Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Well I admit it, I bought an Internet card that I can plug into my laptop and it gets a signal off the cell phone towers so that I have Internet every so often. I know it's weak of me, but oh well.

My first day of school was pretty slow. I observed my counterpart teacher teach a class of Second Year, and then the rest of the day I hung out in the library. Mila, my counterpart, set up a desk for me there and I began to help edit articles for their school newspaper. I also organized a reading/comprehension kit called SQR, I think. It has reading cards and rate builder exercises and offers a way to assess and track student's progress. I'm hoping the school will let me use the kit for a remediation class.

I also led the fourth year class. It was very interesting. I first explained what the peace Corps is, and introduced myself. Then I had them write their name, where they were born, a cool fact about themselves, what they want to do after graduation, and how many siblings they have. I collected their papers and then had the students stand up. I then read the clues off one by one and if the clue didn't pertain to them, they had to sit down. When one person was left I had a little conversation with them and tried to get to know them. They were very nervous to talk with me. We also had a conversation about how all of us are nervous, and we filled in a Venn Diagram to compare our differences. They seemed to be a little less tense by the end, but by no means are they just going to come up to me and start their own conversation. Hopefully it will come with time.

Another momentous event was when one girl came up to me and asked me what a certain profanity word meant. Yeah, not what I thought my first day would include! She just honestly wanted to know what it meant, had heard it in an American movie, and couldn't find it in the dictionairy. Thanks Hollywood!

1 comment:

Pastor Tim said...

Hey Connie! Sounds like things will be pretty good there. We are glad you are weak because it means we can be in touch with you. I don't get the opportunity enough to tell you how proud I am of you. You're doing great stuff over there. We miss you a lot and love you! Love Tim.