I had my first meeting with "my" turma today. We chose assigned groups, the chefes (or leaders) of the turma, and I let them give the groups names like "Jennifer Lopez" and "DMX". Luckily, they chose some Mozambican names as well. I think, slowly but surely, I'm coming around for these kids who've only seen me be mean - taking away tests and such. It isn't the group I wanted, but there are a lot of good kids in there I think I can give a hand to. We'll see as the year goes on.
I gave an English class today, as well. I taught the alphabet and the first few numbers. I pretended that we were at a dance party and everyone coming in had to count themselves as the 10th, 11th, 12th, etc. person. It was fun and reminded me of a real party called "37".
I'm realizing I'm not giving a lot of motivation to my students, but they seem to be motivated. Though it's a "required" part of our lesson plans, I think you can give intangible motivation just by being excited and keeping students interested.
Peace
John
