The Final Goodbye

I am sad to say that this is my final blog post because this will be admitting that I will have to say good-bye to the SWAP program and my student, Valentina, as well. I have had such an amazing time and it is an experience that I will never forget.

However, I would like to happily say that Valentina and I found a good routine with our daily work. I had previously mentioned before that we were going to try and role play with written dialogues. We did try that once but my student wasn’t into it. She also said that she did not like using the flash cards. But by a chance spontaneous moment, we found something that worked for both of us, reading current events from the newspaper. This worked perfectly for us. What we would do is, I would bring a newspaper or a magazine and Valentina would a paragraph and I would then ask her what that paragraph was talking about. She would recite the best she could the meaning of what she just read and I would help her fill in the blanks. Then at the very end of the article we would both have a conversation of how we felt about it and often that would bring up another topic of conversation. Sometimes I would have a hard time understanding what she was saying so I would stop her and in another way she would have to explain in another way. This was the only activity that Valentina said she really liked doing and wanted to continue with. So we did this for the rest of our classes. I did feel a little bit worried that some of the newspapers I could get a hold of had hard concepts and words in them. I could mostly only find the New York Times and the LA times on campus but I figured that this is the level most newspapers are at. If she can get through them and comprehend what a higher level newspaper is saying then this will give her the confidence to pick up any newspaper and understand the content. Not everything, like in the workbooks is going to have simple words and concepts. At first, it was challenging but towards the end of the classes, Valentina was a lot quicker about comprehending what was going on and her reading improved as well.

Another thing to brag about Valentina that made me proud was when Valentina didn’t want to throw away the newspapers when we were done with class. She said that she would bring them home with her and read with her 7 year old niece that was just beginning to learn to read. I don’t know if she actually did read with her niece but if she does just once, then I have succeeded.

Not only was I teaching Valentina, she was teaching me. I have a thousand stories that I could share about Valentina’s words of wisdom or actions but one story particularly sticks out. By the end of the semester, I beginning to get fairly well informed on Mexican politics. Previously, the topic never really sparked my interest until one day in class. I remember at the beginning I was really tired from the night before and I had a million things to do after the class and needless to say I was a little distracted. However, a quick, mindless class was not where the conversation was headed. Fairly close to the beginning of the class we read an article about the new Mexican president that was inducted over the weekend, Pena Nieto. When we would stop at every paragraph to discuss what the article was saying, Valentina would be the one that tell me what was really happening in the artice, with background information, the political party systems and why the previous elected officials are corrupt. I found myself very confused at times with the names of the past presidents and who was associated with which party. I kept on having to ask for clarification and very patiently Valentina would help me. Valentina would even correct my pronunciation of some of the Spanish words and names as I have done with her many times with new English words. From that class, Valentina gained useful knowledge in explaining a difficult idea in English and I gained an insider’s perspective on a subject that I previously would have not known.

Is the system fair?

Weeks have passed since I have met my student, Valentina, and with each class that we are both improving. I have gained some more confidence in teaching the material and have learned how to better prepare for each class. I am constantly modifying my style to better fit what Valentina wants. My student has mentioned that she wants to get better at conversational speech. At first I was wary of venturing away from the book but now I keep trying new techniques because my current strategies are not working. At first I started off with just going through the book’s suggested activities however they are only working to some degree. Whenever I would review the previous day’s material at the beginning of class, it would be as if my student was seeing the content we spent a whole class on, was new again. This worried me because it showed that I was not teaching effectively and I was letting Valentina down as a teacher. While experimenting, I next made flashcards for the day’s material because I figured that helps me when I study. This tactic only works to a degree because the examples are so specific to a particular type of sentence that it is hard to apply the new word in conversation. For example, using the word “on,” it makes sense that “I have class on Monday,” but my student is having trouble using the word in conversation when she talks to me. So I think my new idea for fluency in speaking is to start writing stories. I will use the words in the book as guidelines but I think it is best to step away from individual non-related sentences. I am also going to try the suggested “role play conversation” that was given from my last blog post. This week will be the first time I try this so hopefully it works better!

My relationship with Valentina has also dramatically improved. We are talking about more personal topics and I find it very easy to talk to her. Even though I am teaching her, she is becoming more of a mentor to me. Valentina once told me about how she studied for the immigration test for weeks in order to pass. I am still amazed by one question on the test in particular. One of the questions Valentina said she had to know was who said the quote, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Off the top of my head I thought it was, John Locke. Well I was wrong because the answer is Patrick Henry. What does this say about the credibility of the immigration tests? I, was born and raised in the United States, graduated at the top of my class in high school, a sophomore at one of the top State Universities didn’t get a question right on the test that would require me to live here. As Valentina continued with her experience, I was getting more and more upset. At the end of the story, I told Valentina, “it is crazy some of those questions you had to know, even ridiculous.” Her response took me by surprise. She just shrugged her shoulders and said “that is just what you have to do to become a citizen.” Here is a person who has reason to be bitter but in fact she is still humble and grateful to be an American citizen. That is amazing. We criticize, especially Latino immigrants, for coming to America illegal and not taking citizen tests but when they do, we fill these tests with information that many natural born Americans probably can’t pass. That is not fair.

First Post

Many people often go about their daily lives somewhat mindlessly and most times do not take notice of the workers around them. These unseen people are doing jobs such as cleaning buildings or preparing our food which are crucial to running the CU campus. I have had the fortunate opportunity through the SWAP program to meet one of these behind the scenes workers. I have been helping Valentina for two sessions now with her English. She is an amazing woman with so much to say. First coming to the United States about 30 years ago from Mexico, she has worked at CU for 20 years and is currently working at Smith Residence Hall in the custodial department. Even though I am just starting to get to know Valentina, her persistence and drive to wanting to learn English amazes me. She is constantly repeating to herself concepts we go over in hopes that she will remember the new information.

Just the other day, during our second session, we started talking about past tenses and I asked “What did you do yesterday?” Her reply was, “I cooked.” Next was followed by a fifteen minute tangent about her sister’s birthday party she cooked for. She was describing how to make all of these traditional Mexican dishes. Even though I was not entirely able to decipher all of her Spanglish, it was clear her passion for cooking. I am constantly trying to find new ways of teaching the material in interesting ways and I believe I have through food. Overall, this has been a great experience and I continually find myself being challenged with explaining English rules that I haven’t been thought about since Elementary school.