So I came upon the profound realization that teaching puts you through exactly the same emotions as learning. If I´m bored out of my mind and feel like I´m pulling teeth to get somewhere with an activity, the students probably feel they´re in the dentist chair, whereas if I´m enjoying myself the students are often doing likewise. I´ve therefore tried to step up the creativity and energy to make every class more enjoyable for all. Luckily my amazing (real) family made that so much easier by sending me a package last week, including CDs jam-packed with English tunes. The primeros and segundos really responded to the use of music in the classroom. Some zealously sang along, others were in fits of laughter trying to figure out the meaning of words as I drew pictures and acted out verbs at the front of the room, but all in all it was a success. After too many repetitions of Coldplay I learned to go with the less-generic Page France for the segundos.
Another huge hit was jeopardy, planned and executed with Liza. She has recently started coming to Friday classes conmigo since she has them off at the crazy Diego Portales, and two is always better than one with 25 hyperactive primeros. The jeopardy competition was definitely heated. When we called ¨Miércoles¨ students were jumping out of their seats yelling ¨Westerday¨ or ¨Weedsday,¨ when we asked ¨how many siblings do you have?¨ we got some stellar answers such as ¨I have one brother in tree sister¨or ¨I am from Coquimbo.¨ We were also forcefully told that the verb ¨to olvidate¨ must exist. The daily laughs brought on by our mistakes in Spanish and our students´mistakes in English are enough to cure any winter doldrums.
Coquimbo really feels like home now. We´ve scouted and ranked the local ice cream spots, learned which doorsteps to wave at on our runs to the beach, and I am finally accustomed to the neighbours´ rooster crowing at all hours of the night. It´s nice to run into local acquiantances when walking through the center and feel comfortable in basic Spanish conversation. My Spanish is slowly improving, the verb tenses are coming much more naturally now, it´s just overwhelming to try to absorb all the vocabulary in a language. Poco a pocito estoy aprendiendo.Photos from Weekend excursions:
Colin, Vianna, Liza on our mini hike in Vicuña, a town of vineyards in the Elqui Valley
A weekend with a guitar, a card deck and English-speaking friends... how lovely
Cooking pancakes for the Canada Day feast. The Fam loved Maple Syrup!
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