My New Name is Miss

This week was my first week officially teaching classes.  I have always thought that teachers deserved more recognition but man oh man has that increased by a 1,000 percent.  My brain hurts and I wasn't even teaching all of my classes yet.

Once upon a time, I remember being in high school and feeling super awkward and interested in anything but classes. I can't imagine some stranger coming into class and forcing me to speak in an alien language.  On top of that, I seem to get animated in the classroom, act out everything and bounce around the room.  I'm sure they think I'm crazy and are often making fun of me but at least they are learning English!  When I walk around the schoolyard, I hear tons of "HELLO MISS," "HEEELLLOOO," "AWESOME," (which I taught earlier in the week), "I LOVE YOU" and the occasional "HOOWWRU?" shout and run.  The kids are really funny and it's hard not to crack up  - even when they are often misbehaving in class.

The most rewarding part of my week came from students crowding around me and asking me questions about my homeland.  If anything, I hope I can teach them to have curiosity of the world.  Here a few of the interesting/funny questions - in Spanish and English - I received this week:

1. Do you know the Jonas Brothers? Hannah Montana?  Lady Gaga? 
2.  What kind of clothes do kids wear in the US?
3.  Do you like to play ping pong?
4.  Are there lots of terrorists in the US?
5.  Are you a millionaire? 
6.  Do you like Obama?
7.  How old are you?  (flash to gasp when they hear my ancient age)
8.  Do you have a boyfriend?
9. Do you like reggaeton? (heads-up on this one, it's always best to say no)
10.  Do you like to party? Do you like to smoke ganga? (aka marijuana with hand gestures of smoking a joint)
11.  Can I take a photo of you?

As part of my duties, I'm also teaching a Taller de Ingles (aka English Workshop) for 2nd medio, Sophmores.  Get this, it's for 2.5 hours!!  It's supposed to be a fun, elective type class so I decided to create the first one around movies.  We talked about our favorite movies, types of movies, watched some new trailers and created movie posters.  We also listened to some music from the US, which prompted some amazing Michael Jackson impersonations.  It was a lot of fun and the students are seriously amazing artists.  Here are a few pics from it...

The Winning Poster - Cats and Dogs!

The Karate Kid - Accompanied with some impressive karate kicks

Despicable Me - A very strong contender