Teaching English

Teaching English

When Leshia, Patrick and I signed up for this trip, we were told we would be working with agriculture and public health. So all the preparations we made this past semester were relating to those projects. Upon arrival in Z, we discovered that somewhere, somehow there had been a large misunderstanding and our ONLY project would be teaching English. This was not easy for me to accept. I had big plans to set up experiments with hydroponics systems, grow medicinal plants and learn about fruit and vegetable production. My suitcase was full of old, faded jeans and t-shirts, because I thought I would be working in the fields all day long.

It was also difficult because in the beginning, we only taught elementary school students from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. every weekday. As I’m sure you know, it is not easy to entertain children for that amount of time and it felt like we were running a free day-care clinic. The kids drive me crazy sometimes, and it takes all of Leshia, Patrick and I’s mental resources to come up with educational games for them to play. For the most part though, they’re wonderful. We have about 20 ninos that come on a regular basis and they’ve done a wonderful job learning English. All we can really do with the kids is shove their sponge-like brains full of vocabulary words and short phrases. After only a few days of 4-6, we moved the time from 4-5:30, and gradually it’s turned into 4:30 or 4:45 - 5:30. The kids show up late, and lose interest as, with time, we haven’t been able to come up with many new games. It’s alright though. With them, our goal was simply to spark an interest in learning English and give them a head start for when they begin studying it in school.

Luckily (for my sanity) we also began teaching high school students at the Bachillerato a.k.a. “La Prepa”. The educational system in Mexico works similarly to Spain. There are four different schools, the kinder (kindergarten), la primaria (elementary) and the secondaria (middle school). The Bachillerato, where we teach, is sort of a college-prep high school. The students are incredibly intelligent and so much fun to be around. They wear snappy uniforms - brown pants and skirts with a white collared-shirt and a maroon sweater, and on casual days, they have shiny-blue track suits (pants and jackets) that they wear with a white t-shirt. If a student comes in late, they wait in the doorway and ask permission to enter and for the most part, they’re very well behaved.

Patrick teaches the youngest and largest class - 40 students ages 14, 15 and 16. I teach the next level, 23 students ages 16-18 and one 21-year old. Leshia teaches the oldest group, she has 12 students ages 18-21, all of whom will graduate in July. As you can see, drop-outs are common, as the class size grows smaller each year. My class tells me they’ve had 2 years of English classes, but they’re in terrible shape with pronunciation and speaking. Leshia, Patrick and I don’t think their English teacher can actually SPEAK English, because all of our students honestly thought that the word "people," for example, was pronounced “pay-oh-plee,” which is exactly how it would be pronounced using Spanish vowels.

Teaching my high school students has been one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever undertaken and there is nothing I love more than a challenge. I’m continually frustrated because I do not consider myself qualified to teach English. Teaching Spanish would be far easier, because I had to learn it myself. My first language, however, came as naturally as walking, and although I’ve studied English grammar, I don’t have the first idea how to teach it. On top of all that, we came COMPLETELY unprepared. We had no idea we’d be teaching English, and it’s frustrating to know how much better a teacher I could be had I prepared in the United States. Almost immediately after we found out we’d be teaching at the prepa, we emailed our contacts at UPAEP and asked for some teaching resources. They sent a couple of textbooks our way, which have helped immensely. Adding to the challenge was the fact that I had no idea how much English my class had been exposed to. After a few days of reviewing the basics, conjugating verbs, and vocabulary - I realized I was boring them to death, and what they really needed was help with speaking. Since then, I’ve made a point to incorporate speaking and listening activities into every class. Every other day, we have a fun speaking activity and the in-between days are usually spent preparing for the speaking days.

For example, one day I taught the verbs buscar (to look for), encontrar (to find), comprar (to buy) and vender (to sell). I also introduced a bunch of vocabulary related to things one might buy. The next day I made slips of paper with things to buy, and other slips of paper with things to sell and the students looking for things to buy had to find the right store in which to buy them.

Another day we spent reviewing physical traits and descriptions. The next day I made index cards with the names of a wide variety of famous people - presidents and leaders of various countries, actors and musicians of Mexico and the United States, local celebrities, the Pope, the priests at the church here, literary and scientific figures, etc. Then I pinned the names to the backs of my students, without them knowing the name and they had to figure out who their person was by asking questions to their classmates. Thank you to Senora Beavers for that lesson!

I also taught them medical and health vocabulary and phrases necessary for going to see the doctor, then had them practice patient-doctor conversations. Probably the lesson that was the biggest hit was when I took them outside and we played a version of the game "Have you ever?" This one is popular at leadership conferences as an ice-breaker. You have a circle of chairs, and someone in the middle of the circle says something like “Have you ever…ridden in a hot-air balloon” then everyone who has indeed ridden in a hot air balloon has to jump up and find another spot around the circle. Each time, someone is stuck in the middle and has to say a new phrase. I changed it to "I prefer, I like, I don’t like, I want, and I don’t want." My students practiced talking about the things they like, prefer or want. If whatever they said applied to the other students, they would all switch places. The kids had a ball and they did really well!

For Leshia, Patrick and I, spending time at the prepa has been a saving grace. These students are more or less our peers, although we’re older and in college. Leshia and I have host sisters near our age, but they both have kids, responsibilities and quit school very early, making it hard to relate to them. Our students though, are similar to ourselves in age, occupation (students) and culture. We’ve shared music, dancing and often talk about movies and popular culture.

This is my first experience in a formal teaching environment and I’m amazed at how quickly I’ve become emotionally invested in my students’ progress. Not just in the classroom, with English, but in all their subjects, and more importantly, in their lives. I’m constantly asking them about their futures, whether they plan to go to University, work, leave Z, etc. It breaks my heart because I’ve just begun to realize how bad the economic opportunities are here. Simply put, there is NOTHING to do in Z. Starting a career here is nearly impossible. Granted, there are schools, so teaching is a possibility. There are many small little stores all over the centro, so I suppose they could open a shop of some sort. A person could also go into small-business, mechanics or something. And that is about it.

Most of my students probably can’t afford to go to college, although I’m not sure how their economic status compares to the rest of Z. I just hope they get an opportunity to leave this tiny mountain town, see a little bit of the outside world and gain some perspective. Then, if they come back to Z, that’s fine, but I hope they return with a passion to change things for the better. The people here are so set in their ways, some of which are good, many of which are not.

Part of me wants to stay here in Z and devote all my time and energy to making sure those 23 students become successful, contributing members of society. Compared to them, I’ve seen so much, done so many amazing things and I feel very fortunate. Being here in Mexico, like other poor countries, makes me SO, SO thankful for my education. That diploma, with my name on it - is my key to the world. I can do anything I want, go anywhere I want.

Regardless of my feelings, my students have another year here before they graduate. Out of Leshia’s 12 graduating students, three have said they’re going to university, but the rest are pretty vague. They’ll probably find jobs, in a few years get married, live with their parents (which is normal here), have kids and start the entire process over again.

Little by little, I’ve gotten to know my students better and have gotten brief glimpses at their dreams and ambitions. A few want to be doctors, teachers or computer programmers. Another simply wants to fly planes, even though he’s never ridden in one. The rest have no idea and I’m afraid that they’ve stopped dreaming because they don’t think there is a life for them outside of Z. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be where I am today if my parents hadn’t pushed, shoved, encouraged and supported my every endeavor. It’s horrible to think that some of these parents might say to their children "you can’t go to college because we can’t afford it, and you can’t possibly work to pay for it."

And on the other hand, many of them simply love life here. It’s encouraging to hear how many of our students plan to go get an education, then come back to Z and go to work in the community. Ramiro, one of my favorite students, wants to get a law degree and come back, because the one lawyer in town is getting old. Regardless of how much they love it, I want them to get out, get away for awhile. See the world, or at least other parts of Mexico. Then, after that, they can come back to Z.

I hope that they’ve learned as much from me as I have from them. If nothing else, maybe I made them a little more confident in their English-speaking skills. I hope to stay in contact with all of them, follow them as they finish school and begin life. Surely one or more of them might come to the United States someday. Maybe I can help them get here. Maybe I’ll come back to Z.

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Part of trip: Community Service Summer in Mexico

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