My lesson was on U.S. holidays and culture; our language/vocabulary emphasis was on "similar" and "different." My first group of students worked in pairs to explore U.S. holidays and decide if there were similar holidays in Panama and in what ways did they celebrate. Since Monday was Valentine's day, they also created and exchanged valentines. I worked closely with two Access teachers from Tuesday-Thursday, Amalia and Tatiana. They had great ideas of how to make the lesson more interactive. Instead of having the following groups write and discuss similarities and differences, we assigned each of them one holiday and they had to act it out for the rest of the group. It was so amazing to see the creativity of these kids. January 9th is día de los martires. This day honors the students that were killed by the U.S. while attempting to replace the U.S. flag with the Panama flag in 1964. My students decided this day was similar to Memorial Day in the States. For their drama, one group had 2 guys climbing up a tree with a construction-paper Panama flag. After climbing down they were "shot" by their group members and the two girls in the group started sobbing. Another group that was assigned Christmas had one of the guys put a plastic bag on his face for a beard, one of the students held his arms out to form a circular window while another threw pieces of leaves in front to represent snow. They may not have had all the necessary language skills to verbally present their holidays, but the whole group knew exactly what they were portraying through their creativity. They also attended sessions on values, language arts and culture, leadership, and health and fitness.
At one point, one of my students, Sara, just didn't have the words. You could see her mind whirring trying to come up with just a few English words but she couldn't. The stress eventually got to her and she broke down. Tears streamed from her eyes as she ran to the bathroom in embarrassment. I gave her a minute there by herself, but followed. We had a discussion, in Spanish, about how it's ok to make mistakes. I've been speaking Spanish for 8 years and I still don't speak it perfectly. I reminded her that we're all here for the same reason, to practice and get better with the help of each other. She gave me a big hug and a smile; I will never, ever forget that smile.
I also helped in recreational aspects...it was camp after all! The first night Todd and I worked with kids on the basketball court. Most of them had never played before so we worked on the basics: passing, catching, dribbling, close-range shots. Throughout the week I also helped with volleyball, played American football and helped with the kids' favorite activity: aerobics. We turned on music with a good beat and they all came out of their shells. We did basic step moves and I also added in some basic kickboxing that they seemed to really enjoy. We also watched two movies: We Are Marshall (mostly for the American football aspect) and Pursuit of Happyness. The kids were particularly inspired by Pursuit of Happyness. It's difficult to get 100+ kids focused on an English, Spanish-subtitled movie, but it was quiet for every minute of that movie.
They also participated in leadership activities that Access Youth Ambassadors and their Leader, Leonel, learned from their visit to the States last month. They spent time in New York, D.C., Michigan and Texas. They brought back some great, interactive, team-building and leadership activities that I was also given the opportunity to participate in.
On Wednesday, the US Ambassador to Panama, Phyllis Powers, visited the camp for a brief observation of our groups and to give a short talk to all of the kids. It was great that she included Access in her agenda. These kids are in a U.S.-funded program; but more importantly they're the future of Panama. Having the visible support of the U.S. embassy helps them realize just how important they are to Panama and to the world.
The teamwork between Tatiana, Amalia and I helped make educational component as effective and fun for the kids as possible. I also had the support of Christine who was leading a group with Fernando; Tevia: another American girl who's been teaching here since September; and Todd who was a great volunteer and driver home :) Of course there were logistical flaws, rain delays, schedule errors and sleepless nights (I was in a room of more than 60 teenage girls), but at the end of the day I know we made an impact on these kids. I've had facebook friend requests coming in all weekend and they've already created 2 different group pages for them to keep in touch. I'll be helping with their school-year program which starts in April. A group of them will come to Latina 3 days/week for 3 hours at a time. I'll be a classroom assistant and will also help with the organization and implementation of monthly field trips.
I'll be back to my current routine next week: teaching 2 written communication courses at Latina. I'm going to meet the Regional English Language Officer (RELO), Michael Rudder. Michael was at my orientation in DC last summer. In conjunction with Panama TESOL, he will be leading a training on Tuesday afternoon. I will also be helping Christine in any way I can as CELI will be opening on March 2nd. Drew, the other ETA, is arriving on March 1st and my first visitors, Katharine and Susan, will be here on March 9th! That means vacation is a few short weeks away!!
A quick nephew update: he's been working hard on growing. Glamma Nancy and David went to Charlotte for the week...it was really difficult knowing that I couldn't be there too. But I did get to witness him squirm a bit and finally got to see his eyes live; so glad to know he has something in his eye sockets. I'm trying to convince my mom to pack him in her carry on when they come in August. Put in a word for me to help get her and my sister convinced!
Have a great week.
Cuídate.
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