I had a feeling that this job was going to make me into a versatile human being, but I had no idea to what extent. The lengthy day of meetings on Sunday was just the beginning of prep for a long week of starting up our programs with the guidance of the old PDs, but mostly of our own volition and effort.
Monday began with our first Monday Morning Meeting (MMM), when our boss comes to the house, we all gather in the hub (our office space) and share updates and announcements about different programs, what's happening at our Ecuador site, and any other important things that everyone in the house needs to know. It's a good way for us to all be on the same page at the beginning of the week (and it was a good way to practice note-taking for me since I'm the new secretary).
After the meeting, I began to get ready for public school English. This is the program that I was most apprehensive about. We teach two classes of English at a public school called Chiquilistagua right down the carreterra (highway) to two classes of sixth graders of about thirty students each. Although in the states this would be considered a large class, student/teacher ratios in Nicaragua are typically high and this ratio is actually pretty common, making teaching particularly difficult. This week I was only going to the public school (with Madi, my teaching partner for this program) to be introduced to the kids and to shadow a bit. I was glad to have this buffer week to get to know the kids without having to teach right away but I was still nervous. Public schools here run from February to November, so us new PDs are coming in at the middle of the year to pick up English classes. This class was just going to be handing back their test and doing a bit of a despedida (goodbye) for the old PDs, so how bad could that be, right?
Surprisingly, not bad at all. I opted to pass out cookies for the despedida portion of class in order to up my popularity right from the start and luckily it worked. I got to joke around with the kids and at least get my face in their heads, if only as the gringa passing out cookies for now. But my expectations were surpassed when towards the end of class, several students came up to ask my name again or to tell me (in English) that it was nice to meet me. Nothing groundbreaking, but given I have no teaching experience and I was just some random person coming out of nowhere in the middle of the school year, I was glad that the students were so receptive to me.
I teach the same class back to back with different groups of students and luckily the second class was as open as the first. I know that this class won't be the easiest two hours of my week, but in the end I think that will make it more rewarding. A huge shout-out to all you teachers out there because apart from the resources of the old PDs and anything Google can offer, I'm going into this blind and I thoroughly commend you for your teaching skills (at least I'll have some at the end of all of this).
The rest of my day on Mondays includes Level 2 English at Farito, our community center where the majority of our programs are held. This is a completely different ball game because people choose to take Farito classes and actually pay for them so the motivation and attention span is the complete opposite of school kids who would rather be at recess. This class still absolutely presents challenges though. Aside from being taught all in Spanish, I have to get accustomed to teaching English. I naively thought that this would come naturally given I'm a native speaker but alas, having to explain things that come as second nature to me is particularly hard.
The first day of class was just syllabus day and review of simple present tense so I didn't have to prep very much. Thursday we dove into more simple present and different constructions of positive, negative and interrogative statements. All was going well until I realized that the Power Point I had downloaded was formatted terribly (something I should've checked before class). Luckily we just transitioned to using the white board and then went into a worksheet activity after that (should to veteran PD Gavin for jumping in and saving class). After class I realized that aside from Power Point formatting, I needed to make sure that I could explain English concepts because it wouldn't come as naturally as I may have thought. I genuinely had a lightbulb moment when a slide came up with the different placement of "do" in positive, negative, and interrogative statements. "I do eat." "I do not eat." "Do I eat?" Why do we change the order? Why do we use auxiliary verbs in questions? I had obviously always planned to take every aspect of my role seriously but this class helped me understand how much prep I really needed to do. These people come after work, or school and pay to have these classes and even though I've never been a teacher before, I hope I can be a good one for them.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Women's Exercise and Level 1 English both in Farito. Another first: I led an exercise class, in Spanish no less. I can't say it was the smoothest exercise class the world had ever seen, but I've been told the women liked it, and it can only go up from here. Plus I really needed a good workout incorporated into my week so it's a perfect combination of program time and physical activity.
English 1 is another program I was apprehensive about just because it tends to be our biggest English class, ranging from 100-120 students the first week of class. It dwindles down to a solid 60 or so by the end of the semester though. The first class was just syllabus day as well, pretty standard stuff. The second class we went over the alphabet and greetings. My counterpart for this class (Matt) and I initially struggled with going slow. There are a couple students who come from Levels 3 and 4 to practice and for some reason whenever we did an activity, my eye was drawn to them as they seemed a bit bored and not at all challenged. Luckily we had Zolo (a veteran PD) to be another pair of eyes for us and to let us know that we needed to slow down because people in other areas of the room were actually struggling. It's hard to tailor a class to multiple levels, but this was good lesson for me in playing to the lowest common denominator. I would rather have some people be a bit bored at first and make sure everyone in the class is understanding. I'm hoping in the coming weeks I can build trust with my class so they feel comfortable asking questions and I can give them what they're looking for with the class.
Another first of the week that was more pleasure than business was our first community dinner. Us new PDs were split into two groups and had dinner on Wednesday with two different families in the community. We were received with plenty of Nica hospitality and delicious food also. I'm so glad that Manna focuses on its communities in this way. Not only do we work in the communities, but we try to spend as much time with community members as possible outside of programs so we can sustain relationships that Manna has built over the past decade. I am always surprised by the amazing welcoming spirit of Nicas (although I should probably get used to it), and although it was a casual evening, I'm excited to form friendships with community members throughout the year.
My last first of the week wasn't program related and was possibly the thing that I've been most dreading since I got here: driving stick shift. I am happy to announce that it went better than expected and hopefully with more practice I can be community certified (able to drive to programs) soon. I only stalled twice in over an hour of driving (although I'm sure that'll come back to haunt me the next time I drive) and just getting a bit of experience made me feel better about it overall. It's one of those things that will only come with more practice (maybe I can practice with the truck when I'm home, huh mom and dad? (lol just kidding)) and then it'll be just another life skill that this amazing new experience has brought to me.
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