I could say it's been a really busy summer and that's why I haven't posted for three months, but it's actually been winter all this time. I had some lovely wintertime visitors from various far away continents, but now I am back in MdP and getting into the swing of teaching again. Now that it's a new semester, I have a new group of students and I am freshly 26, I think it's time I start blogging again. I mostly need to do it for my own personal reflection, but you're welcome to enjoy my thoughts too, Mom!
Towards the end of last semester I found myself kind of getting in a slump. I had developed a sort of recipe for my conversation classes and wasn't really trying anything new and exciting. We had a really great Fulbright Regional Enhancement seminar in Montevideo, Uruguay. It was a great time to compare notes with the other Fulbrighters and realize that many of them were in very similar situations and experiencing the same frustrations. I left the seminar with a new sense of energy and inspiration for my classes.
Unfortunately, when I got back to the UNMDP, the humanities building was under a "tomada," meaning it was being occupied by about 10 students who were unhappy with their economics grades from three years ago. Therefore, that meant all classes in the humanities building were basically cancelled for the rest of the semester. Yeah, it didn't make sense to me either. As far as I know, economics definitely isn't a humanity! After the tomada, I was on a month-long vacation, which was great, but I kind of forgot about all my great new ideas for teaching. oops.
Now the semester has begun, and I am starting to feel excited about what's ahead. This semester I will be leading two short-story discussion groups as an extra opportunity for students in a literature class I am assisting in. I had my first two groups yesterday and a lot of students actually showed up, so that was great! It's kind of fun to teach something other than just straight-up ESL too. The teacher is offering students extra credit if they attend six sessions throughout the semester, so I think that will do wonders for attendance.
I am also working with some higher level students this semester who seem a lot more eager about my classes. I think because they have been studying at the university for a while, they can see the value in classes with a native speaker a lot more than the first-year students I worked with last semester. I will be doing a conversation-based class with them, and also working a bit on public speaking (hilarious, I know). My class on Monday had 16 students and I have gotten a lot of emails from the students so far in response and even thanking me. So polite! They seem very enthusiastic about it, which also makes me more inspired.
Speaking of emails, I have made it a habit to give out my email address to most classes I go to. I substitute teach for a lot of classes at the lab, so I am always meeting new groups of students. Because of this, I have been getting a wide array of interesting emails and requests. For example, "Teacher, do you prepare me for TOEFL test? I want take in 2 month." There are also some with random questions about the US, a lot about studying/working in the US, and some with subject headings like, "Help," asking me to edit things. They are certainly keeping me on my toes.
And speaking of being on my toes, on Friday is my first lesson for beginners. These are level one students at the lab; some are false beginners, and some legitimately have no experience with English. I will be working with scenarios and role plays mostly, to help them prepare for their oral tests. It will be offered as a free class for any level one student at the lab, of which there are well over 100. Right now there are 46 students signed up for it and I have a classroom that fits 30. I am hoping in true Argentine fashion, half of them don't show up, or I don't really know how that's going to work! One suggestion was that I could use two rooms and just float between them after I give directions to everyone. So we shall see what happens. I promise not to wait three months before posting about the outcome.
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