Señorita Amy

Well, today was my first day of teaching English and I have to say it went better than I imagined. Granted, I don´t really know what I am doing and I have absolutely no guidelines but I am going with it. Today I introduced the alphabet, numbers 1-20, and days of the week. I am realizing that it is a bit difficult not having any resources like workbooks or posters. I am going to ask Carlos tomorrow if I can get some paper to make a word bank wall. Unfortunately, there are 4 classrooms so it would be a bit difficult to make a word wall for all of them. I think I may just add to the 7th grade room´s wall since there is already one started there. The way the schedule works is I teach English Monday through Thursday 7:30 to 12:30 with an hour break. 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th graders have English three times a week and 3rd graders only once. I don´t really know why he even put 3rd graders onto the schedule with only one class a week. Oh well. I am currently searching for some possible activities to teach verbs. Also, I am debating how to go about teaching grammar. English is so much more difficult that Spanish that is for sure!

I met with my tutor Rafael Guitarra today. He works for the Municipal government and teaches kichwa. He has worked with other CIMAS students so he has already set me up really well with questions for interviews and how I can divide up my monograph into chapters. Sweet. I was hoping he would have some literature to give me to read but he didn´t. I have to ask Carlos if he has any texts. I also need to see if I can find a recorder so that I can transcribe interviews instead of trying to take notes during them. I may have to buy one when I go back to Quito this weekend.

I asked about the significance of long hair in indigenous men today and my co-worker told me that it is just style. There is not significance like a religious one that Sikh´s in India have with their hair. It is strictly prohibited if someone else tries to cut your hair without permission though. Seems fair.