Tag: teacher

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My Spanish Classes

My mornings are spent at Tico Lingo Language School where I am not up to speed with the classroom of students in their 20’s for 4 hours a day so they placed me with a private tutor for 3 hours a day which of course is better for me. The featured photo is of my Professora Ana. Below are more photos of the house converted into a school and where I spend my mornings this week. It is a trial week for me to see if this kind of immersion language study will work for me. If so I will continue more later.

At Tico Lingo

 

Art in the School

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They are all tourist souvenir art work, and yes, if it were me I would stretch those fabrics tight and mount them level, but that is not my job! And the high school and college kids who are most of their customers couldn’t care less!   🙂

Today after class I went to lunch at a different Soda for another Casado with one of the 20-somethings in the other class (to where he wanted to go) and he treated me! He acted amazed that an 80 year old was doing this. So? He ate fast and took an Uber to see his Costa Rican girlfriend called a “Novia” here. I walked around downtown again today and stopped for an ice cream cone, then walked back to my student boarding house where I make this post!   🙂   Tomorrow is a bigger treat as I go to Toucan Rescue Ranch in the afternoon.

And of course I have a “Trip Gallery” of photos from this week, titled:

2020 February 22-28 — Heredia for Spanish Immersion

 

¡Pura Vida!

FYI:     Costa Rica Is The Second Best Destination In The World For Foreign Investment In Tourism

 

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Grasshopper & ESL Class

Grasshopper in my Garden
Atenas, Costa Rica

This is one of more than 11,000 species of grasshoppers in Costa Rica. I have yet found a good source of identification of grasshoppers, thus in my gallery only one has a name.

My Photo Gallery:  Other Insects

-o-

AND TRYING TO BE AN ESL TEACHER
I was asked by a friend and English teacher at Colegio Liceo to lead an after-school “club” of 10 students going on a student exchange program for two weeks in the USA, to a Virginia suburb of DC. It is basically a conversational English class or group to help them be able to talk to people better on their trip. Last night was our first weekly hour meeting over the next three months and my neighbor George has agreed to help. He was a 5th-6th grade teacher in Arizona and is ESL Certified. He will have the class by himself Sept. 4 when I’m in the Caribe.

Last night we got introduced and learned the names, grade levels and interests of the 8 students that showed up (Grades 8-11). I had learning games on greetings, travel problem phrases, and restaurant phrases. For many of them their English vocabulary is worse than my Spanish vocabulary (which is minimal), so we quickly learned that we have a long ways to go for them to have normal conversations in the states. I’m creating my own lesson plans by researching online – not easy, but it worked out okay last night! As they left they each got a list of “76 English Phrases for Traveling with Ease,” which they are to study for next week. I also asked them to write down one American/English singer or band they liked to listen to. Next week I will put a piece of masking tape on each kid’s forehead with a singer/band name and they will have to figure out which one they have with yes/no questions. Then we will dive into the travel phrases. That lesson plan is not made yet. Next Monday I will try to get a group photo to share in my blog post.

Never a dull moment!  Pura Vida!