Tuesday

I was surprised to see how much they enjoyed signing! Even more interesting how quickly Delaura and Kiki and I all picked up on it and enjoyed it. The day was a particularly warm one. It may have been because of my sunburn but I was feeling the heat that day. I remember my shirt touching the top of my shoulders and causing me great discomfort. The sun near the equator is more intense than I thought. The others in the room didn't seem to notice the heat. Dr. Melideo was signing bathroom. She showed them the sign and had them repeat. She explained that it was a great way to have the students send a message without disrupting the class that they needed to use the restroom. The minute she said restroom all the teachers broke out in laughter. It reminded me that having to go "potty" was funny where ever you find yourself. We worked on ways the teacher could increase student engagement that day. Kiki did hop scotch, Delaura did Bingo, and I showed them how to play the headache game. The headache game is a math game. You take three numbers that can be multiplied together for example: 3 x 2 = 6. The cards had 3, 2, and 6 on them. The product or highest number of the three cards had a star, 6*. I played the game with Kiki and Delaura in front of all the teachers. I wasn't as nervous as the first day which helped because I stumbled over the explanation of the game a bit. We each had a card and place the card on our foreheads without looking at the number on the other side. This meant that I could see Delaura and Kiki's card but not my own. Kiki had a 3. Delaura had a 2. I in turn had to use my deduction skills to guess what number was on my forehead. At first I was not sure if they understood the game so breaking the teachers into groups and trying it with them in small groups helped me see where I needed to make my explanation of the game stronger. I'm slowly learning how to explain things in a way that is easy for them to process. The language barrier isn't a huge gap. I think I need to slow down the way I communicate. I may be talking too fast. They really liked the game. When we had them come to the stage and demonstrate the games each of us showed them a lot of the teachers did the headache game... and I think they did a great job of explaining it... which meant with practice they had already mastered the concept and could teach it. I hope they use it in their classrooms. The teachers really appeared to enjoy it!