In San Lucas Toliman, students in middle school in the Pavarotti Education Center are in Primero, Segundo, and Tercero Basico. This is the equivalent of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. My schedule during my first week has been adjusted around the schedule of the students who begin school at 7:20 a.m. (similar to the U.S.). However, they end earlier at 12:50 p.m. Though, my day is not done once they are done (I end at around 2:30 p.m.) I begin working on lesson plans with the English teacher I am helping in Pavarotti, Ms. Mayra. My schedule is laid out with her own lesson plans, and she allows me to choose what material as well as how it is presented to the students.
The easiest part of my experience so far would be interacting with the students. They are very kind (as are the teachers). In class, the students are very eager to learn English and love to read along with different stories. Along with this, in class there are different activities such as them singing their favorite English songs. To my surprise, they are big BTS fans, and one student even gifted me some BTS merch she made!
As for difficulties, it is hard navigating with certain resources we take for granted back in the U.S. One of them being WiFi signal. Here, in this region of Guatemala, there isn’t great signal. So, we must work around this so students are still able to effectively learn the material. Overall, it has been an amazing experience thus far with the teachers and students!
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