Well, it's Friday and the end of my 5th week on Boa Vista. It's gone a lot faster than it did in São Domingos. I wonder why... In any event, all I've really done this week is teach classes and write a proposal for two English classes. Some thoughts on teaching here...

I had a really, really awful class on Tuesday. Now keep in mind that this class is just Windows Explorer: Make a folder, copy a file, make a shortcut, move this, cut that. I got up and went through a few miscellaneous things and handed out a sheet of exercises for them to practice with. It was basically making a series of folders and subfolders and copying some files into them. The mega problem came when people all of a sudden didn't seem to understand making a folder inside another one. I noticed that about half the class had just created about 15 folders all right next to one another, in clear defiance of the directions, which very clearly had the word "dentro" (inside) over and over again. So I tried explaining it, and received blank stares all around. Frustrating. So the next day, I went into the room before class and deleted all the extraneous and ridiculous extra files all sitting around on the computers, and re-explained everything to them. It seemed to work. I handed out the exercises again and they all got it. Whew. But one of the problems I have noticed is an all around difficult time following directions. Sometimes a student will get to, say, exercise 8 which asks them to copy a file into a folder. They can't find the folder. Ok, look at exercise 3, where it asks you to create the folder. Did you do that? No? A-ha, therein lies the problem. It's very strange to me, but seems to be pretty universal here. But it's not all bad. The class is pretty clearly divided into three groups: those who have a really hard time, those who get it after an explanation and some practice, and those who get it before I'm even done talking about it. I have one last class of miscellaneous stuff to do today, and then it will be followed by a test on Monday, which they have to do alone. Given the general difficulty with following guided, written exercised, I wonder how some of the students will fare. Many of them understand what they have to do perfectly well, but nearly always need verbal nudging to get it done. I have been told by PC volunteers the world over that this is a common issue. American and European school systems stress problem solving skills, but here it is generally rote memorization that is emphasized. As a result, people in some developing countries have difficulty applying a skill in an abstract way, i.e. any way that isn't exactly how it was originally explained.

Anyway. I am planning a pair of English courses now that will start in November. Both classes will be aimed at slightly older folks, because English is already required for 7th through 12th grades. The first will be an introductory course for those with little to no experience in English, and the second is a more advanced conversation course for those who just want to improve grammar and vocabulary. I finished up with the proposals the other day and am going to start planning out classes today. I was a bit disinterested in the idea for a while, but I'm starting to get excited about it. The beginner class will be fun to just teach the most basic aspects of our language. And for Leland the Language Nerd, it will be interesting to kind of dissect English in a way that I haven't ever had to before. For the advanced class, I've picked a list of real world topics to discuss, mainly shamelessly stolen from an advanced textbook I found in the library of the CEJ. So the goal will be to facilitate (bonus peace corps buzzword) discussions and use them to clarify grammar confusion and pick up new vocab. Not bad.

What else... Nothing really. I still live on the beach. Tomorrow, I'm going to wander down a stretch of beach on the other end of town to see if I can find some of the watersports guys. I want to ask them where I'd be able to buy a bodyboard and snorkel gear, and maybe get some connections for windsurfing lessons. They cost about $40 otherwise, and I clearly cannot afford that. So let's hope... Ok, time to plan some English lessons.