¿Where are the teachers?

On Wednesday, I finally had a class to myself. The teacher had to go to a meeting, so instead of leaving the kids unsupervised, she told me to go entertain them. With no lesson plan, no idea of what these kids already knew, and no warning, I was standing in front of 20 seventh graders who were not sure if I was supposed to be there. I first asked them what they wanted to learn. From the kids that were paying attention, the general consensus was that they wanted to learn about animals. Great, I had something to go with. I shut the door, explained to the kids that I would be their English teacher for the next hour, and was going to teach them about animals. Remarkably, everyone got quiet and listened to me.

Once I had their attention, I needed to keep it. So I told them that we were going to play a game, but first I needed to make sure they knew all of the animal names in English. What game, you may ask? I had no idea, but I knew I had some time to figure it out. I wrote 20 different animals on the board. We reviewed each animal and how to change the word from singular to plural. Try explaining why there is one mouse, but two mice, or one fish, but two fish. After I felt that most of the kids knew most of the animals, and after I thought of a game, we moved to the next stage.

The game was very simple. I asked one of the kids "what sound does a (animal name) make?" If he or she could make the right sound, s/he remained in their seat. If not, the student had to go over to the reject corner and wait until the next round. I changed the questions several times. Act like a (animal name). In English, what color is a (animal name)? Spell (animal name). If there is one (animal name), there are two....? Each time I changed the question, I wrote the new question on the board, explained it to them briefly in Spanish, and gave them several examples in English.

How well did the game go? The kids loved it. They behaved like normal American students. They learned a lot of animals. They practiced understanding words in English, which was much more difficult for them than recognizing words on a chalkboard. They worked on their spelling. They learned a couple new colors. There was very little Spanish. And after an hour and a half, I finally had to leave. I walked away from the class that day feeling like I had taught the students something and really made a difference.

Unfortunately, the kids are on holiday for the next week and a half, which only leaves me with a week left of volunteering once they come back. Hopefully I will get the classroom a couple more times without the English teacher.