My English Conversation Class

Just an update on the English conversation class that I teach...it is going great. We had a couple of weeks in which we couldn't meet but I am trying to make up for lost time by making our time together really fun for the kids. I don't want it to be like "school" for them. I want it to be fun for them amidst learning. So I always try to bring a song and print out the lyrics with spaces for some words so they can listen and fill in the blanks. And we always discuss words that they don't know in the song before we listen to it. I also have another game that they love which is basically about 20 questions that I wrote down on different strips of paper. I lay them out on the floor and we do different activities using those questions. I am also trying to teach them transition words too like FANBOYS but also like: therefore, however, instead, since, without, etc. We really enjoy our time together and there is no language barrier between me and them because if we can't understand each other, we have two language between us that we can use to maneuver our way to the central point of what we are trying to say. Gosh, I really love those kids. And I love Mary Cruz who is the teacher at the school who monitors the taller. She is such a dear friend and since she is the English teacher, she and I have so much to talk about always...be it in Spanish or English. She has been teaching at the school for FORTY YEARS and has probably gotten about 5 days off during that time if I have understood correctly. She is always overworked and I really think that it is time for her to have some time for herself. So of course, I have something planned to celebrate her for all of her hard work. I was thinking during my morning run about what the kids and I could do celebrate Mary Cruz. And then it came to me so I'm gonna get on making that happen during our next taller on Monday. I am supposed to bring Beyonce's If I Was a Boy...by request. Last week it was Miley's Cyrus' The Climb. Oh the global unity that exists through music. :) Teaching this English class has been one of the coolest things I have done while in Chile. It is also going to be one of the hardest things to stop. I would stay in Chile forever for those kids. They don't get to meet ANY extranjeras that come to their school for longer than a couple months so obviously since I have been there almost four months now, we have really built strong bonds. Ugh. I don't want to think about leaving. I'm not going to think about it. Instead, I am going to go print out the song lyrics and plan the lesson for this Monday. Lista.