Hey Everyone. Thought I’d give you all an update on how my classes are going.
Chicas Brillantes
I can hardly believe it, this Friday is our ninth meeting! After that we have one more lesson, then we’re going to do a service project (I think we’re going to offer to pick up the garbage on the school grounds where we meet), and have a graduation ceremony in June. After that, I’ll be starting a dance class called “Muevelo” (move it!) with the same group of girls.
The last couple of lessons we’ve had were “Yo Soy Inteligente” (I am intelligent) and “Yo Soy Respetada” (Respected). We learned how to write good goals and worked together as a team to solve a giant puzzle in Inteligente, and talked about gossip, what it means to be a good friend, and the 3 types of communication (aggressive, passive, assertive) in Respetada.
These are from a game we did to illustrate non-verbal communication. Everyone drew an emotion and acted it out for the group to guess.
This week we’re doing “Yo Soy Solidaria” (solidarity). We’re going to focus on team building activities and make a giant paper chain to represent our group. Hopefully I’ll be able to take pictures and post them on my facebook next week.
English Classes
This week is class number 6! It’s an eight week course so I’ll be graduating this class sometime in May. Right now I’m trying to decide if I want to keep it going for another 8 weeks over the summer. It’s a lot of work to prepare these classes, but it’s actually been pretty fun so, we’ll see.
It’s a really really basic course so we’ve been learning stuff like “how old are you”, the names of colors, basic verbs (to be, to have), numbers…stuff like that. Last week we learned about families.
This is a family tree I drew with corresponding flash cards in English to place over each square. “Fulana” and “Fulano” are the dominican versions of John or Jane Doe. Basically, a general name.
This next week we’re working on time, days of the week, and months.
This is a clock I made out of cardboard to help the class practice telling time in English.
Poster to teach time vocabulary.
Months with corresponding flashcards in english.
Escojo Mi Vida
This group has been a blast so far and I’m really excited about it. This week is our 5th lesson. So far, we’ve talked about Self Esteem, Making Decisions, Values, and Reproductive Organs.
So, maybe this is too much to share, but I’m really proud of these so I feel like I should. Also, go me for basically teaching sex ed in Spanish.
First, we went through and explained all the different organs, their names, and their functions. Then we put up these 2 posters with the flash cards missing. All the kids had to put their card in the blank space where they thought it went. Then we went through and corrected it together.
After that we did a puzzle game where 4 different groups had four different puzzles I made out of diagrams of the organs, cardboard, and modpodge. The first group to complete their puzzle won some candy.
This Saturday, we’re going to be talking about adolescence and the changes we go through, and for part of that I’m explaining the menstrual cycle.
To help explain, I’ve drawn a diagram of the female parts, and the egg, sperm, and “blood” are all pieces of cardboard I can move and stick with tape to the poster. For example, I’ll start with the egg in the ovary, then move it along the fallopian tube and explain that’s where most eggs are fertilized. If fertilization doesn’t occur, the blood and the egg both exit through the vagina, and the pieces of cardboard will move down. Hope that makes sense.
Anyway. That’s where I’m at!
The poster on the right
The Humphreys Abroad 