Vacaciones Utiles (Summer School)

Peace Corps recommends that volunteers teach a class during summer school for a couple reasons. It helps us get to know the people in the community, it helps with learning Spanish, and it gives us something to do during these sometimes slow first months. Because I didn’t feel my vocabulary was sufficient for teaching really anything other than English, an English class it was. So here I am, jumping into facilitating a class, which I’ve never done alone before, and in a foreign language no less!

It’s been a relatively good experience so far! This week I completed my third week. I’m teaching elementary school kids Monday and Tuesday mornings and high school age kids in the afternoons on those days. I take role every day and so far I’ve had a great turnout: in both age groups combined, I’ve had a total of 46 students come. Some have come to every class, others just once or twice. It’s been fun but I have to say choosing healthcare was a good choice; I don’t think I could be a teacher. I have so much respect and admiration for teachers especially at the elementary level. Kids are tough. I do understand that it’s even tougher because of my Spanish level. I can’t image I’m very intimidating when I’m reprimanding them with broken Spanish and a gringa accent. I did send a few students out of class for being disruptive and one has yet to come back, I feel kinda bad… oh well.

But despite the challenges it’s been pretty fun and rewarding. The kids are quick learners, I’m very impressed with their retention. I've been doing a lot of interactive activities instead of straight lectures, so that helps with the attention span issues. And some of those guys will just warm your heart with their questions or when they rush to show me the notes they took in their notebooks or when I get to class early and there’s already a big group of students waiting by the door. One day when I was walking back home after class, I saw a little girl showing her dad her notebook and he put his arm around her giving her a little squeeze. So cute! And yesterday they wrote “Mi maestra Mis Alexis” with chalk on the sidewalk in front of the school and decorated it with flowers for me. Those little moments make it really fun.

It’s also been really beneficial for my integration into the community. Lots of people on the street now ask me how the classes are going or if I’m on my way to my classes, etc. I still have parents asking me if their son or daughter can come. I just say yeah of course bring them Monday! The most student’s I’ve had was 25 and that was a lot for me. Hopefully it doesn’t get too much bigger! I had a meeting the other day with a group of mothers and my PC Coordinator. He asked if they knew why I was here and a few shouted out “to teach English!” So I gotta work on that a bit and make sure people know I’m there for more than that! Once my work with the Health Center takes off, I’m sure everyone will catch on that I’m here to promote and educate about healthy living as well J