Wow! I'm excited. :) I had no idea that real English teaching would look so much like the things we talk about and practice in class! For my Methods in TESOL class, I need to have 4 sessions of tutoring experience and 4 sessions of ESL classroom observation. Our TESOL teacher is new this year and has been working to make connections with teachers here in Dubuque, and it's been hard to break into the circle, but the Lord has opened up (finally...halfway into the semester - in His perfect time) doors for us now.
There is a center in downtown Dubuque run by Catholic sisters, which is a tutoring institution. People come there for help and you spend a couple of hours in a session with them, tutoring them. There are tons of books, materials, etc. to help and each student keeps a notebook of where they are and what they've been doing so you as a tutor can jump right to the spot where they're working and help them with what they need. I went there for an interview Tuesday afternoon and they asked if I could come back that night to start tutoring! So I had my first session with Jorge, who comes in with his wife Cecila and their little girl, Jessica. We worked through "who" and "where" questions and talked about some vocabulary words and how the plural of "child" is "children" not "childrens" and then we spent a good bit of time just talking about his family and mine and practicing the concepts we had just covered. It was so cool. And so much easier than I expected! What a blessing from the Lord.
Then today, I was able to go downtown to Prescott Elementary School and observe an ESL teacher for an hour. She had 3 Hispanic 2nd graders in the classroom first, then she switched them out for 3 4th graders. It was so cool to watch her in action and see how ESL teaching (in that setting at least) was not really that difficult. But so cool. Those kids respected her and really seemed to enjoy their session with her. Ricardo, Mondardo, Wendy, Sally, Luis, and Alex...precious kids. Most from Mexico, but one from Brazil. It's really cool to think about the possibility of reaching whole families through ESL teaching.
Sister Corine at the tutoring center talked about how we do not proselytize the students - that is, we don't tell them about Jesus - that's not what we're here for. I can respect that, but I'm looking forward to the time when I CAN reach people through this. However, perhaps the Lord may even open some doors outside of the classrooms here. Who knows? :)
I'm learning Spanish little by little while going to the Spanish Bible study that Mr. Hernandez, one of my teachers, leads on Sunday evenings. I sit for about 2 1/2 hours immersed in the language, listening to the Hispanics talk, pray, discuss Scriptures, sing (although I join them singing bc they have a songbook and I can read it). Then, when we eat (amazing Peruvian, Mexican, and Brasilian food) they talk with me and help me try to learn the language. It's a slow, painful process because that day is the only time I have to practice it, but it helps a bit, anyway. :) It was cool to understand exactly what the kids today were saying when they said some things to each other in Spanish.
Wow, I can't wait to be an English teacher...and I'm so thankful for the Lord's leading in this direction. Thanks, all of you who are praying. I appreciate that so much!
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