Photo from Ukraine

 

This is Katy.  Her mother is my on line English student from Ukraine.  They fled to Poland a few months ago but kept their flat in Ukraine.  She and Katy went back there early last week to visit family and pick up a few things.  On Sunday when we had our class she was so happy to be back in her country even tho they have to run to the underground parking garage when they hear alarms.  Her husband has kept his job and works remotely from Poland.  My client did have a job on line but was let go and she is still looking for another.   If you're interested is chatting with a person from Ukraine go to ENGin. com and sign up.

Pickleball and English classes

I want to post an update on my activities here in Ole Mexico....or to use a term I just learned,..... Flexico.  

 As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have gotten Pickleball started and last Friday was our 4th gathering and it was a big success.  I had bought a whole net set up, not just the net, thru Amazon and it made a big difference.  We also lined off a regulation sized court ( mas o menus....we used some basketball lines so our "kitchen" and service boxes are not quite exact but its a lot better than before.  I also got 4 better paddles thru Amazon....such a love hate relationship I have with Amazon....and they have made a difference too. Anyhow, last week a young man, who I have described as looking like a Ralph Lauren model ( my son asked me to describe what that meant to me and I responded....tall, painfully thin and awful posture) came to stand next to me as I watched and shouted coaching tips from time to time.  After a few minutes, I asked him if he wanted to play.  He said, No, I just came to practice my English with you.  Now that made my day because I got this whole pickleball venture approved by my program manager at Peace Corps by claiming that it is a vehicle to teach English and US culture.So anyhow, Andre asked for a couple flyers to put up in his building ( his major is Nanotechnology) which I gave him.   So, earlier this week, I was in that building for a class and noticed one of our pickleball posters posted with something written on it.  It is hard to see but in the bottom right corner, he has written," You now know friend, so come and improve your English.

 

 

This next picture is a couple helping assemble the real net we now have and based on last Friday's showing, I have ordered yet another and a couple more better paddles.

 

 As to other efforts, we are working with a virtual English teacher, sort of a pilot project.   Its been interesting, to say the least.  My role, as I currently believe it to be , is to observe and make recommendations in the hopes of improving the process for  similar situations in the future.  He is an older ( 80) guy in Kansas with a lot of education and experience and his expectations of what he can do with our students is a bit unrealistic.   Distance learning is hard in the best of situations and he is trying to teach them the finer points of phonics so they can be better teachers when they get into the classroom themselves. His efforts and goals are high...the students are not showing the level of interest he was hoping for.

As to what  else I'm doing in the English classes.  UTEQ is organized by quatrimestres....something we've not heard of.   They are 4 month terms and they run continuously.  There is no summer break, just a break of a week or so each term.  I am definitely going to have a more settled schedule for the rest of my time here.  I want to pull small groups out of a few classes and work with them on their oral communication.  Many of them know a lot of words but there is no time to practice within their classes.  So, I see this as something that could make a difference.

A class that I am coteaching  with Deyanira is a beginner class for UTEQ employees.  Its great fun.  We've started with pronuncing the alphabet in English and short vowels and on and on.  The other thing we are doing is Readers Theater.  Its a very low difficulty play for young native English speakers but it is challenging for  beginner English learners and we 've had a lot of fun with it.  I am serving as director and I had never realized how physically exhausting that role could be...but, its great fun.

The other class/workshop I'm involved with is with the Drama teacher, Rodrigo.  We haven't really done anything much but I hope to be able to contribute as time goes on.  This quarter is almost over so hopefully I'll get involved earlier next quarter and be able to play a bigger role. 

 I've introduced myself to about 25 classes of students and I am sick to death of doing that but I have to continue thru the beginning of April when this term ends.  There will  a new one starting at the beginning of May.  I'm going back to MD for 4 days at the end of March, during Semana Santa here and spring break, and hopefully will get to see John and Hanna ....Sue and I are planning to drive up to Juniata County and as of now, Hanna and John are planning to drive down and visit with us for a day or two.  We are planning to spend the night so we'll have a little time together, for sure.  We're hoping some Peacheys drive over for a  visit and the Gilsons are in Florida still so there won't be many folks to see outside of our immediate family.  We Hertzlers and Beavers have all but disappeared from Juniata County.

I also want to memorialize a comment of one of the students....there are several which are memorable but his was amazing.   When I introduce myself, I often play a little game where a student guesses what my answer will be to a question posed by one of their classmates.    The question was...what do you like most about the Mexican culture ?   This student guessed that I would say,   " that we are so kind to each other:, it shocked me...in other classes a student has said something like, the food, the music, the language, etc.  This student went in such a different direction....I loved it and let him know.  

Now some random photos:

This is a photo from our first pickleball attempt.  We were using soccer nets that they had in the athletic department and lines that were put down for basketball.  Not a good situation but it was a start and we have come a long way.   Its a covered court that is usually used for volleyball and basketball so we have to compete for time and space.

The previous three show how the students rigged up the new regulation  net that I ordered but we still did not have the right posts to hold it up....so they improvised using the posts from the soccer nets we had phased out.  It kept blowing over so they figured that out too.