30 de junio - My Substitute Job @ LGO

This morning was probably one of the most interesting experiences of my trip.  I had been asked by one of the teachers to teach English yesterday and I agreed.  Upon arrival to LGO I noticed that the teacher had not arrived.  I was looking for them to check for when they wanted me to teach.  After some time the teacher still had not arrived and never did.  After talking to another teacher I agreed to step in and help teach the class.  Now I don't know if you remember Spanish is not my strong suit nor something that I am proficient enough in to instruct elementary school subjects.  After working out some specifics with another teacher I assumed my position.
I explained to the students that I would be teaching today and that they were going to follow their regular schedule.  I asked one student what subject they do first thing in the morning, they told me mathematics.  PERFECT!  Numbers transcend all languages!  I though that this was going to be easier than I thought.  I asked the children what page they were on and they showed me...at the same time I prayed that it was only number problems...what to my dismay...word problems!! and fractions!! and finding the common denominator!!  Not simple addition or subtraction, multiplication or division...no...WORD PROBLEMS!!  But I knew that I had committed to this assignment and that I was going to see it through so I jumped in head first.
I knew that in order for me to make sense of this I had to have them read it first so that I had time to decipher the Spanish fraction math problems.  A couple times I had the kids read it a couple more times so that I had more time to translate.  Somehow I managed to do it!  It worked through some divine intervention or aligning of the stars or the right phase of the moon cycle.  After about an hour I got through it!
We then went out to physical education and since there was no PE teacher today...I got to teach PE too!  I decided that there was no use in teaching them anything so I had them just divide themselves up and some played soccer while the others played basketball.  Wow!  I forgot how competitive boys get when they play soccer, they disputed every goal and call during the game.  I think that they forgot that I don't speak Spanish very well because they kept coming up to me and speaking a million words a minute.  It's really funny how they still insist on speaking so fast when they know I have no idea what they are saying.  And it is even worse when someone gets hurt or two kids get in a fight because they are all about yelling.

In any event, we finally arrived at the time when I needed to leave and found my way to the principal to let her know that I was leaving and to make sure that there was coverage for the class.  Everything worked out and the principal was very grateful for my efforts.

The morning Zumba class