First Day of Class

Today we kicked off the project with our first set of classes. In total we taught 4 classes, in which the student’s ages ranged from 7 to about 20. The classes were truly a success – which I owe in large part to my mother, a former teacher, as I used two of her tested and tried teaching tips: plenty of games and incentives, i.e. candy. The junior high classes got off to a slow start as I had hastily assumed that the kids had a steady grasp on the basics of the English language – such as the alphabet and numbers. I was wrong. Although they are currently studying English, the proctored TV lesson plans coupled with their proctor’s lack of English language ability makes for a lackluster English program. Thus, we started from the beginning; basic greetings and the ABCs.

The classes for the elementary students went almost perfectly – the only glitch being that due to the slow pace of small town life a good portion of the students waltzed into the class over twenty-five minutes late. On more positive note, the children had such vigor to learn that nearly every student decided to stay for the following class in hopes of obtaining more practice. While most of the children only knew a few words of English, a handful spoke the language quite well due to time spent in the US. One child in particular was born in San Jose and only recently moved back to Ziquitaro. As a result, his English is nearly fluent, yet he is enrolled in the classes because he and mother are afraid that he will loose his speaking ability unless he practices.

The elementary students also participated in an activity that we have done with every class thus far in which they must look at a map of the US and place a star on the state/city where they have a family member or friend. They must place a different color star on the map if they have either been in the US or were born there. Everyone participated as each student knows a plethora of people who have immigrated. Most children have nuclear family members in the US while a few even have both parents living in the US. The majority of the stars are concentrated in California and Texas while a few linger in Kansas, Illinois and North Carolina. Thanks to the star exercise it has become evident that Ziquitaro has transnational communities living in California, most notably Los Angles and the Bay Area, as well as communities in Texas, most notably in Fort Worth.

My Group of Teens Playing Number Bingo