Now, Back at School

March 25th, 2008
First day
I had such a strange beginning this day. First of all, I was extremely nervous and anxious because of today’s experience. Secondly, I have never had such a hard time getting to an address. Thirdly, because of my bad luck my trousers got torn in a leg.

I finally arrived at 9.15 to the school and my group was already there. I signed my arriving time paper and we talk to Miss Nirmia. She told us to wait until the break and we were leaded to the Teachers Room. During the break, we met Miss Rosita, Miss Ximena and Mr. Cesar. Then we were introduced to the person we will be working with, in my case Miss Ximena.

Ximena is an English teacher and we will be working with primary students, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. Honestly, that was not what I wanted. I really wanted to be with older students. Anyway, at the end of the day, I realized that it was a really good experience because it is amazing to see kids so little learning a new language. And they do it very well.

About what I saw of the teacher, I must say that, in general, I liked it. She has very good ways of making the kids quiet by singing songs as “shh, shh, baby sleeping” and “twinkle, twinkle little star” and you can see that the kids remember and actually learn English. They know things as animals, what’s the weather like, the date and classroom material. Something I did not like is that she told a 2° grade student to go out because he answered “manzana” when she asked “what is the month”. Sometimes, teachers kick students out so as to avoid the problem and think in a solution. By kicking this student out, Ximena kicked the problem out.

The school has a great structure and infrastructure. They have a special room for English and the students go there to practice the four language skills. There it is a video and TV set, radios, books and they work by groups in circle tables. Every student has the chance to go there. Teachers (not only the English teachers) were very kind in general; they said good morning and treated us very well.

This first day was an extremely good day, but it is only the beginning. I am certain that in some months there will be many changes in me and in what will be my opinion about this school. This is why I am really looking forward to the following days of my first experience to see and learn more about this particular school’s culture.