One and Done

This week's accomplishments: Module 1 of ESL and Unit 1 (and now 2) of ESL training. On Monday and Wednesday, Courtney and I gave our students in Licey and Palmar, respectively, certificates of completion. They really don't mean much other than that all of us survived the first six weeks of classes, but look at those proud smiles!

We'll jump right into week 1 of Module 2 tomorrow. Our lesson plan consists of 

• reviewing "Jesus Loves Me"; 
• correcting last week's homework;
• a listening/reading activity to practice asking others' occupations and where they're from; 
• learning the numbers 13-20; and
• asking "information" questions using "what" (addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers). 

Both Courtney & I are succumbing to the joy that is seeing our students progress; I'm going to play around with making vocabulary flashcards using Quizlet, and Courtney spontaneously bought a syllable game for us to play :)

Unit 1 of my training course was "Teachers and Learners." It walked through roles that teachers assume in the classroom (i.e. Controller, Prompter, Model) and highlighted factors that influence learners'...well...learning (i.e. age, culture and first language, motivation). My biggest takeaway was that good teachers care more about their students' learning than about their own teaching. In order to maximize the learners' potential, teachers must themselves become learners, switching in and out of the different classroom roles as needed to self-critique and improve upon their instructional approach. Much like missionary life in general, one might go so far as to say that the key is humility. 

Unit 2 was about the parts of speech. It brought back [fond] memories of sentence diagramming in 5th grade with a few minor differences: I've never heard of the "zero article," and what happened to interjections? It's still too soon to form an opinion about the course as a whole. 

Wishing you a blessed All Saints' Day - I'm off to pick up MK Abby for "Cooking Camp" in a bit. We're making Honey Butter Garlic Chicken, Southern Fried Cabbage, and Swedish Apple Pie. 

Until next time, blessings!