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| This is how I normally feel by the time Friday rolls around... |
My apologies, once again, for waiting so long between posts. Between my teaching responsibilities and graduate school applications (teaser alert for Kirsten's future!), I've had little time to sit and process what's new and noteworthy in my life. I guess the biggest change would be me signing on to teach a group of 12-18 youngsters English for three hours each Saturday. To be honest, I've come to regret doing this a bit because, although the kiddos are adorable and have boundless energy, my Saturdays were originally set aside as a day of relaxation and recuperation. (As a side note/reminder: I live with a Seventh-Day Adventist family, so Saturdays are treated as their Sabbath Day. No meat, no labor, no going out. I usually only fulfill two-thirds of these requirements :) Lesson learned: I cannot just blindly sign on to every opportunity that comes my way without first considering how said opportunity will impact my overall well-being. For instance, bringing hula hoops into an enclosed space (especially a holy space) ended up not being the best idea. My mistake was leaving some of the children unsupervised, with hula hoops, while I escorted one of the munchkins to the bathroom. By the time I returned, the rest of the kids had almost upturned the glass altar--I had to catch it before it fell! To make a long story short, I have a lot to learn when it comes to educating and entertaining children. These 5 weeks of experience (so far) have assured me that although I want to pursue the teaching path, I am meant to work with adults! If I can cajole the kids into sitting still for at least a bit next Saturday, I'll try and take some pictures and upload to a later post.
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| Exhibit A in how NOT to teach! |
Now to the "añoranza y desesperanza" part of my blog. I bet you non-Spanish-speaking readers were wondering what that meant, right? Answer: homesickness and despair. These last few weeks of class have been a drag on both my students and myself. I attribute it to the psychology of disappointment: classes were supposed to end on November 14th (last Friday), but the Ministry of Education changed course at the last moment (as they have done, exasperatingly, with SO MANY things throughout the year!) and tagged two more weeks on to the end of the course. I have been struggling to spice up my lesson plans with the 2 terrible textbooks we were given--one meant to teach the language of telephoning and the other a business book that was published in the 80s. Both are hardly relevant to my students. With that in mind, I've been stretching my creativity to try and incorporate games and sneaky grammar review into each class so that nobody ends up bored out of their minds. The results have been mixed: some students respond positively to the more kinesthetic learning and competitive games. Some, which remind me of my self, were and continue to be content to sit and absorb difficult grammar day after day. I have learned that I will never be able to please everyone, all the time...and though this is hard for me to accept, it is the only thing that keeps my teaching self-esteem intact and saves me from "desesperanza" or despair.
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| My attitude toward the Dominican Ministry of Ed |
As for homesickness? I'm torn and conflicted. On the one hand, there are so many things I miss about my home and country (regular electricity being only the simplest of these). On the other hand, I will have a really hard time saying goodbye to all of the wonderful people I have met here--my two families, my 42 students, and the countless others along the way who have welcomed me with open arms and been eager to learn "su chin de inglés" (their little bit of English). As it so happens, I may not even make my students' graduation ceremony due to yet another colossal miscommunication between the Ministry of Education and the Dominican president. One would assume that if there was a graduation ceremony involving 12,000 students from around the country, said ceremony would have a set date established well in advance...right? Wrong! Not in the DR. Two months ago the teachers in my program received a "set the date" email saying that graduation would be on November 30th, and those of us from the United States bought plane tickets based on that information. As part of our contract, the Ministry of Education is to reimburse those return flights. So I figure in some travel time and buy my ticket for December 10th. All settled! Again, WRONG. At the last minute the Ministry of Education changed the course schedule, adding two weeks and moving graduation first to December 5th (still okay with me) and then December 12th (uh-oh!) because of some "inconveniences" with the president's schedule. Although this cluster-bomb of a schedule is the Ministry's fault, the representatives I have talked to refuse to take responsibility and it is on my dime that I would have to pay to change my flight. Of course I am not going to do so out of principle. There are further exasperating details of this saga but I will not bore you, dear reader. Suffice it to say that "cogí un pique" (I've had enough of) the Ministry of Education and their blundering bureaucracy.
By my next post I will have finished teaching, (hopefully) have solidified the details of my travel plans, and have more personal pictures instead of stock Google images (however humorous and relevant).
Until next time, dear reader, saludos.
~Kirsten
