Volunteering: English Workshops

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English Workshops

Every Tuesday, Marisa, Emily and I teach an English class at a public school here in Salamanca. Most of the other groups have kids ranging from 8-12, but not us. No, we were blessed with a classroom full of four-year-olds. Why do these little tykes need to learn English so early? Beats me. Regardless, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to make their transition into bilingualness as smooth as possible. But let’s be honest, smooth sailing with four-year-olds is like taking a dinghy out into a storm. A loud storm, filled with crayons and high-pitched yelling in Spanish words you often don’t understand...isn’t teaching fun?

In all seriousness though, I do love it. It just gets crazy sometimes. If you have ever babysat or substituted for a class, you know that the biggest obstacle is getting the kids to respect you. You are not their mother. You are not their teacher. You are just the temporary adult in the room. Add in the fact that you only kind of speak their language, meaning you probably sound like incomprehensible mess half the time. If you were a kid and came to class where the teacher said “Time for silence and I need now a circle, children!” you most likely wouldn’t think “Dang, I better do what she says!”

Welcome to my Tuesdays.

I remember on the very first day, I was trying to get them to come sit in some sort of orderly shape when Ricardo, one of those sassy troublemakers, said to me “Tu no sabes nada de Español!” Translation: “You don’t know anything about Spanish!” Ouch. Even from a four-year-old, that hurts. I’ve since come to really like Ricardo, but he’s evil. If you turn your back for a second he’ll be drawing on the board or sliding into walls or trying to get into the ball drawer to play soccer, all the while spouting malicious commentary that would be really funny if it wasn’t coming from someone so small and sneaky. If you get him on the right track though, he’s really smart, and he does have his sweet moments, when they’re not feigned that is.

Example: Ricardo is playing with another boy, Oscar (while we are trying to teach them something, no less), and Ricardo ends up kicking Oscar. Oscar starts crying, so Ricardo goes and jumps in Marisa’s lap, sucking his thumb and smiling like an angel. Nice try buck-o, I witnessed the whole thing. No dulces for you!

I feel like there will always be those troublemakers, but they are especially dangerous when they instigate others into misbehaving. Take Sergio, Ricardo’s partner in crime. He’s the cutest thing (and always comes to class with perfectly gelled up hair), but if Ricardo gets going, Sergio follows suit. Then the other two boys, Oscar and Adrián, will start up too, and before you know it, you have an unplanned, unwanted game of cat and mouse/let’s-jump-on-the-teachers/let’s-erase-everything-on-the-board game.

Ahhh!!

Usually, we can coax them back into submission with the promise of a game or candy. Who says bribery doesn’t work? And there’s always one kid who listens to us. Elena. Thank goodness for Elena! She is the sweetest, most well behaved child EVER! She always does what is asked immediately and tries to get the others to do it as well. What’s more, she’s incredibly smart! She picks up all of our lessons right away and is so excited about it! Too bad we can’t trade in Ricardo for another one of her...but I digress.

There’s also Charlie. Wait, I know what you’re thinking: Elena, Ricardo, Sergio, what kind of Spanish name is Charlie?? We’re not sure either. We’re also not sure whether he understands a thing we say, because I haven’t heard him speak a word of English yet. But he always has a smile on his face! That counts for something right?

Well, actually, one day Charlie was off in a corner upset because the other boys had called him a camello (camel). “No soy un camello,” he said in a woeful voice when asked what was wrong. I guess those hooligans really know how to cut you down (a camel?) But we gave him a piece of candy and he was right as rain again in no time.

Ok, so we don’t just give them candy all of the time. We teach them SUPER FUN English words too! We’ve had a number of awesome days teaching them about colors and shapes, where we’ve gotten them to sit in a circle for 20 blissful minutes at a time quietly looking at flash cards. They know them really well now! After days like that, I feel very accomplished. I can see them going home and pointing at something and saying “Yellow! Green! Star!” etc., and then their parents will say “My, those must be some fine volunteers at that school!”

If only every week could be like that.

I don't know why, but we consistently have a good week followed by a bad week. Last week was a madhouse, and we had to admit defeat and get their teacher to come in and dole out punishments.

This week, however, I came prepared with alphabet flash cards, candy, and a powerpoint on my laptop. They love the flash cards because it becomes a competition as to who can say the answer first and be handed that particular card. Usually Elena has the most, saying something like “Mira! Tengo sies! Jaja!” and spreading out a handful of cards before the others. It’s like feeding time at the zoo. They are all crowded around me and scrambling for cards, hands outstretched saying “Blue! BLUE! BLUUUUUE! I said it first!” or “Lion! That’s a LION! LIONS GO RAWRRR!” Yes, yes they do.

That’s always fun, and games are especially fun too. We usually start each class by playing one game with action words, where we’ll yell things like “Jump! Skip! Run! Spin!” and the kids will have to do the action. They really seem to like it, and an added bonus, it makes them tired!

They LOVE the Hokey Pokey and always laugh and have a good time with it. One time, though, we made the mistake of saying “put your backside in, put your backside out...” and they flew off the handle yelling “Culo! Culo!” (butt), and shaking their rears, trying to smack each other on the butt too. Needless to say, we avoid that particular body part now.

They also love Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, especially when we say “Now faster! Faster!” But we have to be careful with that too, because one day I slipped into camp counselor mode and each time said “A LITTLE BIT LOUDER AND A LITTLE BIT FASTER!” until they were wound up in a screaming, gyrating frenzy at the exact moment that the teacher came in and sternly told us all to be quiet. Oops. My bad.

All in all, I have a great time doing it. Yes, sometimes I want to pull my hair out, or tell Ricardo exactly where he can put that piece of chalk (just kidding, who would tell a four-year-old that??...), but it’s 100% a worthwhile experience. So far they’ve learned colors, shapes, animals, actions, body parts, emotions, and the ABC’s. I taught them that! Yo sé MUCHO de Español!

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