Post #3

Last week, I was moved from 2nd grade to 1st grade because the 2nd grade Spanish teacher already had a student teacher, and the school director in charge of the lower school wanted to make sure I was with a teacher that could really help me.  There seems to e a lot of difference between the 1st and 2nd grades. In 1st grade Spanish, the students are just beginning to learn how to read and write in Spanish. The school is an immersion school, so in preschool and kindergarten, all in instruction was strictly in English. From 1st grade on up, all of the instruction will be in English with at least 1 class in Spanish. The subject that is taught in Spanish changes with the grade level, but in 1st through 3rd or 4th grade, it seems that Spanish class is especially important in terms of their developing reading and writing skills simultaneously in both languages. However, Language Arts is a major focus at the school, especially in the upper school, which consists of the middle and high school grades. We were even told by the director that if the school were to cut a program from the school, they would likely cut Spanish before cutting any of the music programs, for example. The school's focus is to have a high rate of academic ability in both English and Spanish. In terms of success, they director told us that generally students are a little behind they're grade's reading level until after about 6th grade, when they begin to surpass it. So, even though it may take a little longer, in the end, the school is very successful at turning out well-educated bilingual students that can literally go anywhere.

In terms of my involvement, I have been able to help my cooperating teacher and her assistant a lot with the more remedial tasks, such as organizing papers or preparing notebooks, as well as helping with the classes, keeping students on task, answering questions they have as I am able, and helping them prepare for their PBL presentation. The way they are taught is so much different from how I was trained, however, that I have not had opportunities to do any teaching directly. My teacher training consisted of teaching Spanish as a second language. The way these students are taught is more closely related to the training teachers would have had for teaching elementary English. The biggest focus is on learning how to express themselves through writing, and improving their handwriting, as well as learning how to read. When it comes to helping them, I can correct their spelling mistakes as long as I am familiar with the word (which I am most of the time), but their grammar is probably better than mine (in Spanish). Other than spelling, It is difficult for me to know what the teacher is looking for in order to guide and correct them. Occasionally, I do correct their handwriting if it is illegible. I have also noticed that they do a lot of drawing and coloring in this class. With almost everything they write, they are supposed to do a drawing. I know that this may be common practice in elementary school subjects, but I have also noticed that the teacher is adamant that they color a certain way, that they color going back and forth, that it should be neither too light or too hard, and that, and their projects, they should fill in the whole page with color, and even go back and outline the drawing if necessary. Having no good comparison to fall back on, I feel like the emphasis on their artistic achievements in this class are a bit extreme at their age, though I am sure there must be a good reason, other than just to impress the parents.

In terms of pictures, below is one of me at Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world) monument. Somewhere floating around, I have one of me with a large group of first graders who got to see Maria Fernanda Heredia, a famous Ecuadorian children's author who came to visit on Tuesday. As soon as I can, I will try to get a hold of that photo to share, especially because I think I enjoyed the author's visit as much as they did.

Here you have it, showin' WKU colors in the middle of the earth ( Mitad del mundo, Quito, Ecuador)

Not super clear, but this is two groups of 1st graders at Colegio Menor, pictured with their favorite Ecuadorian author, Maria Fernanda Heredia (lost somewhere in the middle). There are some teachers mixed in there too.