Teaching English… This is What I Do: Black and Yellow…

           I figured it was time for a little update on the teaching situation.  Here is the inside scoop.  I have been teaching for a few months now and really been enjoying the experience.  I co-teach with my teachers for the 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th graders and then teach by myself with the older students in my own awesome classroom.  The classroom has a projector, speakers, a computer, a smartboard (smarter than me at least) and its own office.  As the students normally all stay in their same classroom all day while the professors rotate, this English home base just for me is pretty nice.  My head teacher Rodrigo told all his classes, “You will be going into Cody’s classroom.  He has a classroom and an office; I don’t have a classroom and an office.”  I am really lucky, however, with great technology, comes great responsibility.

As I began to realize a long ago and fully accepted here in Chile, learning a language is tough and takes lots of effort.  Completing assignments from a book, about things you never will use, with grammar that native speakers don’t even understand, is destined to failure.  As I have no formal teaching credentials and don’t remember half of what my English, let alone Spanish, teachers told me over the years, except Hamlet, my teaching style doesn’t quite play by the (English) book. Throughout the time I have created lessons ranging from a basic conversation introducing ones self to watching the Simpsons online and answering questions about what happened.  We have read random bits of information on subjects like France and Vampires and given presentations and also watched and discussed commercials on important subjects like Pepsi. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu25lUDJZgY&feature=related).

Enjoy.  We even sung, “Stand by Me” while filling in missing vocabulary words, and learning about the songs history. 

            Considering I still don’t know if my students have learned anything or understand half the things I say, my head teacher gave me positive reassurance.  He said that he has noticed positive changes in his classroom and around the school and that I have been making an impact.  He said that in his classroom his students are all starting to use English to communicate.  He also said that twenty students have expressed interest in studying abroad up from one last year.  I have heard the language improvement in the English teachers and even had some great English conversations with the math and philosophy teachers, and even the vice-principal.  Witnessing eight year-old students say “Hello Mr. Cody, how are you?” is very rewarding. These positive signs and words of encouragement have shown me that all our work is valuable and this experience is worthwhile.  With only a few weeks left I hope to contribute and leave a positive memory in the hearts of all my new Chilean friends.