And that’s a wrap. Today marked the last day of classes before the two-month vacation here in San Miguel, and all the kids are singing, “School’s Out for Summer!” Although it’s technically summertime in the southern hemisphere and thus the country of Peru, the temperature here in the mountains begs to differ. It’s cold. It’s rainy. Worst of all, nobody wants to do anything that requires leaving the house. Fortunately I’ve been incredibly busy over the last few weeks, with finishing up classes, making up exams, printing certificates (have I mentioned before how much Peruvians LOVE certificates? In the United States, we usually trash them before you can say, “waste of paper,” but here they go nuts for them. Even the most useless certificate will be cherished and undoubtedly given a place of honor on the living room wall, between the thirteen free calendars and the beer posters with naked women on them). I have to admit that I was rather nervous about how my students would fare on their exams; after all, I’ve never done this before. What if they all flunk? Would that make me a failure as a teacher? Will the whole town realize that I’m a fraud, have no actual teaching credentials, and perhaps even stop calling me “professora”? Noooooo… anything but that! To try and preclude this potential catastrophe, I had no less than four review sessions for my Computer and English classes. Overkill? Perhaps. Regardless, everything turned out to be a smashing success. Now is my time to play the role of proud mama and pull out my brag-book… in the form of my students’ progress reports:
Computer Class, Beginner Level: I am particularly pleased with the progress of my beginner Computer students. The majority of these kids* had never touched a keyboard before, neither could they turn on a computer. We now laugh at those days, as they whip that mouse around double-clicking icons like there’s no tomorrow.
Computer Class, Intermediate Level: Most of my students fell into this category. We focused mainly on typing skills, using an awesome typing program that another Volunteer leant me. Although it was designed to let one work independently, I had to intervene (aka: hover uncomfortably) constantly. At certain moments, I thought I would rip my hair out if I once more uttered the words, “LA FILA CENTRAL! LA FILA CENTRAL!” (“center row”). In the end, however, all of the kids in this group got through the alphabet… some can even type numbers on the keyboard without looking. Boo-yeah!
Computer Class, Advanced Level: Even I was impressed with the skills of some of these students. I have a sneaking suspicion it came from booking long hours in the Internet Café, playing Dungeon Quest or updating their HighFive Accounts (Peruvian version of Facebook), but at least they kept me on my toes. They wanted to learn PowerPoint… so I made them start with Word and Excel first. They ended up mastering all three within a matter of weeks. My favorite part of the class was when the Director of the Institute asked if I could help them with a special project. They were holding a contest where each student had to create a new product, to be judged on taste, appearance, creativity and use of ingredients indigenous to the region of Cajamarca. The “appearance” category is where I came in. Using their newly acquired Word skills, I helped them come up with their own unique product labels for their products. As you can imagine, there was a lot of clip art involved. Lots and lots of clip art. In fact, I think my main job was to try and impart the idea that sometimes less is more. Being Peruvian by birth, this was a difficult concept for them to grasp. I apologize for the over-generalization, but I believe most Peruvians live by the mantra: when in doubt, go ostentatious. And they did. But in the end, they were proud of their works of art, and more importantly… Bill Gates would shed a tear if he could see how they maneuver Microsoft Office like professionals.
English Class: I didn’t break up the English class into skill levels, which was a mistake on my part. It certainly made things interesting though. I had kids who had never spoken a word of English sitting next to Professors from the Institute, who could already conjugate regular and irregular verbs. Oops! Anyhow, I tried my best, and kept it loose. The result was four of my favorite hours out of the week… and it wasn’t just because I got a sardonic kick out of hearing them butcher English pronunciation (although I must admit I did have an internal chuckle or two when they attempted words like, “purple” and “refrigerator”). They most enjoyed learning songs, so I incorporated several of my favorites into the lesson planning. Although they were nervous beyond belief to take the Exam, I am happy to say that they all did surprisingly well. They are not, by any stretch of the Peace Corps Volunteer’s imagination, proficient in the English language, but they can count, greet a stranger, tell time, etc. Not to mention sing every word to many a Bryan Adams, Alanis Morissette and Eric Clapton song. So I guess my work here is done… just in time to enjoy the rainy season!
*I say kids, but the students range in age from about 17 to early 20’s. The Institute where I teach is for poorer kids, who cannot afford University after High School. They also accept some students who weren’t able to finish High School for financial reasons. It is free to attend, and stays funded through aid from the government of Cajamarca and through sales of their products. The students learn the entire process of making dairy goods (cheese, yogurt, etc.), all the way from raising the cows to packaging and selling the final good. Their sales strategy is far from advanced, so I am also helping them with a Marketing plan. Anybody wanna buy some cheese?
You’ve all been patient and (hopefully) read this entire entry, so I’ll now deliver what you’ve all been waiting for. Pictures! Here are a few relating to my classes… and a few thrown in just for the heck of it. Buen provecho!
A couple of my advanced Computer Class students slaving away...
One of the finished products; notice the clip art AND word art. Get it!!
More of the students' fine work
My English Class... pens a'flying to take notes!
My English class, playing a game of "Simon Says" to practice body parts.
The teacher becomes the scholar... they say I milk like a first-year student. I'm going to take that as a compliment.
Random Photo #1: The other day I awoke to this. My family hired some guy to come plow up our garden to prepare for the corn harvest. Who needs a tractor??
Random Photo #2: The only power outlet I have in my room finally kicked the bucket. I cannot imagine why it stopped working...
