Stress Relief

Lately, I’ve been having some issues with one my counterparts.  It’s been difficult to get ahold of him, find time that he’s available to meet, and actually plan lessons with him.  The other day we planned and I felt great about it because we were fairly thorough and we hadn’t planned together in a long time.  I went home that night happy and spent about an hour making a poster with drawings for the new vocabulary words for the lesson.  However, the next day, my counterpart took over and sort of changed the lesson, translated all of the vocabulary words instead of using the drawings and actions that we had talked about, and then waited until the last 10 minutes of class to let me help with the lesson.  He even added in this “activity” to practice the pronunciation of all the phrases (more like drills with lots of repetition).  I figured he would at least ask me to help with pronunciation since I’d say I’m kind of an expert in English pronunciation here haha  

Well, the last 10 minutes came and he asked me to put up my poster and do my activity.  Hmmm, well the poster was supposed to be an introductory activity to use the drawings to help students discover the meaning of the vocabulary instead of just translating all the words.  I had to think on the spot of how I could change this now.  I decided that we would practice the present tense with the 3^rd person form, so I gave a couple examples with the drawings and asked the students to identify the drawings using the English phrases.  Today, the same exact thing happened, but while I was doing “my” activity in the end and encouraging the students to answer in English and guiding them with my poster, my counterpart decided to chime in every time with Spanish and then translate, answering all my questions before the students could.  Can you say frustrating? Ugh.  I wanted to yell “STOP!” but I held my tongue haha

After the lesson and after the students left the classroom, I talked to him about it.  I asked him to give the students more time to respond, because when he’s teaching he doesn’t give them enough time either and usually switches to Spanish.  He told me ok and I think it went alright.

I had already been a little upset with him from yesterday because when we met on Tuesday at his house, he told me he wanted me to work with him at least 3 hours a week to practice his English conversation and pronunciation.  I told him that we should choose a day of the week and time and then we would meet to plan our lessons and then after that we could work on his English.  We agreed on Wednesdays at 4pm.  I went to his house yesterday and he asked me if we could work tomorrow, but we hadn’t planned for 8^th grade but he told me he had something and not to worry.  My aunt offered Jasser and me some gallo pinto, so we stayed to eat and chatter with her for about an hour.  My counterpart sat on the couch and watched TV the entire time.  The nerve.  So, going to school today and the previous things taking place did not go over well with me. 

Ok, so why is this blog entry called “stress relief” when it sounds pretty stressFUL(L)?  Well, I couldn’t go to the next class with him and have basically the same thing repeated and I decided that it was better for my health if I went home a little early.  So, I did.  I came home and indulged in a small piece of cake and ice cream left over from my birthday, and then sat in my hammock on the patio and slipped slowly out of reality into a good book.  Having some time away from what was causing me stress and taking time to breathe was very relieving.

While I was in the midst of the stress, my mind was racing to think of ways to fix the problem or make it better in some way.  Lately I’ve been feeling sort of blah about my lack of exercise and being out of shape.  So, I decided to move a couple classes around (drop one and add another at a different time) and make time to exercise in the morning before I go to school because I know I always feel better after I work out.  I think that this will be a wise choice for a lot of reasons.  I’ve been feeling a lot of stress lately which is not good for my body and I haven’t been taking good care of myself.  I haven’t been exercising much; I usually blame the heat, which is a good excuse, right? ;)  And, I haven’t been eating very well (insert cake + ice cream here).  

I will be losing 2 hours from my class schedule at the Instituto, but I started up my community class again which is 2 + hours a week (plus planning time) and I’m starting an English class for kids next week so I think my plate will be pretty full.  I think the key is balance.  I need to take more time to take care of myself, physically and emotionally and I feel that this decision will help significantly.  I’ll keep you updated :)