Love my students!

Happy Friday! I have officially finished my first two days of school at Colegio San Marcos. The first day was a bit chaotic and the students had to take diagnostic tests, so I didn't get to interact with them very much. Today, however, was so much fun! I followed one of the English teachers, named Paulina, around all day. We had 8th, 9th, and 10th graders. In each of the classes, Paulina introduced me and discussed the rules for the year, expectations, etc. She also explained to the children why learning English is important so that they understood why they were taking it. I thought it was a great idea because I remember wondering in a lot of my classes growing up why I had to take certain subjects. Sometimes I just didn't see the point, and it may have helped for the teacher to discuss it from a real world perspective.

Then after taking care of the administrative tasks in the class, we did a few activities. First, I went around the room and asked everyone's name, age, and something they liked about themselves. Most were very shy and it took them a while to talk. I know they were nervous to have to speak in front of a native English speaker...I still get nervous every day here in Chile when I speak Spanish to someone! I hope that goes away soon...

Anyway, afterwards the students had to get in pairs and formulate three questions to ask me in English about my lifestyle in the U.S., what I like/dislike, hobbies, etc. I got some very interesting questions, especially from the 10th graders (actually they are my favorite group so far), so that was fun! The questions ranged from where are you from, what kind of music do you like, do you live in an apartment or house, what is your favorite sport, what do you like to do during the summer, etc. to do you have a boyfriend and do you think Chilean men are good-looking? They were cracking me up! That's about all the time we had today in each class, though, because they only last 45 minutes each.

Next week I'm going to sit down with the English coordinator to put together my schedule because I'll be working with multiple teachers and multiple classes. I'm excited to see what the 11th/12th graders are like!

Well, I'm off to Valparaíso now, so I'll talk to you when I get back. Have a great weekend!

Love,
LG