Post #4: Third Week

The culture of the educational environment fluctuates between their inherited Ecuadorian culture, as well as American culture. The students speak English in the classroom, and are encouraged to speak English during their free time outside of Spanish class. There comes a time where the students are having trouble figuring out an English word or an English saying, so they will come to me speaking Spanish to see if I can help figure out what they are trying to say. A lot of the time I am picking up on Spanish because I am assisting the students with English grammar, and determining the English word, saying, or sentence structure from the Spanish dialect. However, the students do have the chance to speak Spanish throughout the days of the week during a 2 hour Spanish block, and as they interact with other students or teachers. It is cool to see the students transforming what they know from Spanish to English, or the other way around because there are times where they even struggle with Spanish. On the other hand, the students completed a Spanish academic showcase where they were in 6 different groups, and each group focused on a different part of Quito. The students put together videos, PowerPoints, slideshows, and 3-D projects to "teach" their parents about what they learned about that certain part of Quito. Thus, that is a big part of their culture since Quito is the capital of Ecuador, and we are located in a smaller part of Quito! It was neat to see the students teaching their parents, and encouraging them to participate in games on their phone that related to their project.

On the other hand, a big part of their culture revolves around being affectionate and showing how much they enjoy one another's presence. This is something that I am still getting used to because students will come up to you and sit on your lap, hang around your neck during instruction (this was shocking to me), and even hang on my cooperating teacher as she is trying to lead a whole group discussion. The students expect to receive affection back, so it is in my favor to allow them to love on me or sit on me throughout the day unexpectedly. Since this is their culture, I accept it 100%, but it is something that I have trouble picking up on because I feel as though it does take away from focus and instruction time!
However, working with the groups during their preparation for their second academic showcase has been interesting as I am seeing the students think outside the box, and in their own way when configuring activities based on books written by Doreen Cronin. The students have an enormous amount of responsibility as they are in charge of their groups project - activity, game, presentation, and posters; for 2nd graders, I am shocked with what they have come up with, and continue to create before our showcase next Tuesday!