1st and 2nd lesson

So I have taught two lessons now at ALPI. At the first one, I had 16 students and 6 of them were deaf. Although it was a really good class, we had some difficulty because the class was very divided in what they already knew of English. After the class was over, I spoke with the coordinators about dividing this class into two classes. I now teach the deaf students on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5-6:30pm and I teach the other students on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-6:30pm. The first day of class we went over:

-Numbers
-Alphabet
-Months
-Days of the week
-My name is...
-I am from...
-I am ____ years old.

Today I reviewed what we had learned last Thursday with my deaf students. We also started learning about family members. The students in this class are really working hard and are catching on quickly. I am very impressed with their progress so far and it really seems like they really want to learn English. One of the students even bought a magazine in English to practice!
There are eleven students in this class but today I only had five. The others didn´t come for different reasons.

I have asked about the possibility of me learning some sign language so that I am able to communicate better with them when they don´t understand. One of the students has an implant, so he listens, and then when another student doesn´t understand, he signs to them. I told my students that I would like for them to teach me sign language too, when we are in class. So far they have taught me:

- Muy bien (Very good)
- Algunas preguntas (Any questions?)
- Gracias (Thankyou)
- Applause
- Dudas (Doubts)
- De nada (You´re welcome)
- Hola y Ciao

The sign language that they speak is local and I found out that each country has it´s own set of sign language. Tommorow I have a different class. We have also discussed the possibility of having a conversation class. Language classes have never been offered before at ALPI so there is a lot of interest. If I end up having a conversation class as well, we are thinking Fridays, I will be teaching three classes.

Lesson Planning at ALPI

Today I went for my first lesson planning session with Dra. Graciela. Although it was rainy, and all of my materials got soaking wet, I made it to ALPI. I met Susanna again while at ALPI, she works in the education department as well, and while Dra. Graciela was tending to a problem that they were having in the center, Susanna and I talked in Spanish about what I wanted to do in teaching the ESL class. She said that my Spanish is very good and that I even have a porteño accent! Awesome!

Dra. Graciela and I talked about starting simple with the students because they have never taken English classes before, and may not have much of a background in the language. We talked about reading and writing with the students. So far, this is what I will be teaching to the students:

Verb tenses:
-Simple present
-Present progressive
-Simple past

We decided to take out future and present perfect tenses for now because the class only goes until the middle of December and it´s a lot to learn for such a short amount of time.

Vocabulary:
-Meals
-Days of the week, months, seasons
-Going shopping, buying things
-Transportation
-Question words
-Time

Structures:
-Adjectives
-Adverbs
-Nouns
-Possessive pronouns
-Articles

My class starts on Thursday and will be every Tuesday and Thursday from 5-6:30pm and I´m very excited about it!

A new project!

Crecer con Amor was really too far away for to go there 4 times a week, so I talked with Mercedes at the Help Argentina main office and she looked for a new volunteer placement for me. She got in contact with ALPI, a rehabilitation center for physically handicapped people. ALPI was started for patients dealing with polio and has now opened up to handicapped people with other physical limitations, either caused by accidents or diseases that have caused limited mobility. ALPI is located in Palermo which is where I live, and is about a 20 minute walk from my apartment.

I visited ALPI yesterday with Jon Teel, the on-site volunteer coordinator for Help Argentina. We talked with the lead coordinators of the education department at ALPI. I will be teaching English as a Second Language to some of the patients at ALPI. I will be working with Doctor Graciela Scavone to plan my lessons. No one knows about this class yet at the center, so during the weekend, they will get the word out about the class, and by Tuesday we will know how much interest there is in learning English as a Second Language at the center. Some patients also take computer classes, and other classes at the center.

Help Argentina hasn´t sent any volunteers to ALPI for awhile because when they were interested in help from volunteers, there weren´t enough volunteers to send there. Right now, I am the only volunteer from Help Argentina that is working at ALPI. I am going back to ALPI on Tuesday, to work on my lesson plans and on Thursday I will begin teaching. I am very excited about this project because I will get to teach ESL in a setting where I really think I can make a difference.