Final Week

This last week came and went very quickly. My students were all very kind and expressed their feelings about me leaving very nicely with gifts like cards, candy, and some tears. We have had a great time working together and I am going to miss my Argentine very much. The final week was a comprised of an exam about the story that we have been working with over the last couple weeks, and a project about a famous person of the students’ choosing. A few weeks ago we studied some famous people in the students’ textbook and we played a quiz show game that they enjoyed a lot. The quiz show game was a team game during which the class was divided into two teams and each team selected one representative to face off and answer a question. They enjoyed this game so much, and wanted to play again so badly, I decided to incorporate it into our farewell party. The students completed their projects first period on Friday and then they presented their projects about their famous person to the class during second period. I took notes on the presentations and created some additional questions based on the information given to use in our quiz game later that day. For our final farewell party at the end of the day I brought some cookies for the class and we had a snack as we began to play the game. The students had a great time playing the quiz game and it was a good opportunity to stay on task while we enjoyed our last period together. Incorporating the questions about their presentations was a fun way to get them interested in their classmates' projects as well as reinforcing the themes discussed in the presentations. The headmasters came in briefly to say goodbye and also to give me some nice going away presents. They gave me the pin that all of the teachers at the school are required to wear of the school’s coat of arms, a school flag, and coffee mug as well. These gestures were appreciated very much by me and will help me to always remember my time at Saint Charles College.
I am looking forward to getting home to my dog Blue, but will also miss all of my new friends here in Buenos Aires. When I get back I will spend some time uploading the things that I have collected such as pictures and videos to share with all blog readers.

Raton Perez

The loose that tooth story has been a big hit with the class this week. The students have their own copy of the book and I think that they enjoy having their own little book to work out of more than using stories from the textbook from day to day. The story plays with words a bit and it was a challenge to describe the jokes to the class in a way that they would be able to understand the context. Also, the play on words served as a nice platform for teaching new words. The tooth un-fairy was one of the titles of a chapter and this generated a lot of discussion. I needed to explain what the tooth fairy was to the students because here in Argentina they do not have the tooth fairy, they have a mouse named Perez. This required translation of the word fairy, along with a description of the common tooth fairy. Once this concept was concrete I proceeded to describe the use of the word fair and held a discussion about what is fair and unfair. Once I was sure that all the students were with me about the difference between fair and unfair, and the cultural difference between the tooth fairy and “Raton Perez” I was able to show that the name of this chapter was a play on words, and not surprisingly, only a handful of the students were able to share this humor. This wordplay was a fun opportunity for a minilesson about fair and unfair and was a lesson that I will always remember because of my newfound knowledge of the Argentine, Raton Perez.

Peneultimo Semana

This week is our second to last here in Buenos Aires working at Saint Charles College. We are sad that we are getting this close to the end of our visit because we are really getting into the swing of things here. I have had less time to blog since we have been volunteering more at the adult evening school and also spending the remainder of our free time getting the last few things on our must-see list checked off. This past weekend we got one last big thing off the to-do list by completing a successful trip to Uruguay. The trip included a boat ride to and from, and a city tour of the oldest city in Uruguay, Colonia; founded by the Portugese in 1680. After the tour we had a few hours to explore and which passed nicely at the beach taking a swim and watching a crew regatta. I am sure this week of class will pass by quickly as we are introducing a new book, Loose That Tooth, as well as continuing our regular activities like weekend journals and working with the Bright Sparks activity book. I have been learning the songs, along with the guitar accompaniment, that the childrens’ choir is learning here, and look forward to sharing them with you all because they are very fun.