Teaching Week #2
Let’s say… Tuesday’s block went well but Monday’s class not so much. Why? Planning!
Sunday, Martin and I went to San Marcos where our profe lives to get to know his city and his family, but also to plan for Monday’s class. Lunch was great and his family is super nice, but planning didn’t really happen. Maybe 30 seconds. I suggested that we talk about Hurricane Matthew which was passing through Central America at the time. He liked the idea and asked me to find an article (in English) about it from a US newspaper. Then he said he was going to talk about some of the effects the Hurricane (which actually turned into a Tropical Storm, not a Hurricane) has had on Nicaragua – ruined bean crop = higher prices = more people without food. It sounded good but the idea was not developed whatsoever. So, I went into Monday’s class blindly… as did he since he knew nothing about the article I had chosen. Luckily, I had the chance to talk to him 5 mins before class started (that’s actually a lot of time between classes since the teachers move, not the students). He had decided not to even use the article, but rather save it for Tuesday which saved us the challenge of “winging it.” However, I now had absolutely no idea what we were going to do. Turns out he had brought in a pack of BrainQuest (remember these? A set of cards with random questions regarding science, math, geography, health, etc. for each grade level) and randomly selected 10 questions to put on the board. The students’ task was to answer these 10 questions in class. Hmmm… My thoughts: yes it was in English, yes they had to think, yes they did well, yes they enjoyed it, but did they learn English? Probably not. I think we could have had a much better clas had we planned a little.
Later Monday, I met with profe during our scheduled planning time. This is when we planned what we were going to do with the article about Hurricane Matthew and wow what a difference Tuesday’s class was. We started with a warm-up activity where the students had to fill in a chart with the following information: WHO is affected, WHAT = hurricane Matthew, WHERE is it, WHEN did it occur, WHY is it important to study about hurricanes, HOW can we prepare / help those affected by the hurricane. This was purely information that the class already knew. Then the students read through the article in small groups either supporting, negating, or adding to the information on the board. Students were encouraged to ask questions about any unknown word. In the end, we had a complete chart on the board, with correct information and solutions. For homework, each group of students is to prepare 1 paragraph about the state of one of the affected countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua) and they will present it in class this coming week.
A world of difference between the two classes. We still haven’t talked about the specific effects that the hurricane has had on Nicaragua, though. Therefore, this will be the topic for next Monday. I found out that the price of chicken has also been affected. It’s going down to compensate for the lost beans. Interesting…
