Reflection 3

On this past Wednesdays class, February 24, 2021, we had about 80 students who live in Mexico join us in our zoom. We knew beforehand that this would be happening and that we would be put into small groups with a handful of children, and those of us in ENGL 200 would be put into a teacher role. Going into Wednesday class I was really nervous and really did not know what to expect. Questions that went through my head coming up to Wednesday’s zoom were, do they know any English? Will the little Spanish I know be enough to communicate with the students? What will happen if we are not able to communicate with each other? How will I explain something if they ask me a question? I had never been put in a position before that I would have to teach students who spoke another language, so I did not really know what to expect. However, all of those fears went away when we were put into the first group and I realized that they also were just as nervous and had the same fears as I did. I was pleasantly surprised when we got the students to start talking and how well we were able to communicate with them. We had great conversations with them and towards the end of our time with them they started to even ask us questions, which was such a great feeling that we were able to make them feel comfortable enough to do that. The one little girl asked us  if we liked tacos and when we all responded with yes and it was so funny to see their little faces light up and they all cheered while dancing in excitement. During this time Rubina joined the room and noticed that the one boy had not spoken yet. Rubina then asked the boy if he could ask me if I liked tacos? The young boy was very shy and looked confused when Rubina asked him the question. Rubina then asked me if I would be able to help the young boy to teach him how to ask the question. At this moment I really had to think on my feet because I did not really know the best way to approach teaching someone who did not understand what was being asked. I quickly decided to go with the repeat after me method and was trying to get the boy to repeat the words one by one after me, so he would be able to ask the question Rubina had asked him. After a few tries of me trying this method Rubina also tried to get the boy to talk, but i think he was just really shy for we could not get him to talk. After this moment this made me want to do more research on ways to teach children who speak another language as you, so in moments like this one where I was not able to get the boy to talk I could think and try other ways to help. The second group I was in, everyone in the group was very chatty from the start and were asking us questions even before we had a moment to talk. I am very excited for in a month when we are able to meet up with these students again and we get to plan activities to do with them. I am very grateful for this experience and think this is great practice for when I am a teacher.