My classes or the good, the bad and the just spoiled

I haven't written much so far about my teaching experiences in Mexico because even though I am in a fairly small city of about 50,000 I don't think they are so different from other kids in this country. My students range in age from 8 to late 20's and a good majority of them are sent by their parents and would obviously rather be elsewhere after school.

This is probably no different than in many other countries but Mexican culture does not seem to put such a high priority on English language education especially for girls. Many of my teen students are smart enough to be moving on to higher education and a good career, but the motivation seems to be lacking in many of them. Several tell me that they want to be decorators or work in the beauty industry. When asked why they learn English they tell me that their parents expect it will be useful for them in the future.

The younger kids are fun and quick , but generally not well disciplined so much of class time is spent just keeping everyone busy and under control. My youngest class is composed of 2 very active boys, one very sweet quiet girl, one other strong-willed girl who tries to speak Spanish most of the time and another boy who is usually late and is a daydreamer to boot. They are generally good learners but it is a challenge to keep them focused. Recently I've discovered that they all love to write things on the board and to make extra craft items so I've been working this into the lessons. They loved the table setting lesson and this week for their 'cut, mix, add' lesson we will make peanut butter and banana sandwiches. 'Yum-yum' to quote one of the more advanced students in the class pictured here. They are all in Colors 3: Karla, Luis, Alan, Jorge and Leonardo