Labor Day

No day off for ol´Pepino Suave today. I guess we´ll just celabrate labor by laboring.
My students are getting comfortable with my wacky routine. It consists off learning some key words or phrases, then I tell a story using the new language. I pepper the story with tons of questions. Most of my characters are bizarre: purple plastic elephants, a multi-lingual Brittney Spears (she speaks Spanish, French, Pig Latin, and a smidgen of English), Brad Pitt (almost as good looking as the guys in my classes), Shakira (almost as beautiful and talented as the girls in my classes), and Evil Knievel who jumps zillions of armadillos on a skateboard. The cast of characters is endless.
Anyway, when I´m done telling the story and questioning, I give the students something to read that contains similar langauge as the story. If I´ve done my job well, most or all of the kids will understand most or all of the reading selection.
Today I was teaching the world ´lives´. I told the story of a girl named Shakira who lives in a big house, a girl named Thalia who lives in a small house. The kids offered that Mr. Tim lives in a normal house between Shakira and Thalia. They said that instead of going to my neighbors to ask for a cup of sugar, I went asking for hair. There was a problem, though, Shakira has very curly hair. So Mr. Tim asked Thalia for hair. Another problem - Thalia has gorilla hair. Mr. Tim doesn´t need gorilla hair, he needs Brad Pitt hair (these kids have a great imagination). The story unravels, the student´s and teacher´s imagination being the only boundries. Its a lot of fun, and works well. In fact, my main consequence in my discipline plan is to not tell stories and work in the text books.
Mexican Independence day is around the corner. Flags, banners, and patriotic slogans are all over the place. It is refreshing to watch a nation truly proud of its flag and heritage, inspite of internal struggles, debates, and discord...
Hasta la proxima,
Peps