Ok… and below are some of the observations that I send out to the people in Canada who pay for 4 literacy classes here in San Pablo. I observe the four classes once a week and write my observations and send them to the sponsors in Canada. I also am responsible for paying the teachers, getting attendance, and I think I am going to start to get to go to the teacher inservice classes! It is a great way to get to know more people in the community.
Hello everyone,
My name is Mary Micikas and I am your observer for the literacy classes in San Pablo La Laguna this year. I actually went to school to be a secondary English teacher, so this is pretty exciting for me to be observing these classes. Classes have been going for about three weeks now, and I have had a chance to observe classes two different days. The classes are held in different places throughout the pueblo… I got lost a couple times and was wandering around the streets looking for the classes, but luckily I found some very nice people who escorted me to the correct house… people here are so very helpful!
The classes are all very different, from the places where they are held, all the way to what the students are learning, and the make up of the students in the class. Lucia´s class is one of the first levels of students. The students are working on reading aloud and sounding out words. There are about 8 women in this class, and most of them speak mostly only Tzútujil (the indignous language in this pueblo). But of course they are learning Spanish in their studies! This class is held in a little adobe room with a dirt floor. Lucia has a chaulk board proped up against a table and has made a couple little benches for the women to sit on out of tires and a board. Of course many of the children came to class with the women, and some of them even sat in on the class. One girl in particular seemed so interestd, and she got out her little notebook from school and was taking notes. Other children play outside the house with other children who live nearby. They just come in occasionally to check in and see what is going on.
Odeilia´s class is very similar to this sort of a structure with the women and their children attending. One of the women even gave up her seat for me to sit on, and even though I insisted that she sit on the chair and I would take the ground, she would not have that! In Odelia´s class during the Spanish part of the lesson, we worked on the letter “L” and she had us all making all sorts of Lllll sounds with different vowels and such. It was actually pretty fun!
Manuel´s class is very different! His class is made up of mostly teenagers, and it is a pretty wild place! This class is held in the classroom of the municipalidad, but we are all smooshed in there pretty well! There is sooo much energy in the classroom, sometimes it gets a little out of control, but Manuel has a really good way of quieting them down and refocusing the class. But he also seems to have a really good rapore with his students. This class is a higher level, and they are working more on sentence structure, and the other day while I was there the class was working on math problems on the board!
Well, I am off to observe classes again today! But this is a really neat experience, and I feel like I am learning a lot about education in this country. I can`t wait to share more with you all about what I have learned!
