English classes for youth!
We started ESL classes in 2019, thanks to David Ellison, a Stanford University trained teacher, who was willing and able to create a structured English class for our youth in San Juan Tecomatlan, Mezcala and San Pedro Itzicán. David is also fluent in Spanish so that helps us a lot!
He, together with Ron Robertson and some other wonderful volunteers, have been teaching the youth and adults in person or on Zoom since then. (Zoom was difficult because of the quality of the internet in these rural areas - and lack of computers - so that was not easy.) Now Ron and David have been holding classes in person since February 2022.
Listen to the video of a class that David gave on 27 May 2022 - where he also got the kids to learn "Row, Row your Boat"... it was fun!
Over time, we have found there are mixed results in the different areas because of the different education levels (just 15 minutes apart in distance). Many Mezcala students have more education than people in San Pedro Itzicán. So you are not just teaching a language, they do not understand the concepts of their own language either.
Encouraging the participants to practice between lessons has also been a challenge!
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One early solution we tried was bringing food to the class (as that seemed to help enrollment and concentration). But we had to stop that when covid closed everything down.
Do you remember that special teacher that would spend time helping you? Even if you were struggling. David is one of those teachers....
If you would like to assist with these classes, please contact us. Or if you have some simple English books that might be useful in the program, please get in touch with us.
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Poco a Poco is so grateful to David and Ron for taking on this program.
