Day 19: What can I do with the Mexicans?
I was approached by one of the nuns at school about whether I can welcome 25 Mexican girls in either a biology or technology class in the 3rd week of October. The 9th graders I'm teaching are into their 3rd year of Spanish, so most can hold a basic conversation and make themselves understood. At first, I said "Sure, no problem" - not realizing that these lovely Mexican girls, who are here via a student exchange program, do not speak a single word of French or English. My Spanish is pretty good, albeit a little rusty, but more than fine to have a casual conversation or discuss a simple topic.
Finding something to do in class, in Spanish and for 50 minutes, relating to either biology or technology, is a whole different story.
I've been lucky so far every time I've had to improvise - it even allowed me to bring the students to corners of my brain I had never been to myself.
It allowed me to shape the way I present things to them differently than if I had taken the time, like a REAL teacher would have, to plan out the lecture.
The only thing that keeps popping into my mind is that we could watch an episode of The Simpsons - the DVDs have Spanish as one of the available languages. I can't however think of a single episode which would relate to the subjects I'm supposed to teach...
