My Favorite Class!

I just had the best class! I find that it's much easier for me to teach my intermediate level because they are able to at least understand instructions, but some of the stuff I teach in my basic classes is more fun to teach. But my last class was so much fun! We had to review contractions, which is hard because they don't exist in Spanish, and the class did great. Then we did a partner activity, and people actually volunteered to read their conversations outloud! This is almost unheard of in Chilean schools because they are culturally more used to memorizing, writing, and re-writing things. Then we did a listening exercise, and the kids were hillarious! It was a completely corny conversation that would never actually take place, complete with outragious intro music and all. The class loved it! They were able to understand most of it, while still learning something new. Then came the best part. I have learned more about English grammar in my Spanish classes than in my English classes. I had no idea the difference between a present perfect, present continuous and simple present. (I'm still not sure that I completely understand them...) So for me, teaching grammar is difficult because I'm not sure I was taught correctly. I introduced two things today: the verb "to do" and "used to." The verb "to do" is hard because they don't use it in Spanish the same way we do in English. Spanish is much simpler. Instead of saying, "Did you run?" they only use the conjugated verb "to run" in the past tense. "Do" just doesn't exist. So to explain that was hard, but the class seemed to get it! We did a worksheet that included a lot of "do" in the past tense, and they were able to explain to me what it meant and why we used it in that situation. Then we moved on to "used to." I was able to explain how to use "used to" and what verb tense should follow. They were a little shaky at first, so we did some exercises together, then I asked them to complete it on thier own. It is such an awesome feeling to have them call you over and say, "Profe, this part, used to, is in the past so the verb walk stays infinitive right?" Hell yes it does! I was so excited that I actually said, "Yeah! You go girl!" Then I had to explain this phrase because no one understood, and I felt kind of silly, but it was a great feeling! I felt like the students were actually learning from me, and that I was making sense to them. I'm still used to playing teacher down in my basement with my dolls which never gave me any feedback on my teaching, so it's nice to see someone learning from what I'm saying. Oh, and I played the R. Kelly song for them and they loved it. I have yet to show the GQ magazine...