had to listen for the color, they kept on.  There are always a couple in every group!  In 4th grade, there's a new student.  I don't know where he's from, but it must not have been public school in Culiacan, or else in a very, very poor school because he's never had English.  I didn't know this, and rarely have to deal with this at Lockeland because in 1st and 2nd grade, they haven't learned enough to feel totally out of the loop when they're new.  He was totally hangin' in there and I appreciated him for that!  All of his classmates are three years ahead of him in English and he was trying his darnedest.  

After school, I rode the bus with one of the two first grade teachers.  She's 1B (the second first grade class I teach).  She looks young and doesn't have another job after this one.  She lives with her family (as do most, remember, until they marry) and she said since she doesn't work in the afternoons that she would take me around sometime.  I told her let's do it next week!  After that, I'll start my afternoon reading job.  She was very thoughtful in telling me everything we were passing on the bus (I think the red-shirts must've gotten on the earlier bus!) and I look forward to getting to know her better.  This is her first year in this school.  She worked in a Prepa (high school) last year and she loves this much more.  She is certified to teach special ed and that is her calling, but this is where she is for now.