Practicum Week!

10/24/10

Practicum Week was incredible! I loved Jinotega and didn't want to leave. Last Sunday I headed to Managua with the rest of my Niquinohomo crew. We met up with the rest of the TEFL group at the bus station where a Peace Corps bus picked us up and took us to a nice hotel. We were super spoiled there we had wireless internet, hot showers and AIR CONDITIONING! It was so nice and to top it all off we had pizza from Pizza Hut which tasted amazing after eating mainly rice and beans for the past several weeks.

We left bright and early the next morning for Matagalpa and Jinotega. We dropped of half the group in Matagalpa and continues up to Jinotega. The drive up was very scenic as we climbed up into the mountains. It reminded me a lot of Oregon with all the greenery and rolling hills. The city of Jinotega is really nice for a department capital. It had all the big city things likes supermarkets and banks and a variety of other things but not the chaotic big city feeling, which I feel my current department capital Masaya definitely has. The weather was heavenly not too hot and not to cold. It rained a little the first night we were there but afterward I was sunny and warm. It was really nice to give my sweat glands a break since the have been working over time since I arrived in Nicaragua.

Upon our arrival Jinotega we went directly to meet our counterparts at the house of a 3^rd year volunteer who had helped to organized this week for us. My partner Megan and I were introduced to our counterpart Edgar who taught at the biggest high school in town, Instituto Benjamin Zeledon. In Nicaragua because there usually more students than there are schools, there are morning and afternoon sessions. Megan I and I were were assigned to the afternoon session, which was nice because it meant we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to be at school by 7am. Having the afternoon session which started at 12:30pm, also meant we were able to do any finalizing to our lesson plans which was also nice. After talking with Edgar about his classes and what he had taught already Megan and I split up the class schedule. Edgar only teaches 9^th,- 11^th grade, I was eager to get as much teaching experience I could so I took his 10^th and 11^th grade classes and Megan took his 9^th grade classes. I was a little worried that I had bitten off more than I could chew but in the end it all worked out well and not a single class got canceled. Rather than co-teaching the classes,as is the norm for the PC Nicaragua TEFL program, our role for the week was to ‘take over’ the various classes of our counterpart teacher and teach them individually. The non-teaching PC trainee Edgar were to observe each class and at the end of the day a reflection session was held so as to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement before the next day’s classes.

On Tuesday I went to give my first class, the topic was natural disasters. I had been told by Edgar that they had been given the vocabulary and that he wanted me to review that and help them write a small description of each natural disaster. It would have been nice to be able to start the class from the beginning of the lesson instead of dropping in, in the middle but, it all worked out in the end. I started the class with a warm up. I had the students stand up with me and sing the first two lines of “I feel the earth move under my feet, I feel the sky a tumbling down, a tumbling down.” I did a little dance that mimed the lyrics so I was moving my feet and shaking my hands. Some of the students did the dance with me but most just stood and laugh at me wondering what this crazy gringo was doing. After that I ask if anybody knew what natural disaster this song was about, and one of the student answered correctly with earthquake, so I accomplished my objective. The rest of the class went pretty well first I give them an example of how I wanted them to describe the natural disaster. After I was pretty sure they understood the instructions, I broke them up into groups where they worked on an assigned natural disaster then they presented to the class. I was pretty happy how it went but need to improve my instruction giving and clarity.

On Wednesday, I had two back to back classes of 11^th grade. The topic was comparing American and Nicaraguan children and households. We talked about things like how American children usually move out after they graduate high school and go to live on their own. While in Nicaragua students that go to college usually go to a college near to home so that they can come home at night, or if its far away they stay with family members. Or how they usually stay at home until they are married working to support their parents while Americans don't. After working together we had a handful of comparisons, I then assigned each group one and they had to come up with pros and cons. I helped translate things into English that they didn't know. The class went surprisingly well the students were engaged and participated in the class and group activities. I was very impressed because I was afraid it wasn't going to be an interesting topic. I was very excited for the second class because it was the same grade and same topic and one of my teaching directors was coming to observe me. So I wanted to repeat the success I had had in my earlier class. Unfortunately the second class BOMBED! I don't know exactly what happened but it was like I was speaking Chinese to them. They were stone walling me. Unlike the earlier class where there was a lot of participation, in this class only two students out of a class of nearly 50 were answering my questions. Needless to say my planned discussion activity did not go well and I still had 80 minutes of my 90 minute class to kill. Instead of having them discuss the differences between the two countries like I did in the earlier class I just had them talk in their group about the pros and cons of having a lot of freedom. After we broke up into groups things seem to pick up a little while they were working together and by the end I was surprised how many ideas they had come up with. In the end it wasn't a complete failure and I did a lot of things well my director told me but he said the student were like zombies. The moral to this story is even though the classes sections are the same grade and same topic taught by the same teacher don't have preconceived notions that they will be the same.

In addition to all of the other things going on this week, we also had our second round of site selection interviews. In our second weeks of training all of the TEFL trainee had preliminary interviews with the director of TEFL program in Nicaragua . Among other questions about our professional and educational backgrounds, she asked us about our preferences in terms of our permanent sites. I know I have talk a lot about my preferences before so I won't go into depth about that again. We just talked about my climate and site size preferences. I told her the I prefer cooler climates and bigger cities and why. I felt the interview when pretty well, its different than a job interview where you may or may not get the job. I know I'll be placed somewhere and my director understood that the reasons for my preferences were more that superficial, so we'll see. I find out my site this Friday I can't wait, this shroud of secrecy has been killing me!!

All in all, I really enjoyed practicum week and the experience was extremely rewarding. Having missed the opportunity to teach in Niquinohomo, I appreciated both the opportunity to manage a classroom of my own, not having to mind stepping on the toes of a co-teacher, and also the insight, and critiques of my colleagues. I am going to try and improve the clarity of my instructions. Edgar it turns out is the president of the Jinotega English teachers association, so if I end up getting placed there ( which would be amazing! fingers crossed!) I hope to would work with him on that.

Lastly because it worth mentioning Jinotega has amazing coffee! They produce they majority of Nicaraguan coffee. Unfortunately the export their best stuff out of the country because the Nicaraguans don't drink it mainly because of the cost it think.. Unfortunately the drink mainly instant coffee that you just stir into you cup. Good coffee is one the thing I really miss from back home and especially from Spain. So I bought myself and my host family a bag of the best kind made. It was great I went to a cooperative where they made it and sold it in the coffee shop next door. Just one of the many reasons I loved Jinotega.

Central Park in Jinotega

View of from my hotel room

Mountains view 

More pictures to come!