Teacher Speak

What would I do without Pablo - a true godsend! I have not been able to get into any Spanish classes in the school that I work in, but Pablo last week organised it for me - so for the last couple of months of the school year I will hopefully learn alot from the Spanish teachers. Today was my first day and I loved it. The children were 6 turning 7 and of course their English is better than my Spanish but they will be a big help for me. I will learn alot from the teacher about teaching, and lots of new vocabulary from the children.

Here are some of my 'teacher speak' observations from today:
Que ti parece? What do you think
Que dice? Que dice aca? What does it say/What does it say here
Vamos a poner la fecha, prolijo Put the date, tidily
Vamos a cambiar el libro/cuarderno rojo Change to the red book
Escuchenme Listen to me
Mira Look
Buena Good
Ta! This is a gap filling word - means ok or something like that
Vamos a ver Lets see
A ver que dice? Lets see what it says
Levanto la mano por favor Put your hand up please
Muchas gente caminando ... Too many people walking around the classroom
Tarea para la casa Homework

I thoroughly enjoyed myself today. I have a whole new set of names to learn, but the little children are great. What was interesting to me is this: Second Language Learning here is given three hours per week, and we have to struggle to provide 90 minutes a week - priority needs to be placed on time - these children speak well and they have been only learning for one year. They are also very good at their other subjects and are not below par because of having to learn English and the time taken to do it ... very interesting.