Welcome to ESL
with Miss Bufkins!
Although my journey toward becoming a
teacher began almost six years ago, I still get excited each time I begin a new
semester as a student. I love that as I begin to impart knowledge to others, I
still have the opportunity to learn new things myself!
Often I like to write about my experiences
in my journal that I try to write nightly. Because that is more for personal
use, I find it exciting to share my thoughts via a blog. This is not my first
experience with blogging, when I was a junior in college I had the privilege of
living in Granada, Spain, a historically and culturally rich city in the
southern province of Andalusia. As an easy way to keep my family
updated on my activities, I started blogging. It is interesting to look back on
my blog. I have changed and matured immensely in my patterns of speech as well
as the choice in events I would write about. My blog in Spain focused
on the events I attended and what new cities I visited. Whereas now, I like to
not only write about my physical location, but also what I am feeling within
the moment. I wish that then I had known how important it was to remember how
you feel in the moment. I was lucky to have the experience of a
lifetime and although I kept a private journal of my thoughts, I think my
family would have appreciated my emotions as well. If you would like to
look back on my immature revelations whilst living in Spain, click here.
My first experience teaching English as a
foreign language occurred while I was a student in Spain. As part of my
classes, there was a community service piece that could be satisfied by
teaching in a local elementary school in Granada that was just a hop, skip, and
a jump away from my apartment. The students were in the American equivalent of
Kindergarten and did not know any English. We spent many weeks together
learning different animal names and navigating the stereotypes of American
culture. I remember the first time that a student asked me if I had a sports
car, I almost laughed out loud thinking of my old jalopy back in New York with
doors that didn't shut all the way. It is eye opening to think about how
cultures can be so vastly different even if they are close in
proximity. That is something I hope to continue to learn about, both
through my studies and through working with ESL students in the classroom. I
hope to be able to show others that it is okay to be different, as long as we
begin to understand each other throughout the journey. Who knows? Perhaps I
will live to see myself be the change I wish to see in the world.
Vocabulary:
impart (verb) - to give information or
convey a message
via (preposition) - by way of, through
vastly (adverb) – extremely
whereas (conjunction) - in contrast
a hop, skip, and a jump away (idiom) - a
short distance
old jalopy (idiom)- an old, broken down
car
proximity(noun) - to be near
Vocabulary cloze exercise:
1)
Because of the flight distance we will
have to go to Paris ___ London.
2)
Miss Bufkins ______s the necessary
information of the day to us at the beginning of class.
3)
I want a new car. The one I have now is an
___ ______.
4)
Even though France and Spain are close in
_________, the two countries speak different languages.
5)
The grocery store is only _ ___ ____ __ _
____ ____, it will only take you two minutes to get there.
6)
My sister and I have ______ different
tastes in music. I like opera and she likes rap.
7)
I want to go see The Hunger games, _______
my mom wants to see Twilight.
Grammar Point: This post was written using
many verbs in the past tense. List those words and any indicator words such as were
or was.
This is me in Spain, acting confused by the Spanish culture's idea of a small snack.
