Lesson 2: Elections

As of last Thursday I made it through my first cycle of classes. Yesterday I started the cycle again, returning to the level three students I met with my first week.

During the third week of teaching it occurred to me that I'd have to start planning the second lesson. As I explained in a previous post, I meet with a total of 39 classes (one was just added yesterday) on a rotating three week cycle. So I teach the same lesson for three weeks and then I change it and teach a new lesson for three weeks. I meet with third level students the first week, then second level students and finally in the third week of the cycle I meet with the first level students. I modify the lesson as needed based on the level of the student. We focus on conversation so it's flexible. One teacher asked me to follow the book more closely but the rest of the teachers have been amenable to letting me plan my own lessons. I agreed to email the teacher who wants me to follow the book a few days before her class to find out if there is specific verb tenses or vocabulary she wants me to work into the lesson. I can do that and she seemed satisfied.

I began planning a lesson on the fifty states. I was flipping through a book the Fulbright Commission provided called, "About the US." It has a lot of worksheets but none that fit the lesson I was working on. I found a list of questions about US elections and it dawned on me that the next few weeks is the best time to talk about elections in the United States. Ecuador has their own elections coming up in February. The night before class I changed all my plans and formulated a new lesson. The worksheet has nine questions ranging from the timing of the election to questions about the electoral college. I came up with nine questions about elections and politics in Ecuador like, "What are advantages and disadvantages of mandatory voting in Ecuador?" and "How can students become involved and influence politics in Ecuador?"

I've taught the lesson twice and I've been making a few tweaks here and there but so far I'm really happy with how it's going. I divide the class into nine groups and give them two questions - one about US elections and one about Ecuadorian elections. I make sure each group understands both the questions. I tell the group the answer to the question about US elections and describe it a little more in depth as needed. I then ask them to discuss the question about Ecuador and come up with an response to present to the group.

We work on this for about 20 minutes then it's presentation time! I call the groups up one by one. They read the US election question and answer. I provide additional background as needed, especially about the electoral college since they use a system based solely on popular votes. Then the students read their question about elections and politics in Ecuador and they give their group's answer. I was really impressed with the thought the students put into their responses yesterday! It worked so much better than just asking the students to participate in open discussion with their peers as I did in the first lesson. Now they are required to produce something to present to me and the rest of the class so they stayed on task a lot better than before.

I have class from 3:00 to 8:00 tonight. I have a minor adjustment to make but I'm basically going to repeat what I did yesterday. I'm not expecting any miracles. Every class is different and I could do the exact same thing in two classes and find it incredibly successful with one group and falling utterly flat with the next.

Teaching is hard work but I'm finding it rewarding. I know this will sound cheesy, but now that I've met all the students it's so fun to see them the second time around, smile at them and see them smile back! A few of them, the engineering students in particular, still seem a little nervous around me but I'm working to let them know they can relax around me, be themselves and have fun - as long as they're doing it in English!

Room for rent, foreigner wanted

Do you remember the foreign exchange students in your school? They were a little on the strange side, dressed differently, maybe they had a weird haircut, smelled a little funny, perhaps walked around quietly with a wide-eyed look on their face looking slightly confused?

Well, that's me. Here I am. At 5'9", or 175 cm, I tower over the people around me. My giant head, covered with my thick "blond" hair floats above crowds like a flag that shouts, "giant foreign woman here!" Sounds like fun? Not always.

In the house the young students have accepted me as their friend the gentle giant. However, I'm at least 10 years older than the rest; I could have children of my own who are the age of several of them if I were into teen pregnancy. I leave parties early (1:15 am is about as much as I can handle), I don't eat meat and I'm clumsily learning the local slang.

The kids took me to visit a nearby town on Sunday; we had a good time. I enjoy trying new things and I think they like being the ones introducing me to different foods, explaining what words on menu mean (trust me, every unfamiliar word on a menu is just another word for a form of meat). I don't have any close Ecuadorian friends yet and don't worry, I'm not feeling sorry for myself. I accept this. However, I'm open to being pleasantly surprised.

Yesterday as I walked home a man struck up a friendly conversation. He was the typical Ecuadorian man who feels it's appropriate to talk to me on the street: middle aged, short and chunky. I made the mistake of politely responding to his questions of where I'm from and what am I doing here. I got extremely uncomfortable when he followed me to the door of my house and asked for my phone number. I explained that I don't give out my phone number and he insisted he only wanted "English lessons." He persisted and I squirmed and tried to tell him that I only teach at the university and that I'm very busy with classes. Suddenly the door opened to my house as one of the students was exiting. That provided the perfect distraction as I warmly greeted the student and ran inside. It wasn't exactly graceful but it was effective.

I told Rosita about the encounter just in case he comes around looking for me. She told me about persistent men who asked her about Emilie and she informed them that if Emilie were interested she would have given them her phone number and that she wasn't going to share any of Emilie's personal information. Whew!

Rosita has two vacant rooms now that Emilie has returned to the US and another resident moved out earlier this month. I asked her if other girls were moving in and she told me she is hoping to find foreign people like me to move in. I don't know any who are looking for a place to stay I was sorry to tell her. It made me feel appreciated. I really like Rosita, she uses terms of endearment like "mi reina" or "mi cielo" (my queen or my sky/heaven), she prepares special vegetarian dishes for me, she tells me my room needs dusting, she lets me use the washing machine for free while she charges the other residents (ssh, don't tell anyone!) and she lets me hang out with her in the warm kitchen while she's cooking dinner when it's cold at night.

For my part I pay rent on time, I stay out of her way when she's busy, I clear my dishes, I keep my things in my room and my room is tidy (if not dusted) and I chat with her now and then. I feel at home here and Rosita is more of a host mother than a landlady.

So, if any of you foreigners out there need a room to rent, Rosita has a couple available. :)

First weeks of teaching

I started teaching last week! I was so excited and nervous about my first class. I had all sorts of thoughts about how the class would go, I planned out a lesson and went over it in my head dozens of times.

The first day of classes didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I felt discouraged, the students seemed confused about what I was doing and I wasn't getting the level of participation that I wanted. I talked to the other ETA and she said she had a similar experience with the students when they first met her and started working with her. For the second day of classes I simplified a few things and lowered my expectations. The second day was much better.

This is what I have learned in my first two weeks of teaching:

• Speak slowly and emphasize words that I know are cognates to help the students understand.
• Ask the teacher to encourage student participation. Some teachers sit in the back of the room and work on their lessons, some leave the room when I'm teaching and others participate in my activities or push their students to join in. The latter group are my favorites. 
• Maintain a positive attitude and smile as much as possible - even if my face starts to hurt after four hours of class.
• Students often have the same schedules as other students in their major. For example, juniors studying Economics might be part of a small group of students who they have the exact same classes all day everyday. They sit together in class and are usually extremely reticent to move around and talk to other students. I have to be creative to get classes to mix more.
• Students will revert to Spanish if not under my or their teacher's direct supervision. 
• The people around here really like eating guinea pigs and potatoes.

I have been teaching the same lesson for two weeks now and will be modifying it slightly next week for the first year English students. I think the only modification I'll do is to deliver my introduction and instructions for each section in both English and Spanish. This is what I do in my lesson:

1. Introduce myself. I talk about the Minnesota and Minneapolis. I tell them about the current weather and explain that because of the often changing weather, Minnesotans are obsessed with the weather. I tell them about similarities between Minneapolis and Cuenca: rivers traverse both cities, they both are home to many beautiful parks and interesting museums. I talk about my education, my background with Spanish to explain that practice is the best way to learn a language, and a little bit about the Fulbright Program. 
2. Three questions for Rose. I allow the students to ask me any three questions. I first experienced this at a school in Minneapolis with middle school students. They all wanted to know what my favorite Justin Bieber song is. The Ecuadorian students asked me the same three questions in the first week - how old are you, are you married and do you like Cuenca? So this week I told them the answers to the top three questions right off the bat and asked them to come up with new questions. I was really happy I did this, now many of the questions are more interesting. Students have asked me about geography, politics, and why I like teaching. 
3. Question of the day: What do you like about Cuenca? Next I ask each student individually to tell me what they like about Cuenca. This helps me connect briefly with each of the students. I hope it also helps the students relax and not find me to be such a scary giant. I'm still a giant but maybe a friendly one. Cuencanos are proud of their parks, the rivers and the history and architecture of the city. This is how I learned that they also really like eating guinea pigs with potatoes. One man told me, "I like to eat the guinea pigs and I like the womans in Cuenca." Since then a few other male students have told me they like the girls around here. This morning for the first time a woman told me she likes the boys. I like the honesty! In two weeks and after asking this question to over 400 students, only two have told me they don't like Cuenca. One was a young man sitting at the back of class wearing sunglasses at 7:00 in the morning. He thinks Cuenca is boring.Oh well, to each his own.
4. Conversation activity. As a class we brainstorm questions that one asks when meeting a person for the first time. The questions the classes come up are usually the same, "what do you like to do in your free time?" "how old are you?" etc. Rarely a student will throw in a different question like, "what kind of clothes do you like to wear?" or "do you like to ride on a motorcycle?" but after teaching the same class 20 times, I love the unusual questions. Once we have a list of at least ten questions we practice them. This is the tough part - getting students to get up and talk to people outside of their little groups. I tell them to have a 3-4 minute conversation with at least five different people but that's only successful when I have teacher support. I circulate the room and try to talk to most of the students. I ask questions from our list but always try to throw in a few others. I ask about brothers and sisters and what they always struggle with is when I ask if their siblings are older or younger. I tell them that it's okay to have to ask what that means. Sometimes we're conversing in a group and I'll ask other students to help the student who is struggling. If all else fails, I tell them the words in Spanish.

So that's my class! I have one more week of teaching this lesson and as I said, it will be to level one students so I'll work in more Spanish. We'll see how it goes. For the following week I'll be back with the level threes and I'll start a new lesson. I have some ideas but I'm keeping an open mind in case it flops. 

Teaching here is a challenge and it's tiring! I have so many students and I talk from start to finish in all of the classes. Talking for four hours a day is something to get used to for me. Even though I spend only a few minutes at the start of class talking to the whole group, I spend the rest of it talking to individuals and small groups, trying to engage them in a conversation. 

Teaching is fun, though. I love hearing about the students' families, their interests and overall I'm impressed with their abilities! I met a woman who prepares breakfast early in the morning for her family, gets them off to school or work, goes to school herself, returns home to fix lunch for her family, goes to work in the afternoon, prepares dinner in the evening and then spends much of the night caring for her mother who has Parkinson's disease and often wakes up three or four times in the night. Today I talked to a woman who is married and has a daughter studying medicine at the same university! No surprise, I have a special place in my heart for these impressive multitasking "non-traditional" students.

Well, I'm done with teaching now and have a few free days until I'm back at the university at 7:00 am on Monday!