I went to the school this morning to check in and see if they needed my help. Profe Jorge was there and immediately put me in with the 10th graders. He said that I could either do a review of quadratic equations since they had just finished with that last week, or I could begin the next week's lessons: Trigonometry. The very first lesson was an introduction all 6 trigonometric functions: sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant, cosecant (which are called seno, coseno, tangente, cotangente, secante, cosecante in Spanish). We use the acronym SOH CAH TOA to learn the sine, cosine and tangent. Although I won't get into the "why" on that, I will say that the letters "o", "a", and "h" can also easily translate over to Spanish (opuesto, adyacente, hipotenusa). As soon as I saw that, I decided to show the students that acronym so that they could more easily learn these 3 trig functions. Once we had practiced enough and mastered them, then we chatted about the other 3 trig functions. I had fun with this lesson because it is the first time I had ever taught trigonometry down here.
After the 10th graders, Profe Jorge sent me to the 8th grade class where the teacher said I needed to do a review of radicals...everything from simplifying them to adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing them. I noticed that I tackle working with radicals much differently than they do down here, so before I teach this class again on Thursday, I am going to have to brush up on their methods. Either way, they understood what I was doing, which was good.
Recess came next, and Dayana asked me if I would like to play a card game with her and her friend during recess. I said "sure", however they were going to have to teach me the rules as I wasn't familiar with this card game. Later, when I explained the game to Noah, he said that it was very similar to the American game Gin 13. We didn't get through all 13 rounds, but the girls told me that we would finish the game tomorrow. It took me until about round 9ish to figure out how the game worked. By then, I was losing terribly bad, but since it is a game of numbers, I am confident that I could finagle the game during the last 4-5 rounds so that I wasn't getting completely destroyed.
After recess, I was sent to the 7th grade room. Now, I would like to start by saying that I have never, ever in my life taught 7th and 8th graders. I have purposefully avoided the middle school in the United States. Where most teachers are required to spend an amount of time at both levels while they are still studying education in the university, I purposefully avoided it up until student teaching when I realized the only way to get out of being in the middle school was to look for a semester long internship at a high school, which is what I did. Teaching the 7th graders was rough...I am just going to admit that right now. Kudos to all the middle school teachers out there, because it certainly takes a special person to deal with this crowd. I had to get through multiplying rational numbers: positive and negative, fractions, mixed numbers and decimals. And all this in only an hour and 20 minutes.
When that class was over, it was time to head to lunch, where we were served beef and potato salad. After lunch, I got my teaching assignment for the week. I would be teaching a total of 10 classes at 5 different levels, from 7th grade up through 11th grade. I got the books for the courses and immediately headed back to the Volunteer House to start prepping for the classes. Good thing I brought a notebook and some writing utensils. The only thing I didn't have was my own SIM card for my phone to access internet, so if there were any hiccups along the way of prepping, I would have to wait until Noah came back from working to use a hotspot from his phone to access internet.
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| My teaching assignment for the week |
And I did come across some hiccups. The first class I prepped for went well, but the 2nd and 3rd classes had some major errors in the book. Good thing I could remember the material for the most part in order to get through that as I wrote my own plans out for the students. Prepping took me most of the afternoon and evening and I did get everything for Tuesday's class done, as well as a good start to Thursday's class (there are no classes this Wednesday).
As I got ready to head to bed, I went to the bathroom and found an enormous cockroach in the first bathroom stall that I typically use. The thing had to have been around 3" long! I am SO very thankful there are 3 stalls and that I had cleaned them over the weekend, because I just opted to go into a different one. YUCK! Way to end my evening.
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