Entering the Field

So teaching is fun. Today marked the beginning of a six day substitution for one of the high school Spanish teachers. She's gone on a trip... okay, well, it's conference that happens to be at Disneyland. Needless to say her kids are thrilled.

Today we played a name game (sorry, "activity", holler back ICLP!) and I am sad to report that in both classes of 25 students who have been together for eight weeks the vast majority do not know each other's names. We sought to rectify the deficit and it was a good time had by all, especially the kid who got hit in the family jewels with the ball we were using. C'est la vie. Whoops! Es la vida.

The three major objectives while I'm there:

• I have a Phrase-o-the-Day that is an important word or phrase that they'll use a lot. Today was vamos. ie Vamos a la fiesta? or Vamos chicas! or Vamos a ser chevere.
  
• We are learning -AR verbs and how to conjugate them. Grammar is fun.
• They identified six words or phrases they thought were very important in their lives. You may wonder what high school freshmen (it's Spanish I) would put on this list. For that I have answers: Cool/sweet, I don't care, and the ever popular: Shut up. Let's be honest, it's functional.

On to tomorrow where they'll be practicing conjugations through charts and crossword puzzles! Tell me your favorite Spanish word/phrase and I'll pass it on.