Señorita (insert attempt at my name)

Back in Quito for the weekend-- I had my first (in almost 3 weeks) real face-to-face conversation in English today!! Becca and Mutjaba are back from Tena for the weekend so there´s a few of us around--

The English teacher wasn´t at school all week so I was the full-time teacher. It was a lot of work but very rewarding and fun! Sunday is el dia del maestro, so there aren´t classes today or Monday. On Thursday the 6th grade class prepared a surprise party for all the teachers, complete with choclos (corn on the cob), a various assortment of candy and crackers, and boxed wine for all (including the students). This was at 8:15 in the morning, and was a fairly entertaining scene. A party for the teachers means that all the other kids just have to sit in their classes without an instructor- something that seems to happen fairly often.

I taught the 4th and 5th graders the song "head, shoulders, knees and toes" this week because we were learning body parts. They loved it!! It was neat, some of the boys that are normally "too cool" to participate in class were really into the song and the actions. The 4th grade girls remind me of that scene, I think in Toy Story 2, where the little aliens in the arcade game are flocking to Buzz making strange noises and trying to grab onto him. They are always trying to hug me, hold onto my arms, drag me places... It´s cute for a little while, but then I have to try and shake them off. It´s a difficult task, let me tell you.

On Thursday I had an interesting class with the 7th graders. They go to colegio next year (which is essentially high school), and thus the need to learn English is greatest with them. They were being really annoying and only about 1/3 had done their homework, so I decided that I wasn´t going to try and talk over them or teach. I just sat down at the teacher´s desk and said, "I´m not going to try to teach you guys if no one wants to learn." After a couple minutes a few students came up to me and said that they wanted to learn, so I said great, and we started working at the board. Everyone else kept doing whatever it is 12 year olds do ( :) mom and dad, I´m sure you´re rolling your eyes right now haha).. but gradually more kids came up to the board to learn. When the majority had decided to participate, I told them to sit down so we could all work together.

I proceeded to explain to them that I am not going to tell them they have to learn, that they have to do their homework, or that they have to pay attention in class. In this school the teachers are constantly saying, "Copy this, do this, do that". The kids are always asking me if they need to copy what´s on the board, and what color pen to use. I told the class that they need to decide for themselves what they want to know and what´s important to learn. They don´t want to do anything that they are told to do, that´s clear-- so I was trying to get them to think for themselves and decide whether or not it was important to pay attention and learn. After we started working again (we were learning the order of adjectives and nouns.. like green house instead of house green like it is in Spanish), they preceeded to ask if they needed to copy all the examples that we had done on the board. I explained that they only needed to copy as many as they felt they needed or enough to understand the concept. The whole thing was completely foreign to them (the concept of not being given orders)-- but it seemed to register.

All in all it was a really good week. The time continues to fly by- only 3 weeks left in Tocachi!

In other news, HAPPY BIRTHDAY/ FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS TIM!!!!!! (A few days early)
I´m off to enjoy the city--

¡hasta luego!