TEACHING MY FIRST ENGLISH CLASS!

Today, I was not supposed to teach a class.  I walked the dirt road to Hope on a String to ask Cassy to double check some of the registration information that I had been inputting in Excel.  I arrived around 10:20 am and discovered that the teacher for the 10:00 am English class, Level 2, had not arrived yet.  Cassy could not get a hold of him.  I asked her what she and Lara were going to do, and she said that she was going to apologize to everyone and tell them they can come to take their class on Friday.  As she was beginning to tell everyone waiting this, people starting looking at me....staring...I heard, "Li pale Angle."  When I heard this, I galloped to the class and said, "I'll teach!" 

I jumped right in and started teaching.  I explained that while they want to learn English, I have been trying to learn Kreyol.  I asked everyone, "What would you like to learn today?"  I heard, the seasons, grammar, conversation stuff.  So, I began with the seasons.  From there, we discussed different things that happen in those seasons, different sports that are played in those seasons - naming and identifying as much as we could.  They pretty much said "foutbol" for every season.  Then, I told them that they could ask me questions about myself, and I would answer them, but they would have to ask me in English.  The first question was, "What is your name?"  I wrote it on the chalkboard, and I answered, "My name is Amanda."  Then we asked, "What is her name?" and so on, and completed the correct responses.  We worked in this fashion for the rest of the class - they posed questions about me in English, and then I used their questions as ways to teach them grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary. 

Here are a list of some of the questions they asked:  Are you married?  Do you have children?  How old are you?  What are you wearing? What is your mother's name?  What is your father's name?  Do you have brothers and sisters? What is your religion?

For each question, I gave them my answer, then wrote down what possible answers could be.  They repeated, talked with each other, and we practiced our pronunciation.  The r sound, especially r-controlled vowels, like in short and skirt are pretty tricky for them, so we kept repeating them.  I had people stand up if they were wearing shorts, skirts, etc.  We went over how to say numbers so people could share how old they were.  I was also able to explain that in the United States, people often will ask their good friends what their religion is, but often it is not as forward a question as it is in Haiti.  I also explained that in Haiti, when someone says they do not have children, most people ask, Why?!  In the United States, if someone says they do not have children, to be polite, often people do not ask why.  I thought this was an interesting conversation because while I was teaching English vocabulary and grammar, I also was able to share some nuances of language and relationships that are different in the United States than in Haiti. 

I have been nervous all week to teach my first English class (which is on Friday), but today, once I stood in front of the class, I was fine! I felt excited, full of energy, and enjoyed being in front of a class.  They were very supportive and helped me when I needed it.  Often, when I could not communicate because I did not know the Kreyol word, I got a prop (grabbed a leaf from a tree to show "leaves"), drew a picture, or acted it out!  I think it was a worthwhile class - people participated, moved around, laughed, were interested, and tried hard to practice their English. 

For tomorrow's English class (level 3), I am going to begin with my introduction, explain HoaS's mission and student expectations.  Then I want to ask everyone why they want to learn English and what they hope to learn.  Next, I will try to assess their knowledge of the English language and structure through a quick getting-to-you-know activity where each person will describe themselves, then either play 20 questions, telephone, or something else that I think of on-the-spot.  We'll see!

If you have any games, activities, topics to cover, please let me know!!