Tara Talk: English Class at the Tutoring Center

My friend and co-worker Diego approached me several months back about the idea of teaching an English class for some of the guys from his soccer team. I had gone to a few of their indoor games and on the beach trip with them over the summer, and apparently after that they shared with him that Tara is "tuanis" and "pura vida," which both, essentially, mean "a cool person." And because they know I'm a teacher and work in Los Guido at the Tutoring Center, they wanted me to help them with English so they could better communicate with our teams from the States and also to just be able to actually use English rather than the little practice they get with it in their schooling. I have never taught English to teenage boys before, but because I have a heart for Los Guido and the kids and youth that live there, and because I enjoy teaching English, I agreed!

I am happy to say that I know have two weeks of English classes under my belt and it's been a lot of fun! We meet in the tutoring center for a little over an hour on Tuesday afternoons after my tutoring students have gone home and the boys have gotten out of school. The first week we did a few activities where they got to know me a little bit and I also got to know them. I also had them do a little questionnaire for me to let me know what kinds of things they would like to talk about and learn about in our class. Overwhelmingly they told me that want to talk about 80s music (and music in general), soccer, food and their families. Easy enough. However, if you know me very well, you probably know that 80s music is NOT my favorite decade to choose from. I will admit that there are some good songs though, so I'm willing to give it a shot. :)

This past week I went with an 80s artist that we all know and love, Jon Bon Jovi. We first talked about rock stars and what kinds of things we thought that they ate, how they traveled, etc. Then we learned a bit about Bon Jovi's daily routine by reading a passage about him. Then we learned some vocabulary words from "Livin' on a Prayer" and sang it with the words afterwards. Of course, we also had to watch the music video to the song too. The guys seemed to be really excited to learn about a singer that they had heard before and liked, and it was a great way for me to get them to read, listen, talk about and learn in English. We ended the class by reading Psalm 55:1 together and talking about praying to God about whatever is on our mind and hearts. The homework for the week is to memorize this verse and be able to say it for me next week. We'll see how it goes! :)

Here are some pics from our class this past week: