ABC, it's Easy as 123

Day 13 in Cusco, 2 Weeks Traveling

This is the post I'm most certain everyone has been dying to read. Today, is the post about teaching.

Profesores Conner y Meeca con Eduardo 

We were placed at "Las Cositas" to teach English as a foreign language. Las Cositas is essentially a mother-run trade center. Back in 2008, this trade center was ran by a Dutch NGO and was meant to teach single mothers trades so they could provide for their families. Because of the lack of funds, the NGO shut down the project. A group of eight mothers banded together and are now continuing their trades in a house they have rented communally. 

Up this hill, up the first flight of stairs, around the corner and up two more flights of stairs, a small building can be found. Here, there are women creating fabulous hand-crafted jewelry and children causing a ruckus. 

Our project was to teach the children of these women basic English skills. The women had been taking business English classes through Maximo Nivel, and requested that their children learn English as well. We were their first English teachers, ever. 

After a quick visit and a crash TEFL course we were off to teach our wonderful language! 

José-Antonio learning to count in English.

(With twins Gerardo and Eduardo standing by, awaiting their turn at the white board.)

Conner and I are teaching children between the ages 1 and 12, who are clearly all at different levels. Our class size can range from three students to a maximum of sixteen. This may seem small; however, with the range in levels of abilities, the task was a bit more difficult. We decided to divide the children into three groups: the unspeakables, the basic and the advanced. 

Creating three separate learning plans.

The unspeakables are those children who have yet to learn to speak in Spanish yet. They understand basic Spanish commands, but are not quite ready to be grouped into an English class. These are my babies.

Daniel and Vanessa: sisters in mean-mugging crime.

Daniel and my nameless one year old. Too much cute to handle!

The basics are pretty much the rest of my class. These children range from 3 to 9 and are keen learners. They have a functioning understanding of Spanish and are ready to tackle learning a new language. Although the skill level within this group continues to range, this group is closer together. 

Cinthia, José-Ba, Gerardo and Jean-Franco goofing off at the end of a long lesson.

All my lovelies hard at work learning the colours! 

Last, we have Conner's group: the advanced. This is basically a private tutor session. Here, is our only 12 year old, Luis-Michel, who knows basic English and is flying through our far-too-easy exercises. Conner, instead, is teaching him parts of speech and beginning English grammar. 

It can get a bit chaotic at times, considering so many young children are stuffed in a small classroom after a long day of school.

Just letting off some steam.

Sometimes, though, kids just need a chance to goof off and have fun!

Today is our last day of teaching, unfortunately. Due to a Cusco festival known as Corpus Christi, our classes have been cancelled both Thursday and Friday. I'm pretty bummed. No matter how much trouble these munchkins give me sometimes, I'm going to miss all the struggles and silliness.

Shameless selfies. These are my munchkins. <3

I want to come back and continue this project, because I feel as though it's our baby. These are actually our students, we laid the ground work and now we have to leave. Whether I am able to come back or not, I wish these children the best of luck. Their kind hearts and determined minds are beautiful. They deserve all the help they can receive. 

And in the end, I'll miss the smiles the most,

Meeca

PS: I'd like to give a shout-out to the creator of Toms shoes. You, kind sir, are an amazing person. If anyone has ever doubted the Toms philosophy, now is the time to stop. I have never been so proud to be the owner of a pair of Toms shoes. Nor have I ever been so touched by a materialistic object; my munchkins wear Toms!