The end of a very short era

Last Thursday marked the official end to my first round of English classes... although instead of having class we had a pizza party at my house, and admittedly spoke Spanish the whole time until I tried to start a round of "what do I like?" in English to wind things down, which effectively killed the party.

Here are a few pictures of my actual last day of teaching (I thought a game of Jeopardy would be fun, but nobody had ever heard of Jeopardy and in the end it got a little overly-competitive and was kind of a downer for the losing team. I inadvertently put most of the shy people on one team). A few people were missing, but this was about it by the end of the course - I'm hoping when I start the second round of classes next week I'll have more students! Along with this class I also taught one for highschool kids, and a conversation class of 4 students who already have a pretty solid English background. My goal is to have enough students by the fall to start a few intermediate classes.



Some things I really love about teaching English in Flor del Campo:
1. I'm always learning new things. Super cheesy but true.
2. Generally students are really, really motivated and really, really grateful for any extra time I'm willing to spend with them. Which not only makes me feel like it's always time well spent, but it also makes me feel like a super star.
3. English classes here are very expensive, so I love that my classes are free for everyone. I also love that several of my students are house-wives and normally don't have the opportunity to attend a class or learn something new.
4. I was walking down the street above our house the other day and a little girl I didn't recognize said "Hola Profe" (short for profesora and pronounced like "pro-fey"). I think when I go back to teach elementary school in the states I will insist on going by "profe".

Some things that were humbling about teaching English:
1. I asked for some feedback from my few and faithful remaining students at the end of our term, as to why they thought we'd lost about half the class. Most were quiet, a few said that a lot of people want to learn English but don't want to actually study, and then Brenda, ever honest, told me it's because I gave too many quizes. Point taken.
2. It turns out that English is very tricky and I've had to do a lot of work just figuring out how to explain some of the weirder parts of the English language. Should have taken that TESOL class at GC. But I think marine biology was probably way more fun.