Week one of teaching=success!

Hola!

Sorry I didn't update yesterday. The Internet company still hasn't come to install internet for me and I was so tired after my classes yesterday that I really didn't feel like making the trek to McDonald's. Luckily I have Fridays off so I got to sleep in a little bit today :) Classes went well again yesterday, but my last class was quite interesting. This was the first non-bilingual class I've had to teach and the kids know absolutely NO English. Allow me to set the scene for you, dear friend or family member, so that you can better understand what I will be dealing with every Monday and Thursday...

As I was walking down the hall approaching the class room, I heard a small roar of voices and immediately I knew that I must brace myself for what I was about to walk into. The hum of shouts and screams grew to a full out death metal concert volume of noise as I made it to the door. Peering in I saw two kids standing on two separate desks trying to knock each other off, a boy trying to pull a stuffed animal snake away from the death grip of another bigger boy, another small group of student throwing balled up trash and notebook paper at each other while laughing hysterically at the top of their lungs, another boy screaming angrily at another and pushing him up against the wall and they were clearly on the verge of a fight, and then two girls with big earrings, lots of makeup, and perfectly done hair sitting in the corner meticulously applying some lipstick. After 10 minutes when everyone was finally quiet enough so that I could at least hear myself thinking, I started giving my introduction in English as I have been doing in all the other classes, but halfway through I started busting out laughing because their faces had a blank and almost pained look of complete lack of comprehension. So I stopped and started again in Spanish. The rest of the time it killed me to have to speak in Spanish to them when the point of me being there is to be teaching them English but they even stumbled over trying to say, "Hi, my name is..." In fact, I was trying to review objectives they should know from the previous year (they are in their second year of English), and I went up to one of the girls in the front row and shook her hand and said, "Hi, my name is Monique. What is your name?" She replied, "Hi, my name is Monique. And you?"

So, basically, this class will be my challenge for sure. Still, I'm pretty excited about it. I just really hope that they will get something from me this year. We'll see how it goes!

I'll update again soon! Happy Friday!

XOXOXO