Back in Miguel Alemán - another ESL year

I arrived back in Cuidad Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas, México yesterday. The 700 plus mile trip was made longer by the torrential rains along the way. I stopped in Houston long enough to shop for posters and other class room materials at Mardel's.

Today I went to Eagle College and learned that there are currently three teachers for the six grades of English (I'm not sure what they have planned for 7th grade). The new teacher Erin will be teaching First and Second grade while I will have Third and Fourth Grades. Melina will again teach Fifth and Sixth Grades.

It is anticipated that I will have a dozen students in Third Grade (8 who were in Second Grade last year at Eagle College and four who will be attending Eagle College for the first time) and a baker's dozen (13) in Fourth Grade all of whom I had last year in Third Grade. Unfortunately two of my better students from last year moved over the summer along with two others. If I am lucky one more will also not show. He shouldn't be in Fourth Grade as he was unable to function in Third Grade. Why the school promoted him is beyong me. He doesn't need to be in a higher grade.

Classes start Monday, but I suspect that will be more of an orientation day. I know going in that the text books will be more advanced English than any of the students have to begin the year. My challenge will be to build their English WHILE also getting them through the text books. Science will be the most difficult for them.

And while they are learning English I hope to be learning Spanish. Time will tell.

It's been awhile

It has been awhile since I updated my blogs. So today I hope to update at least a couple - this one and my fantasy sports blog. If you are into fantasy sports be sure and visit by website http://timnew.com/fantasy_sports I am adding content but there is plenty there now for fantasy football enthusiasts.

On other matters, I am back in Three Creeks for now. School at Eagle College (that is an elementary school) in Cuidad Miguel Alemán, México ended July 4 - that is when final grades were available for parents. Classes really ended a week earlier and I left a day earlier so I wouldn't be on the road July 4. When I left, I was not sure if I would return for another year or not. I needed to see how things were at home with my father and mother before deciding. I also needed to decide if I could afford to return. Teaching English at Eagle College isn't something you do for money but I don't want to be in the red either.

Anyway, I plan to return in early August to Miguel Alemán and teach a full year. I hope by starting the year rather than coming in the middle I can help elevate the English of the students to near or above the US levels. It will be a challenge since the students will begin the year below the US level for their grade. I do not yet know which grade or grades I will be teaching. But I know 3rd, 4th and 5th grades will all start behind the US levels.

So I am in 3 Creeks for about another 3 weeks. I have a ton of clean-up work to do in that time and hopefully will start some lesson planning also. Anyone out there who knows of a good test to measure elementary English proficiency, drop me an email or comment. I haven"t been able to find or devise a test that will tell me at what level a student is in their English. I can only tell they are not at the level they need to be.