Tuesday, January 7, 2014

First day shadowing

Today we shadowed Christina's music classes. She had six different sections of fifth, sixth, and seventh graders. They wrote about their favorite songs, and some of them performed them. They also played some music and dancing games. The afternoon kids were a little more rowdy than the morning kids! The kids tried their best to introduce themselves in English and were very excited to get to meet and talk to us! It was a great day and we hope to see the kids again around the center during our last week here!
-Taylor, Mike M., Estor, Mike P.

We began the day shadowing Caitlin and Natalia's marketing class where the students worked on a small business presentation. It was very inspirational seeing how much pride they took in the powerpoints they made to sell the products. Due to the lack of internet connection across the campus, the students moved to the cafeteria and then the office to try to make the connection. In the classroom where their belongings were, the year round volunteers accidentally locked the keys inside. We tried everything possible to open up the door (including throwing your body against the door), but it was another way they showed us how they always have to roll with the punches.
   Then we went to their gym class where the kids played fetch. Their competitiveness and fun attitudes made us feel like we were back in elementary school. After a small lunch break we went back to the cafeteria to play jump rope, bowling, and limbo. We were forced to play and bring our inner child out! This experience was extremely worthwhile and in general, we learned much more about the center's culture.
- Colleen, Liliana, Roberto, and Jackie

I also would like to thank everyone here on this trip from Le Moyne, the students from the other colleges, and all of the people here at the Center for their graciousness on my 21st birthday today. The "feliz cumpleanos" banner, the birthday crown, my wonderful new earrings and mora birthday cake truly made this the best birthday I could have hoped for. I am incredibly grateful and appreciative for this opportunity here in Quito, and I cannot put into words how it felt to interact with the children today.
- Colleen

Today we started our day very early. We had to catch the bus at 7:00am, but Laura N. accidentally slept in until this time, which pushed our leaving time back a little. We then were on our way to Gota de leche with Eileen to teach a special education class. We each worked with one child, teaching them math. Some of the children proved to be a challenge when they refused to do their work but with a little creativity, like Laura M. teaching a girl english, these were only minor obstacles. We traveled a lot today between all three centers. For the second class, boys english, we walked to La Marin. The boys english class had a lot of energy. They were clearly enthusiastic about the topic but at times this enthusiasm got out of hand. We introduced ourselves and allowed the kids to practice their english skills by asking us questions. They really showed their skills when they said "you are pretty" to Laura N. We split up and helped them learn "donde" which means "where" in english. We traveled back to center 2, where we stay, to eat lunch and then help at the physical education class. Because it was raining we played bowling with pins made out of plastic bottles filled with sand, and jumped rope in the cafeteria. It is always amazing to see the children be so amused and having so much fun with simple material. They are inspiring and we all learned so much from interacting with them today.
-Laura N., Laura M., Austin, and Orlando

Today, we shadowed physical education and art classes for 2nd - 5th graders. The children here are very playful and excited to the fill the time in phys. ed class with jump roping games, badminton, kickball, and futbol (a.k.a. soccer). When given the freedom to choose, the children jumped at the chance to join up with their classmates and be playful and active. Wow, are they full of energy! Stacey joined in with a few girls to jumprope. They taught her songs in Spanish that set the rhythm for their hops through the rope. Marco was showing the boys how it's done on the futbol field -- or was it the other way around? It's hard to say! Stacey also went to an English class taught by a year-long volunteer from Germany who was teaching English to the girls in her class in Spanish. Pretty amazing! We ended our day in art class where the children were drawing their New Years Resolutions, and setting goals for themselves 5, 10, and 20 years from now. Marco and Stacey are not Spanish speakers, but today was a great experiences learning how to communicate with the children in other ways.

Today was a day filled with fun, smiles, and laughter. Although it's hard to communicate with the children at the CMT, playing soccer and helping with arts and crafts was a great and easy way to connect with them. Looking forward to some more fun in the sun with the kids!
-Marco and Stacey

I shadowed Natalie today.  We started with her co-teaching a Marketing class with Caitlin.  We left campus to make copies for her next class, teaching English through Bingo and getting to know classmates.  We returned as the students went to a WiFi location for their marketing presentations.  We ended up locked out of the classroom with our bags and jackets for a bit, the students had left their stuff in the classroom as well.  We went on to the next classes and later located keys to grab our and their things.  Natalie's English class playing Bingo was entertaining as the girls scrambled to find people that fit the descriptions of their Bingo squares.  It definitely was fun helping them figure out the Spanish translation of the squares.
Later Natalie tutored a man who attended the CMT as a youth.  He was preparing a speech for the 50th Anniversary event that will be held in August.  He shared his Christmas and New Years stories in English and we headed to lunch.
Afterwards we took the bus to La Marin and taught a level one English class.  They learned parts of the body and drew a person to label in their notebooks.  They got very creative with their drawings adding fashion to the assignment.
The shadow day ended with a computer class where students played Encyclopedia games on the computers, working with the volunteers to figure out the multiple choice question answers.
It was great shadowing Natalie through the day in her various volunteer teacher activities.  It showed a lot of the work the volunteers do and the broad range of tasks they take on.  They're really dedicated to do this every week day for the entire school year.
~Shelby







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