Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Volunteer Opportunities at Bright Stars and The Hilton

Today we took our fieldtrip to Bright Stars College to teach English lessons for the afternoon and to share some ideas and experiences with the teachers there. The director of Saint Charles planned this trip for us and he has also volunteered us to serve there in the afternoon for the remainder of this week. I felt lucky to see another bi-lingual school in the area and was happy to oblige our directors desire to “share the Americans” with his affiliates. The Bright Stars College is a much smaller school than Saint Charles and this basic difference changed the dynamic of the leaning environment a lot. I wish that I could have taken more pictures of the inside of their recreation and kitchen facility as it is annexed from the rest of the school across the street is a beautiful old building. To spend time in this building alone was worth the trip and day of service as it was stunningly beautiful. I will post some photos later this week and you will see what I mean. The size of the student body affects the learning because often the levels are combined for lessons as there may be less than ten students in each age group. Bright Stars is a new school and their population is still young and growing. Also the school’s resources are in the development stages; we were able to help the teachers go through some new resources such as books, posters and flashcard sets that they had just received and not yet gone through. We helped them to identify what we felt were very useful and also to explain some things about the phonics learning tools that the teachers were not trained to use (like us, they did not learn much phonics in grade school; but they also didn’t receive the phonics training like we did at University). It was rewarding for us to be able to explain the usefulness of these tools for teaching phonics to the teachers at Bright Stars because we have not encountered any phonics based teaching methods at Saint Charles. We have been missing our phonics because it is such a large part of the curriculum that we have learned at NMU and use it so often at the schools in Michigan.
We will be attending parent night tomorrow evening at Bright Stars and will be given the opportunity to briefly discuss the meaning for our visit. More importantly I will be proud to emphasize the value that I place on the type of bi-lingual learning environment that Bright Stars is providing for its students. Our service out side of Saint Charles has also continued to grow each day as we are now attending three sections of evening school at the Hilton Language Academy. We will be volunteering almost every evening for the remainder of our trip as we have had open invitations to help out in both adult groups and the teenage course as well. Our participation in these classes has been valued by both the students attending as well as by the teachers who appreciate the extra support as we break up into small groups and help the students with discussions and practice. I am going to miss being surrounded with such enthusiasm for learning when I come home I think I will be inspired to start some kind of adult learning club for Spanish enthusiasts. There is just something about attending a course where everyone is working so happily to learn that makes me feel great about being a teacher.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

3-22 Cunningham's

We were invited to attend an evening class for adult English learners which we attended this evening. The students were between the ages of 20 and 37 years old and all were eager to practice their English with us. The occupations of these learners included university students, small business owners, fashion designers, and cosmetologists. We split the group into two smaller teams and Stephanie and I took time getting to know each team. We shared interests and also received some much appreciated insight about some must see nuances of Buenos Aires. We helped the teacher to present her activity that she had planned for the evening which included translating some “slang” phrases; this was a fun way to generate more conversation amongst us and allowed me to pick up some new Spanish phrases that were not covered in other conversational courses I have participated in. Our attendance was welcomed very genuinely along with being invited to attend future classes Tuesday and Thursdays (as well as an advanced section on Mondays and Wednesdays), these are invitations I plan on accepting humbly. Tonight I made some new friends and also enjoyed an opportunity to improve my Spanish speaking. It was a pleasure to attend class and I am looking forward to meeting the other group.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Monday, March 21

Today we continued to talk about the simple past tense with our students. They will be having a test on this next week so we will continue to practice throughout the week. The lesson today was focused on the differences between an affirmative, negative, or interrogative sentence. The students have been given sentences that have a blank in the space for the verbs and they need to identify the correct verb form to use. They have trouble with wanting to use the past tense form all the time whether the sentence is affirmative or not. The thing that we are working on is identifying the sentence type before we place our verb form. The sentences that they are receiving are mixed with each type, the ones that are negative all have the phrase didn’t to identify that the sentence is already in the past so the past tense form of the verb is not necessary; all of the interrogative sentences start with did to help reinforce this relationship between did? And didn’t.
Examples: I __________ (visit) my Grandma last weekend.
We___________ (not/have) pizza for lunch.
_______ Mary __________(listen) to music?
Each Monday the students write a Weekend Journal about what they did over the weekend. This is another opportunity for us to practice forming sentences using the past tense. We were asked to create a short paragraph to share with the class.
Kyle and Steph’s Weekend journal for Junior 3
This weekend Stephanie and I went to Chinatown with Lillian. We took the train from Acasusso to Belgrano. We walked to a restaurant that is close to the train station. For lunch we ate Sushi, it was delicious. After lunch we walked through Chinatown and looked in the shops. Kyle bought a wind chime for his girlfriend because she collects wind chimes. Stephanie bought a colorful dress. After we shopped we went to the Botanical Gardens. We walked through the Botanical Gardens and learned more about the plants and trees that grow in South America.
On Sunday afternoon we went to the artisan fair at SanTelmo. We rode the train to Retiro station and then took a Taxi-cab to the artisan fair. We had fun listening to tango in the streets. We ate a Chorizo for lunch. After we looked at some very beautiful artwork we took the train back home.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Saint Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patty’s Day! Today is a day to have some fun so I played a game with my students. We made a set of cards of which one color contains present tense verbs and their forms in the past are written on a different color card. The irregular verbs in the past tense are difficult for English learners as they have to memorize all of the irregular verb forms. This game worked well to give the students an interactive way to practice with these verb forms. I passed out a past tense card to each student and then said, for example, “I have go, who has went”. The student who had the matching card would then stand up and say “I have went.” The next thing I did was pass out both the past and present tense cards to the students and have them find their matching card. With their new partner they then practiced using the past tense form by writing a sentence in their copy books. The students then presented their words to the class by taking turns in the front, using the microphone (glue stick) and saying their phrase and words to the class (they really like taking turns using the “microphone”). After that the students had drama class and after drama we recommenced our work on the past by writing about their last birthday. I had some green balloons and put them at the top of the board to generate some excitement about the birthday party topic (this worked well). After the students were done writing their paragraphs, and some were read out loud, we underlined all of the past tense verbs with colored pencil. Just before the end of the day I explained the real reason why I brought the green balloons, Saint Patrick’s Day! I explained quickly what this day means to the Irish and gave away some of the green balloons as the students went home for the day. The lesson went well and the students are really doing a great job of learning these irregular verb forms, a difficult aspect of our strange language to master. I wish that I could go to get a boiled dinner tonight but there are no Saint Patty’s day dinners in sight, so I think I may just have to settle for the Argentine staple once again, Pizza.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Monday, Week Three


Today was the beginning of another great week here in Buenos Aires (Martinez ). Our students are starting to really look up to us as teachers rather that fun visitors from the States. I am also continuing to learn about the differences between Spanish and English, and my students have been proud to teach me new words throughout the day. Today we introduced our mini-unit on Thanksgiving and practiced some English speaking by going taking turns and giving each student a chance to share what they are thankful for; I was honored to hear more than once that my students are thankful for their school and their teachers. Today I was able to see a choir class which thrilled me as I was able to participate in some breathing exercises! After class I was able to sing some Eric Clapton songs while the choir teacher happily (and masterfully) shared some guitar licks with me, what else can bring two cultures together more effortlessly than Slowhand? We received an exciting invitation this weekend to go out on a field trip to see a different bi-lingual school in another part of the city, and to work with the students there for a day. Stephanie and I are pleased to have the chance to see what another school in the area looks like and how the students function in the bi-lingual learning experience. Another thing that I am looking forward to is going to China-town next Saturday with Lillian, one of my mentors here who was born in Brooklyn and enjoys dual-citizenship as well a fine Sushi. I knew that I would be eating good seafood here and am extra excited to have found someone who shares my passion for quality Sashimi.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Parents' Night

Yesterday night we had parents’ night here at school. The headmasters gave a speech explaining policies such as attendance and buying books to the entire group of parents and after they came up to our room to hear the information that our teachers had to share with them about the goals for their children and their class specifically. I was a bit nervous about how I would be received by the parents, but they were all happy to meet me, and also to share with me the nice things that the students had to say about my contributions to the class. These conversations with the parents were very encouraging to me as they gave me a boost of confidence in my ability to communicate successfully with my Castillano, as well as feeling welcomed to the school by both the students and parents.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Finally what you have all been waiting for, the Tigre catamaran tour slide-show. I hope you enjoy these scenes as much as I do.
Also we started writing some letters to our students in Michigan today. I hope to get them in the mail this weekend (along with some post cards) so keep checking those mailboxes!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Carnaval Weekend

Carnaval!
This weekend has been great, long, relaxing, and exciting. There is something about being here in Buenos Aires that enables us to stay up with the locals until the wee hours; it is the subtle rush of seeing new things coupled with surprises around every corner. This weekend has been our opportunity to get to know our area well. We used all of the public transportation available to push our territory that we are comfortable traveling to by taking the bus, train, taxis, hired cars, walking, and my favorite the catamaran. Public transportation is what we have found to be our best option for getting out and sightseeing and doing the things that we came here to do. A train ride from place to place will cost us around .80 pesos or twenty cents American, the bus is the same but it has more stops and although they go to places off the beaten path of the train it can be much more time consuming due to frequent stops and traffic. Taxis are easily hailed especially around tourist hot-spots and we have had great experiences with our cabbies working with our in-expertise with the city and Castillano. Now that www.Globalearn-IT.com has provided us with a cell phone (and a nice one, Sony Ericson Walkman phone) we are able to take advantage of our most luxurious mode of transport, the car service next to our apartment. Our driver Herman is super nice and we can call them 24 hours, or just walk over there and talk to them about where we want to go or return from. It has been advised to us to avoid trains and buses at night so we take a bus or train somewhere in the afternoon for .80 pesos and then call the car later from wherever we end up at and a return trip for up to a 40 minute car ride has not been more than 25 US dollars. We are getting to know Herman and he has proven to be one of our many new friends that we can depend on. Last night we went to a spot for pizza close to our apartment and I noticed our first new friend Victor, the waiter that took great care of us the first night we arrived. I told him that it has been a week since we got here (it has been wonderful) and how excited I am to find our first new friend hanging out at our favorite pizza place. He remembered us well and insisted on buying us our pizza. We spent the rest of the night with Victor and his “future wife” learning new Spanish words and helping Victor practice his English. This is just one example of the locals opening up to us and genuinely wanting to bridge our cultural gap. Every where we go we find people who are excited for the opportunity to share intimate details about this beautiful city, the City of the Sun. I found the sandwich that will become my staple for the remainder of my stay as well. It is lomo, or sandwich del lomo… A tender steak on a large hamburger bun with a fried egg, sliced tomatoes lettuce and roasted sweet pepper. It is so delicious to use a knife and fork to eat for a late breakfast or lunch. Stay tuned for my slide-show of our catamaran tour of Tigre. Chao.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Friday, March 4

Our first week of school has gone by very quickly. It was the students’ second week of school for this year so today in the morning they finished with some pre-evaluations. The evaluations were in Spanish, one was math and the other was reading comprehension and some spelling as well. The next round of evaluations will be at the end of next month. In the afternoon today (during the English part of the day) our students completed their writing projects about their first day of school. During the last couple hours I went to the junior 5 group to discuss carnival (the holiday this weekend similar to our mardi gras) and to give them a chance to practice English and to ask some questions about America. After that I went to help the literature teacher with library time by reading some books aloud to a junior 2 class and then rejoining my students for their library time and reading aloud to them as well. The library of English books that the school has is a couple of large boxes that they bring up to the cafeteria where the students sit and listen to a story and then pick out a book to check out for the week. This period is very similar to what my American students do for library time but they do not have as large of a book collection to choose from. After these read-alouds I went up to the junior 6 group to talk with them about our family traditions in the United States. The are reading the book The War With Grandpa so the discussion was mainly focused on family life, but we also talked about family traditions such as Thanksgiving. This completed our tour of each class so we have had a chance to talk with all the classes and answer questions that they have about us and our lives in America. Next week we will continue to work with the upper grades on some different writing projects as well as our daily routines with our Junior three groups. Next week carnival is on Monday and Tuesday so we have a long weekend. From what we learned from the Junior 5 group today it seems as though carnival is a big multi day celebration with lots of food in the streets, decorations made out of old cloths hanging all over, live music, dancing in the heat, and people throwing lots of water around to cool off. It sounds like fun to me and I will post more about the details after I experience it.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Thursday, March 4

We are getting close to the end of our first week here and the school routine is beginning to fall into place. Today the book sale was in the lobby of the school for the students to buy the books that they will need for classes throughout the year. Our junior 3 class is going to be reading a Penguin Books version of Rohld Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was exited to see this book choice (and to pick one up for 35 pesos) because it is one that I remember well from my elementary school days (and a good addition to my library for future students.) Today our class had physical education in the morning for an hour during which the boys and girls had separate classes. They wore different uniforms to school today for PE class. Our boys were doing line drills with a rugby ball and then they played team handball. The PE class for the boys was in the courtyard where they play soccer during their breaks throughout the day and the girls were upstairs in the drama room which is like a multipurpose room with a stage. We had lessons as usual with math in Spanish in the morning and English in the afternoon. The students had drama as well in the afternoon and during this time Stephanie and I went to the junior 4 class to answer questions that they prepared to ask us. We were happy to have the opportunity to answer questions that they had about us and our culture, they are especially interested in learning about our families. The next time we meet with the junior four class we will be helping them to do some English writing about their lives, an autobiography of some sort. We shared Girl Scout’s Thin Mints with the faculty today and they liked our American cookies. I found the best appetizer I have ever eaten tonight at dinner. Cerviche, a mix of salmon and langusitna (small lobster) cooked cold with lime juice mixed with tomato, onion and cilantro which you eat on toasted bread like bruschetta, me encanta.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Tercer Dia

Our third day in school was great again. I think that I have learned all of the names of my students, remembering the difference between Julia, Julieta, y Juliet was the hard part. We did not have a special today and I was with the junior 3 class for the entire day. In the morning we worked on math in English. Our students are practicing counting by tens and hundreds as well as adding two digit numbers in the context of story problems. Our school does not have a photocopier so the teacher does not use as many work sheets as we do in our US schools; instead the students must copy all of their work in what they call their “copy book”. (I will try to post some pictures of students’ work in the future) I think that this procedure is beneficial for the students because during their math lessons they are working on dictation as they are expected to write neatly in cursive the story problems that the teacher either writes on the board or reads out loud to them. The students have a copy book for math with and a copy book for writing (Spanish) and a copy book for English. They are not spiral notebooks, but hard cover books with blank lined pages. During our Spanish writing time after math in the morning our teacher read a story out loud. The students were working on their comprehension as well as writing as they were asked to re-write a summary of the story in their copy books. Some students finish with their writing sooner than others; after they are checked by the teacher they were asked to draw a picture to accompany their summary. This is how our morning was spent and me and Stephanie went back to our apartment for a leftover cold pizza lunch. Last night we went to Pizza Mundo for dinner, a pizzeria that has eighty different pizzas on the menu. During one of our breaks I asked another teacher what is their favorite kind from Pizza Mundo and she told us it is napoletina, which has huevos duro (hard boiled eggs). After lunch the students must use only English. We talked about family and they asked me questions about my family and I asked them questions about theirs. I gave them as much vocabulary as I could and then the students wrote a paragraph about their family which they then read out loud to the class. After that I read a story aloud that they have been working on called The First Day of School, and then the students took turns either reading parts of the story out loud or retelling the story in their own words (depending on their confidence in English). Today was a good day and it was hot in the sun after school at the flag lowering. Tomorrow we are going to spend our last hour talking with the junior 4 class to help them hear and practice speaking English.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Segundo Dia

Our second day at the school was great. The students are so bright and curious about us and our culture. In the halls the students from other classes all want to practice their English on us by saying "hello, and how are you?" We are working with what they call junior 3 (third grade)throughout the day and taking the last hour to work with some upper grades. The first part of the day is all in Spanish, and the second half is all in English (including break time outside in a beautiful courtyard where they jump rope or play futbol or cards) Today we went up to junior 6 and the students had prepared some questions to ask us. They are working on interviewing skills like taking notes which are collected and graded by their teacher the following day. The students' questions were great and their interest in our lives in America was flattering. The only confusion I had was when one young man asked me how did I get up this morning? I told him I have an alarm set on my cell phone, to which he re-stated his question, did I feel good this morning (como te sientes hoy cuando levantes?). This is just one example of the type of kindness that we have found to be typical of our new friends in Argentina. Another friendly exchange worth mentioning was our adventure for helado a noche (ice cream last night) where we were welcomed to try small spoonfuls of each flavor, nothing like some taste testing to break the language barrier, and for a minute I felt like I was at 31 flavors until we sat outside to enjoy a lovely patio seat and to watch the tall palms that line the road sway in the wind.