I do work too!

In between all the traveling and mice/electricity/mud problems, there is work being done in between, believe it or not. 

Because it is “summer” vacation for the kids, school is out and the kids have nothing to do. Unlike in the states, summer school is something that most kids want to partake in and look forward to, maybe because there isn’t much else to do when it’s raining all day. So anyway, I started a “vacacciones utiles” (useful vacation) program by teaching English and art classes three times a week. 

This is the second time doing this. Last year, having been one month in site, my school director asked me to teach English, where upon I immediately said yes without fully knowing what I was getting into. And that was, teaching English 3 hours a day, 5 times a week. 

So this year, I was working on my own, since the school did not get funding to have a “vacacciones utiles” with classes such as mathematics and communication. Since I work for free, that doesn’t really affect me.

English is something that everyone wants and asks to learn, but unfortunately, since I’m not a certified English teacher, I don’t think they learn much. Last year, being the naïve volunteer that I was, I thought about how much English I would teach to the kids and the skits and dramas we would perform all in English. But I learned pretty quickly that learning another language is very difficult, especially if you don’t really know how to teach one. 

I’ve had a year practice now, so I got some quality lesson plans on how to teach numbers and greetings, and so on, but my original hope of them actually learning the language is no more. Now I just hope they remember a few words and that it’s not okay to shout at any white person “good morning” no matter the time of day.

So far, I have steady attendance as I am using a new point system. Each time kids come to class, they receive a star and throughout certain activities, I will award stars based on performance, so on. At the end of the classes, we will have a market day, where they will be able to “buy” school supplies with their stars earned. So getting kids to help me clean up or to do presentations isn’t that hard anymore. I wish someone would have told me about this sooner, as last year I would get red in the face with kids who wouldn’t show up consistently. Now, I don’t care if they show up or not, but because of the stars, they are more motivated. So everyone wins! 

I teach English Mondays and Wednesday for one hour for primary and secondary students. Then on Friday, I have art day. Last Friday was our first day, so I decided it would be fun to make paper mache masks with everyone. What I didn’t expect was how many kids would show up. 30 in total, that’s how many, from ages 4 to 15. So Annie was a bit stressed and tried to attend to everyone, but now I know what teachers feel like sometimes. It was like babysitting all of them at once, but all and in it worked out. It’s just by the end of the class, I need about 15 minutes of alone time to calm down and get my head screwed back on. 

I have until the end of the month with these kids. I’ve made sure to make the classes fun by playing games and drawing a lot. Future art plans consist of making recycled paper and making magazine jewelry, albeit hopefully with less than 30 kids or Annie is going to lose her mind for real.