This has been an intense couple of days on the teaching front. I am teaching English to the 6th graders without a Costa Rican English tacher, which is stretching my abilities as a teacher.
I think they more or less understand the nervous system, at least a little of it, but I am struggling teaching the endocrine system. I have some ideas on ways to try to explain how the pituitary and adrenal glands work, but its a struggle.
I will be working on more ways to teach it for next week. I think the new teacher will be starting soon, which should help. Having a teacher who can explain the concepts briefly in Spanish makes the teaching I do in English much more effective in my limited experience so far.
Today was the first time I taught third grade science and it went well. They were learning the names of some of the bones of the body. They already knew them in Spanish, so it made it much easier to teach it in English. While I use as much English as I can, I do lapse sometimes into Spanish.
As the year goes on I will work on ways to explain concepts visually so I do not have to use Spanish, but I also am not solely relying on the students understanding me. This has been a long and tiring week, but it has been satisfying. Some lessons have gone much better than others, but it gives me hope for the future.
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Just catching up on you blog. Sounds like you have your hands full. Teaching English alone to small classes is hard enough. I can´t imagine 20-30 students and trying to teach Science. Wow! I think you´re doing a good job of reflecting and trying to remember not to be to hard on yourself so keep it up. Remember that as teachers we are our own worst critics and that even experienced teachers don´t knock it out of the park every class. I definitely have had some days where I´m like ¨God that was awful.¨ But you get up and do it again, learn from your mistakes and realize that the fact that you are there, that you show up every day and you care is what really matters. Plus there are some days where you do knock it out of the park and it´s usually a nice surprise to me. Lol... hope things besides teaching are going well and hoping to visit you and Katie...maybe next month?
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