Wonderful new students, and a happy teacher!

Starting the first week in February, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to begin teaching two English classes (one for adults, and one for kids) every Thursday and Saturday at a local Christian church called "Amor Viviente." Marlon, the first grade teacher at my school, had been telling me about his church, and that many people that attend the church would really like to learn English. He asked me if I would be interested in volunteering to teach English classes, and I immediately jumped at the chance. I love working at my school and being able to travel, but I couldn't help but feel like I could be doing a lot more with my time while living here! I was so excited to be able to interact with more people and families in the neighborhood. Plus, get to know and build stronger relationships with at least a few of the people I am living here, in Tela, with. Besides the students and families at my school, I haven't really had that chance until now. I just wish I would've started teaching these classes when I first got here!I knew right away I wanted to teach English classes to the kids in the church, but at first I was really apprehensive about teaching adults. Never in a million years could I picture myself in the front of the classroom with 15-20 adults staring back at me, the very thought of it scared me to death. With kids, I've never had that problem, I've never had any doubts about wanting to teach kids, but with adults it's different (or so I thought). What if I bore them completely? What if they think I'm treating them like my 2nd grade students? What if they all think I'm completely wasting their time? But after meeting with the pastor, I couldn't say "no" after seeing his face and how excited he was. He told me how much the adults in the church wanted to learn English (including him), and how many of them had already signed up for the class. So sure enough, I decided to bite the bullet, and give it try.....if all else fails, at least I know I tried my best! (yes mom and mama tess, your little sayings still stay with me, no matter how much I rolled my eyes at you every time you said things like that to me while growing up!:) And if nothing else they'll at least know a little bit more English than before I came, right?! or at least that's what I keep telling myself... The top and bottom pictures show a lesson I was teaching to my adult English class about the names of different body parts. I taught them the song, "Head and shoulders, knees and Toes," it was so funny to see how much they actually loved the song and even doing all the movements! We must have sang the song at least 20 times throughout the night because they wanted to keep practicing over and over again. It's funny to think that I was afraid they wouldn't like the song because they might feel like little kids singing it! But they absolutely love it!!! I guess adults are just like kids, only bigger!:) These pictures show them cutting out different body parts of a cartoon boy. I had them cut and paste his body together on another piece of paper, and then we labeled the different parts. Many of them even named their cartoon and drew on extra things to make it look more like them! For instance, some of the women made the hair longer so it resembled a girl, and others colored the clothes to match what they were wearing. I swear sometimes I felt like I was in a kindergarten classroom! Who would think that grown adults would actually enjoy this activity! I really never thought teaching adults would be this much fun!
I came to the church service the weekend before I was going to start the classes, in order to meet everyone in the church and introduce myself. As soon as I stepped into the church, I was immediately happy. The pastor smiled, and greeted me as soon I came in. Everyone I passed on my way to a seat, and after the service, hugged and kissed me as if I was already a member of church, and even a member of their own family! It was really nice to meet the adults that were going to be in my class, and even better to hear them say that they were happy I was there and that they were really excited to learn English. The best part was that being with everyone at the church allowed me to practice more of my Spanish. Speaking Spanish (or at least trying to) with everyone showed them that I was trying to learn Spanish just as much as they are trying to learn English. It made things a lot less formal and stressful, made me feel less nervous about teaching the classes, and I felt comfortable right away. Everyone I met was so welcoming and friendly, and I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear throughout the entire 2 1/2 hour service. The music was so happy and upbeat, everyone was singing and clapping (from little toddlers to men and women who looked close to my grandparents age), everyone just looked so happy, it couldn't help but rub off on me. It was really refreshing to even see teenagers and young people my age getting as into the service as everyone around them! Before I knew it I was singing in Spanish (more like trying my best to read the words on the screen in the front of the church), and clapping along with everyone else. I only understood about 70% of what they were singing about, but it didn't really matter, it was really amazing and so much fun! After that night, I promised myself that I would arrive early before every children's class on Saturday (the service is from 7-9, and I teach the kids from 8-9), so that I could have extra time to be a part of the service and be around such great people. I really can't think of any better way to spend my weekends! I look forward to teaching the classes every week! These pictures show some of the kids in my English class that I teach on Saturdays. Aren't they adorable? They are just as eager to learn English as the students in my adult class are!