Kelly TP-3

Last Friday I met with Carolina at the Leon County Library. Be forewarned, the Library opens at 10AM downtown. I thought I would arrive early around 9:30 to be better prepared. Turns out, a lot of of the folks from the shelter "hang out" out front until the library opens. It seems like they were having a good ol' time, but at that time in the morning, trying to play the part of "teacher/tutor," it was pretty awkward standing around.

Anyways! Carolina is a great student. She actually worked on the things we had been talking about last session- and then some! We went straight to work on the parent teacher meeting she would like to have in regards to her young son. Earlier in the week I had looked up some websites on this matter, and wrote out a paper with some tips and questions to keep in mind in these situations. (The best way to approach a teacher, schedule an appointment, getting the context for her son's "bad" behavior, working with the teacher for a solution, etc). I also presented Carolina with a ESL podcast geared specifically for a parent teacher meeting. In it, a dialogue is gone through of a meeting, and then an explanation of things to expect from an ESL perspective. I showed her how to find it and download it on her Ipod, and encouraged her to download other podcasts from this organization if she found this one to be helpful.
                              http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html

We then went over some trouble vocabulary words she had underlined in her Hunger Games book. They were kind of funny vocabulary words, all scary (slosh, slit, creep, etc). I asked Carolina if there was anything else she wanted to go over, and she explained that she wanted to sign her children up for swimming lessons this summer. She brought the brochure for the Leon County Summer Swim program, and we went over it together. She had a good idea what options she wanted for her children, but needed a few clarifications. I did the best that I could, and with the remaining questions we had, I helped her make a list of questions she could ask a representative about at the pool. *In our casual discussion at the end of class she looked at me surprised and told me, "Tampico has many pools, and they are much nicer than the ones in Tallahassee!" I can agree, Latin Americans knows how to get their swim on.

Carolina has mentioned that she struggles with past and future tenses. I can relate to her, as this is my biggest Spanish error. When we meet next, I am going to prepare a lesson suited towards the past form of some common verbs. (and also do this for myself in Spanish).

I showed Carolina the old timey music video about Tampico. We laughed and then briefly discussed some of the unfair stereotypes Americans have of Mexican culture. As Carolina puts it, "Americans think we only eat tacos all day, wear huge sombreros, and have mustaches." On the other hand, we briefly discussed some of the ideas Carolina and others have about Americans- and how quickly they are dispelled on arrival to the United States. The culprit behind both of these images- Hollywood and the mass media of course!

   Great Documentary on representations of Native Americans in Film. Available on streaming Netflix!