Thursday 25 February 2010

The American lady messed up my homework...



Km Hm Dm m dm cm mm


Do those mean anything to you? … Me neither.


We have an afterschool homework club two days a week and I have been able to help out the past two weeks. I have really enjoyed the time filled with giggles, snacks, and silly questions. But it is not without its complications.


The majority of the schools in the Madrid area boast a bilingual education program. I offered to lend a hand to the program and help out with English homework, especially since several moms had already approached me about helping their children.


Little did I expect that the majority of my time would be spent on Spanish grammar homework and metric conversion math. For the past two days I have been as confused as the kids who have been asking for my help. More than once I have, in a moment of exasperation and fear of leading the child educationally astray, called over one of the Spanish speaking tutors.


Yesterday, I spent a good hour working with a boy on metric conversion charts and warned him that there may be some problems with my answers when he got to school in the morning. He said "Don't worry. I'll just tell them you are American."


I do get the chance to assist with English homework; correct pronunciation, help translate, or quiz are parts of the skeleton (yes, they are all learning the parts of the skeleton/bones in English).


And learn that:


Km = kilometer

Hm = hectameter

Dm = decameter

m = meter

dm = decimeter

cm = centimeter

mm = milimeter

3 comments:

Sue J. said...

You have a heart of gold, Valerie! I feel bad when I have to tell my daughter about things I don't know on her homework sheets. She then says, "Didn't they teach you anything?" You know, there's just so much out there to know.

Your young friends need to understand how blessed they are in having one who can speak two languages. But, even more, one who is willing to work with them at all!!

Yeah, metric just hasn't caught on here like it was supposed to.... At least the prefixes mean the same thing when you start talking about liquid measurement or land measurement. The American lady's going to become an expert in quite a few things, you just watch!

Hang in there!!

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Cheryl Hagedorn said...

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