Upon traveling to study abroad in Nicaragua, I was already aware that I was going to be a student attending classes at UNAN Managua for the semester. What I did not know was that not only would I be a student during this time, but also a teacher. During our stay here, everyone in the group has to do some volunteer work in Managua to help out people in the community. We were told about various volunteer groups and what they did. We then got to choose what we wanted to help out with. I felt like I would be best suited in helping kids in school, be it assisting with studies or teaching English. Morena and I then went to this primary school (1st to 6th grade) and spoke with the administrator there over which position they needed me most. She then asked me, "Do you want to teach English to the kids?" I shrugged and said, "Sure!" She then said, "Great! Can you start tomorrow?" I again agreed and she said, "Alright! Let's go meet the kids."
We walked into a class of about 40 kids, first graders. "Oh no, what have I gotten myself into?" I thought to myself. In primary school here when the teacher enters the class, all the students stand up and yell, "BUENOS DIAS!" and stands up. The teacher then says, "Buenos dias. Sientense por favor (please sit)" and they sit and say "Gracias!" This threw me for a loop the first time. The teacher then explained to the kids who I was and what I was going to be doing there. I then had to introduce myself, telling them I'm from the United States, that I'm in school as well, and that I was going to teach them some English. They were very excited about that. One kid then raised his hand and asked, "Is there snow there?" I told him yes and the class ooooooo'ed and another kid asked me what snow is like. I said, "It's cold, but pretty." I then introduced myself to the second and third grade class after that and we left. I hadn't taught a day in my life, I thought, and here I was having to teach little kids, in another language...
Tuesday morning I returned to the school where the administrator, Marixa, asked me, "Can you do first grade today?" I replied "Sure! Do they already know some English or nothing at all?" She said, "They already know a few words, but just refresh them." Sounds easy enough right? I enter the class, greeted by the barrages of buenos dias's and the first grade teacher then said to me, "Let me know when you're done." and walked right out the door. I was on my own. I figured today, I was going to teach how to say things like, "hello" "good morning" "goodnight" etc. I asked the kids what they do when the teacher walks into the class, and they said "buenos dias". So I then taught them how to do that whole process in English. After teaching them what 'good morning' meant and when to use it, I told them I was going to leave the class and when I walk back in to stand up and greet me in English. I walk out of class, wait, then leaped back in and they got up and screamed "GOOD MORNING!" They loved that. It turns out teaching kids is all about enthusiasm. I taught some other things like the numbers 1-10 and drew funny pictures to explain things. However, first graders have the attention span of a fly, so it wasn't long before kids were getting up or hitting each other or telling me what one kid said to the other. I just told them to sit down and listen, which only kind of worked. That was an interesting experience. I need some more fun activities in the future. After roughly 45 minutes the class was over. I had survived the first grade.
I returned to the office where after some scheduling and availability negotiations, it turns out that I can only teach on Wednesdays and that I would be teaching 4th, 5th, and 6th graders instead. This brought me slight relief. I returned on Wednesday to find out that I had become a celebrity overnight after being stormed by a stampede of kids hugging me and asking me when I would be teaching their class. I taught the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders the same greeting process in English, jumping in and out of the doorway while they yelled, "Good morning!" and "Good bye!" Since these kids were a bit older, I taught them some basic phrases like "How are you?" and "What is your name?" Many times I would be stopped and someone would ask me how to say whatever word in English or what certain song lyrics meant. This 5th grade girl raised her hand and asked "What does 'sexy bitch' mean in Spanish?" only knowing the words in English but not the meaning. I just laughed and told her not to worry about it. The 6th grade class was by far the easiest to teach. They told me they wanted to learn the alphabet, so we went through it. I realized that English is a weird language. Like, why does the letter 'E' make an 'eh' sound when the letter is pronounced 'eeeeee', or 'I' is pronounced 'ih' not 'eye'? That was hard to explain since in the Spanish alphabet, every letter is pronounced the way it sounds.
I never thought that I would be a student and a teacher at the same time during my stay here in Nicaragua. Despite being nervous about it at first, it really wasn't so bad once I got going. Never did I think that I would hear the words 'Christian' and 'profe' (professor or teacher) in the same sentence, but after a few hours of teaching, I think I can get the hang of it.
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