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.

104 degrees in February

When I returned from classes today the computer showed that the temperature in Roma, Texas was 104 degrees. That was at about 2:30 P.M. It is now almost 5 P.M. and the same computer shows the temperature outside to be 101. It is only February 5! And if you are thinking that I live in Cuidad Miguel Alemán, Mexico and not Roma, Texas I am not sure that 30 yards across the Rio Grande River makes it any cooler here.

Today is the anniversary of the Constitution of Mexico. Schools and businesses celebrated the holiday yesterday so today was the first day back to classes. Last week I tested my Third Graders on their knowledge of English pronouns. We also began studying 16 words from a list of the most frequently used words in the English Language. I had each students select a word from the list of about 260 words. I did not tell them when they were choosing that they would have to learn those words - learn how to spell them and learn what each word meant. Even my best students often have no idea what the word they spell or read means. For example, today they were learning the Scripture verse "...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved ..." from Acts 16:31. I normally try to use more modern language such as "you" rather than "thou" and "will" rather than "shalt", but this verse was in their school material. Several students had memorized the verse in just a few minutes and could recite it to me very well. When I asked if anyone knew what "believe", "thou" or "shalt" meant, no one had a clue.

That is typical of my class. They can read words and spell words but at the same time have no understanding of the word. So we have began identifying each key word and identifying it. Often this means identifying the Spanish word that has the same or similar meaning. Today we did that with the 12 pronouns - he, she, it, you, me, us, which, I, we, they, her, him - and their 16 chosen vocabulary words. The vocabulary words are: about, be, big, black, color, friend, from, have, next, open, play, present (which can be pronounced 2 different ways and has combined about 4 meanings), run, some, they and under. Not a bad selection to learn first. I will have them chose 16 or 17 more words either tomorrow or Thursday. One student was absent the day they initially selected words, but abcteach.com handles 16 words well but 17 not so well. I may stay with 16.

Back to the 104 degrees. Last Thursday night/Friday morning it was about 36 degrees here. The forecast for tonight is a low of 52 degrees - 50 degrees cooler than the high. And you think the weather where you live is unpredictable? Since it was so hot today, I decided to go ahead and take my VW Jetta into the local dealership to have the AC checked. As my luck would go, it began "acting up" about a week ago. Everytime I switch on the AC there is a loud rumble. I am hoping it is not an expensive repair. If it is too expensive, I will just forego the AC and drive with the windows down. I am old enough to remember when lots of vehicles did not have AC and driving with the windows down was your air.

I'll close with another photo. Ok. Two photos.

I hope to begin adding photos to my picasa album soon - maybe tonight! Feel free to visit and bookmark my album - http://picasaweb.google.com/timdnew

It's been 3 weeks, and I'm still learning

It has now been 3 weeks since I began teaching English to students whose native language is Spanish. When I made the 680 mile drive down to Cuidad Migual Alemán, I understood that I would be taking over a class of 10 second grade students. The class was one of two being taught by the other US citizen teaching here, Amy. She was teaching English to both first and second grade but really was having to short both since she was having to split her time. When we arrived for classes on January 7, the plan was that I would help her initially with the second grade class for a day or so just to learn where they were and what they were doing. Then I was to take over. That didn't happen. Both Amy and I learned just before classes commenced at 8 A.M. that I was to be teaching Third grade instead. The former teacher did not continue after the Christmas break. So I found myself suddenly teaching 16 Third Grade students. Talk about being unprepared.

I had no books for Third Grade except 1 planning guide. I was (and am) teaching from 8 A.M. until 10:30 am every morning. Then from 10:30 until 11 A.M. the children have "recess" and more or less lunch. It is not a cafeteria experience as we have in the states but the children can buy tacos and sandwiches and similar foods at this time and most do. From 11 until 12:45 on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday they have their Spanish language class. That is not taught by me (obviously since I am slowly learning Spanish). Then they have a recess break from 12:45 until 1 P.M. From 1 until 2 P.M. they are under my tutelage once again. On Tuesday they had Computer lab for 45 minutes carved out of their Spanish time. I say had because my class gained a student about a week ago (up to 17) and when it did, we suddenly had too many students for 1 computer lab. So now half of the students have lab on Tuesday during their Spanish time, and the other half have it on Thursday morning during my morning session. I had the teacher doing the Computer labs split my class so the students who need more help in English will have labs on Tuesday and I will have them on Thursday. That way I can focus some time on helping them learn the basics most of the better students know while those better students are taking Computer lab.

That is a general synopsis of the schedule. During the time I have the students, I am to teach not only English grammar and spelling but also reading, science, art, cursive writing, and science. Yes science falls to the English teacher and it is causing headaches. The students do not have a US Third Grade vocabulary of the English language, but the Abeka course material is designed for US Third Grade English. Many of my students have never had any English before. Suddenly they are presented with Third Grade US English. LOST. I have 6 to 8 students who are able to do the Third Grade spelling. Those students are not able to read and understand the science material. SO where does that leave the poorer English students? And this is a common problem in 4th, 5th and 6th grade also. The material is too advanced for students whose native language is not English.

For 2 weeks I did evaluations. I had no idea what the students knew nor what they had been taught the first half of the year. I did get the books but quickly learned that they were not comprehending them. So I am now going backwards in order to go forward. This week I am testing the students on pronouns such as he, she, it, you, me, us, we, him, her, they and which. The better students all did well on my exploratory spelling test using these words (I gave the class a spelling test without warning on these words). "Which" gave the better students problems, but that was the only word. The poorer students however knew some of the words but not all. So I will be having them learn these words this week rather than the Third Grade spelling words like preached, continually, several, etc.... Even the students who are spelling these words correctly are doing so without any understanding of what the words mean. So I am regressing to basics to build up their vocabulary and reading skills. I am also using Dr Seuss books and others that I brought. Each student had selected 1 book to read at his or her level (supposedly). I figure the weaker students need to experience some success. Hopefully by having them learn words they can learn they will start to gain some confidence.

If you are wondering why I haven't been writing much in the past few weeks it is simply because I had problems getting onto the internet. Initially it was because I needed a stronger wireless card in my computer. My computer was too far from the base router. Then once I got that solved, we lost our DSL service for over a week due to rain and a bad phone line. I finally got the internet back just this weekend.

Here is a photo of my students:

Moving across the border

Teaching English as a Foreign Language or a second language -

A week from now I should be in Cuidad Miguel Alemán. I am moving there next week to teach English to a group of Second Grade children. I have substitute taught the past 2 years at the local elementary school here (Junction City Arkansas - Louisiana). But this will be a new experience (pun intended). No not the Spanish language environment. I have visited and even worked for short periods of time in countries that spoke Spanish or Portuguese. This will be the first time where I was primarily responsible for each day. As a substitute I simply take what the teacher has prepared and it is my job to execute it - in other words I teach what the regular teacher says I should that day.

Starting on January 7 it will be my responsibility to design and prepare each days work. This will be a new challenge. The fact it will be children who are learning a foreign language simply adds a dimension to the challenge. I have already been gathering a variety of "tools" to assist me. These range from Sight Word materials to workbooks and such that have additional phonetic theme work I can copy and use with the children.

One thing I learned as a substitute was that having "fill" material is important. Dead time is not good. Even the best of children with nothing to do will invariably start disrupting the class. Being in a position to give them material that will help them learn the concept we are studying is a goal of mine. A second thing I learned was "be flexible" Some days we will not accomplish everything on the plan. It is more important that the children learn the concepts than that I adhere rigidly to a schedule. And each child will learn at a different pace.

My first challenge on Monday, January 7, 2008 will be learning where each child presently is in their knowledge of English (and grammar in general). And to learn each child's name. It will be important for me to get off on a good relationship with each child. Even as I type this I am thinking of ways to accomplish these goals.

Between now and next Friday, I will be reviewing material and studying Spanish. I know some Spanish but most of it is at the outer reaches of my brain lying in the murky shadows. In other words, I haven't used it and as a result it takes time to recall. I need to expose myself to what I already know to get it familiar again and learn more. I will be teaching English but I want to learn Spanish and gain fluency.

I hope to update this blog weekly if not daily from Cuidad Miguel Alemán. Feel free to drop in and leave any comments. This will be a learning experience for all.