A Full Day of Teaching at Altagracia

 On Tuesday we got down to business and had a full day of teaching at the Altagracia School.  The school day always begins with an assembly in the open courtyard, the only place that can contain a gathering of more than 500 students and teachers.  Today, it was extended to include a welcoming ceremony for us. We began with the raising of the flag and the singing of the rousing Dominican National Anthem.  We were provided with sheets with the lyrics, and many sang along.  Then they played the Star-Spangled Banner, and many of us sang along with that as well.

Then one of the English classes sang a lovely welcoming song, all in English of course. Another English class then offered three of our students a quiz on vocabulary words describing DR culture, which gave them a chance to explain key elements.  All of the members of the DR Projects gang then introduced ourselves, after which Rita Severinghaus gave a moving speech describing her roots in Cotui.  Finally, an official from the Ministry of Education gave a speech praising the school for its progress and culture, and thanking us for our role. The students, who patiently endured the ceremony, were finally dismissed to their classes, and we stook in two strategic spots so that we could offer fist bumps, handshakes or high fives to the students as they passed by.

 

Then, finally, it was time to teach. We all went upstairs to the classroom of Mari, the English teacher, and introduced ourselves.  She divided the class in two, and one half stayed in the classroom with several of the DRP teachers, and the other half went downstairs to the gravel playground, which is shaded by several trees and makes an excellent teaching space.  Moving with remarkable efficiency, we divided the 18 students into three groups, and each found a space with three DRP teachers per group.  The teachers were all equipped with wonderful flash cards depicting the vocabulary words for the 4th grade students: school supplies. Most of us in the group had been practicing the Rassias-based teaching methods we planned to use, and it was amazing how effectively the teaching went.  It was fast-paced, with eye contact, repetition, praise for correct answers and lots of humor and connection sprinkled in.  Halfway through the class period we rotated the teachers to different groups to keep things fresh and maximize the exposure to different students. Before we knew it, it was time for recess.

 

Recess at Altagracia is a unique phenomenon. There are hundreds of excited children circulating, most of them eager to connect with us.  If you stand still, you are immediately surrounded by hugs and extended hands from students eager to play rock-paper-scissors or thumb wrestling.  I may or may not be responsible for introducing thumb wrestling. It’s a nice way to interact one-on-one, and throw in a little vocabulary training. Many of the cocky, aggressive students lose more often than not.  The smaller, shy kids are sometimes delighted to win. All of us were offered fan mail, and flowers plucked from the bushes on the edge of the courtyard.  Yikes.  Flowers fade eventually, but the flowers at Altagracia took a real hit today. We have a dedicated room during the week where we can gather to meet and plan, and during recess it’s possible to duck out of the sun, get a drink, and liberally use the economy-sized bottle of hand sanitizer we had brought. During our self-evaluations at the end of the afternoon, many of the students listed recess as a high point of the day. Getting flowers and smiles and hugs has a way of making that happen.

 

After recess we were back to teaching, using the exact same plan with fifth graders, who were being taught the parts of the body. After some drilling on the words, inevitably each teaching crew used their ace in the hole.  Is there any possible way to teach parts of the body that is better than the song, “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”?  It has everything: repetition, movement and silliness.  That works pretty well for fifth graders. The class time went quickly, and we hopped on the bus and headed back to the hotel for a very quick lunch. We returned a bit more than an hour later, and caught up with another section of fifth graders.  It was so rewarding to see our high school students confidently stepping up to teach. Several of them were very adept at using their high school Spanish to good advantage.  Our entire crew deserves a lot of credit for diving back in on a hot afternoon and teaching right to the end.  We finished this last class by circling up and conducting the “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” Championship of the World.  By this time, five or six students were singing loudly and accurately, so much so that we took the class back upstairs to join the other half and gave a concert for them.  They aren’t ready to go on tour, but you never know what the future holds.































 

 

 

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