Out-takes

As part of the English Teaching Committee, Becca was part of a project to make video vignettes for English lessons. She made two stunning videos covering colors and weather with the help of a group of silly and seriously awesome kiddos, but those aren't really important - more entertaining are the out-takes: 

Teach

Soy Profesora.

It had become a stock answer for Becca when people asked when her career was. Though it was technically a lie (she didn’t hold a certification), the more classes she taught, the more lessons she planned, the more joking moments she shared with a class full of nervous and excited teenagers, the more she felt like she was a teacher. So maybe it wasn’t a lie or maybe it was, she only knew two things for sure: 1) It was a heck of a lot easier than explaining for degree, schooling choices and experience, and; 2) She liked it when everyone in town started calling her profesora.

Learning, Failing, and Carrying On

If she was being completely honest, English class, at least as far as comprehension and any actually education, had been a bust. Though she had a suspicion at mid-term exams, the final exams confirmed it with average scores of 50% on a test of only easy vocabulary review.

It was a lesson that education is not the same in different countries, it was a lesson that a lot of parents don't put their children's education's first, it was a lesson that sometimes things fail. Hard.

The good side was that the kids were cute, a couple of them did learn a lot, and Becca remembered that teaching is a learning process too.

¡Sillas Musicales!

After nearly two months of teaching English, Becca had learned three very important things about Peruvian students.

1. They can outlast even the most resilient kid from the United States in refusing to answer questions and creating an awkward silence.
2. They do not respond to games the same way that US students do.

Becca had tried Capture the Flag with brooms instead of flags, which had resulted in two minutes of madness and running around followed by the mysterious appearance of not one, not two, not even three, but four brooms...

She’d tried Pictionary with vocabulary words which had resulted in a lot of guesses to quiet to hear and a few more loud enough but only spoken in Spanish.

She’d had high hopes for English Jeopardy, but that had only brought on long silences and confusion.

Finally, in a fit of frustration, Becca had pulled out her computer and ordered her students to take their chairs outside and form a circle. 

“¿Conocen en juego...Sillas Musicales?” she asked, ready to explain when the answer was no. (Do you know the game Musical Chairs?)

“Yes!” many of the students said at once and grins began to spread around the circle like wildfire.

“Yes?” Becca was surprise. “Ok, vamos a jugar y cuando una persona falta una silla, tiene contestar una pregunta sobre vocabulario de inglés.” (Ok, let’s play and when some one doesn’t find a chair, they have to answer an English vocabulary question.)

The music started and each students started walking cautiously around the outside of the circle of chairs. When the music came to a stop, the frantic scramble of chaos went on until only one was left standing, Erika. Becca motioned her over and Erika stumped a bit, walking begrudgingly toward her.

“Como se dice cama en inglés?” Becca asked. (How do you say bed in English?)

“Como?” Erika asked. (Excuse me?)

“Cama,” (Bed)

“Como?”

“Cama,” this set off a round of giggles they’d all done so well to hold in, even Becca found herself fighting a terrible case. When they’d finally calmed a bit, Erika seemed to understand and thought about the question, obviously trying to conjure unpracticed vocabulary into her brain.

“Eehhhhh,” she began and the noise turned into a half sigh, half panicked hope for an answer that finished off with the beginnings of a fit of giggles. The other students followed suit, again giggling themselves silly and again Becca couldn’t help but join in. 

Eventually the silliness died down a bit, a few questions were answered correctly, but the activity accomplished more in saving some of Becca’s sanity than anything else had in the last three months.