This past weekend was great. On Saturday I went to the mall with my host brother and he showed me around the area a little what stores were around there. We also went to the Galeria de Zapatos, also known as shoe heaven, the whole building is full of shoe stores and jewelry. I resisted the urge to buy new shoes because I need to save my money but the jewelry store was having a sale so I bought a few necklaces, don´t worry though I only spent 75 pesos or about 7 American dollars. Much to my dismay though when I looked at the necklaces again when I got home I saw they were made in China! I intend to buy some authentic Mexican jewelry before I leave though. Then on Sunday after mass at the church where my host mom´s brother is the priest, my host brother and I went to the Benito Juarez Zoo. It was really fun, it´s not too big so we were able to walk through most of the zoo. The reptile house was under repair though, and the line for the aquarium was 40 people deep. I got to buy some postcards to add to my collection though, and I got to wear sunblock in January so all in all it was a good day. Usually on nights when I have extra time Vico and my host mom and I watch movies, either on tv or DVD´s. When we watch DVD´s the put the English language on for me and subtitles in Spanish for them, but on tv they are usually all in spanish, but I can pretty much understand what is happening, and watching the subtitles is helping me remember some vocabulary that I had forgotten.
I taught math class yesterday for 6B and we learned how to divide fractions, and played a game. The teacher said even she understood it better after I taught it. :) The students really enjoyed the game and they always ask when we are going to play another one. I taught 6A math today too but we didn´t have time for the game, so we will play it tomorrow, I´ll let you konw how it goes. I have been talking with my teacher about game ideas for the students and what we can do so that they are not always working out of their books. I think I am going to introduce them to School House Rock and the Magic School, some of my favorites from when I was a kid.
The system they use here is called the AMCO program its a billingual program used in California because the Hispanic population there is so high. It has the kids learning in Spanish half the day and in English the other half. I am working in the English classroom, but I will also probably teach a class or two in Spanish since Sr. Roberto said it was ok. I am going to wait a little while for that though until my vocabulary is stronger. The students work out of unit books that have all the subjects and they change every month. It is a very structured learning system, and a little limiting for fun activities but my cooperating teacher said we can see what we can do to make room for more activities and games that aren´t straight out of the book. I think it gets boring if all you do all day is worksheets and book activities and these kids are active so the games and other activities will help. I am very excited to start getting more involved in the class. I have learned all the names of my students in both classes and they gave me funny looks the other day when I had to tell them to get working because they couldn´t believe I knew their names.
They are starting to get used to having me in the classroom though, because today I went to observe in a 5th grade classroom and missed part of the classtime with the 6th graders and when I saw them at recess they came up to me asking where I was and if I was coming back to class after recess, I guess they missed me :), definitely a good feeling. They are great kids, most of them troublemakers, but I tend to have a soft spot for troublemakers so I think we will continue to get along just fine.
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