Goal Four: Teaching Enprendedurismo in the Schools

So the fourth and final goal is teaching. Since arriving in Nicaragua, I’ve found out that most of the available sites for Nica 56 have more of an emphasis on teaching, rather than small business advising. For me, it’s a little bit of a disappointing to hear. I was really looking forward to the small business advising part of Small Business, and have a lot of interest in working with entrepreneurs and small business. While the opportunity will still exist, I will need to put most of time into teaching.

That being said, the fourth goal of training is to co-teach three enprendedurismo classes at the local school in Niquinohomo. Let me start off with a little background about the small business here in Nicaragua, as it is one of the most successful countries (in terms of small business) in the Peace Corps in the world. Ten years ago the Peace Corps decided to focus their energy on the youth of the nation, since 70% is under the age of 30. The process started by teaching the enprendedurismo class at whatever schools would let them, and now, ten years later, it is part of the national curriculum approved by the government. This is a huge success story, and now most small business programs are modeled off the system in Nicaragua. That means if I decide to extend for a third year, there’s a good chance I would be sent to a new country that is just developing their enprendedurismo classes. Kind of a cool option to think about in the future.

Now you may have noticed that I’m supposed to be co-teaching. The idea is that we co-plan with the teachers, and teach them the course, so they can confidently and successfully teach the class after our eventual departure. The idea is create sustainability of the curriculum within the school system. My counterpart at the local school, Ernesto, has turned out to a complete flake thus far. I have hope that things will change, but it is not unheard of for counterparts to see you as a part-time sub and take advantage of your help. Despite repeated attempts to reach out to him and co-plan the class, I went ahead and made an entire plan myself, something I’ve never done before. I figured I would at least show up on class on Tuesday, and have him there to approve it and help me manage the class. But when I showed up at el Instuto Tuesday morning, the main office gave me the comforting new that he had just left for the day. You could imagine how I felt: stunned and nervous. Stunned that I had just been pretty blatantly stood up (something I have to get used to down here) and nervous for a couple of reasons. Public speaking has never really been my cup of tea, and never have I had to teach a class to a bunch of 9^th graders, let alone in a language I barely know.

            I wasn’t about to just give up, so before entering the class, I counted down from 5, exhaled away any sense of being terrified/hesitant/nervous I had, and walked into the classroom with a confident, friendly voice and a steady hand. Lucky for me, the class responded well to my disposition, and we plunged right into the lesson. The lesson I was assigned to teach was analasis FODA, also know as SWOT analysis back at home. I happen to know this subject very well and would feel very confident teaching SWOT in English, but Spanish is a different story. It turns out my Spanish is better than I thought, because the kids generally understood what I was saying. The tricky part was when I would ask questions, I could never really understand their answers, and would try to repeat what they said, or just respond with whatever answer I had ready to give (if there was no response). It occurred to me about halfway through the class that maybe the kids weren’t connecting the dots, and seeing the big picture. It felt like my ideas were not adding up to the big picture. I tried not to show my concern, but it had to show, my heart started pumping hard, the room got hotter, and I definitely sweated through my shirt. But I got through the class without completely losing my cool, and I lived to teach another day. Looking back afterwards, I almost feel like Will Ferrell in Old School after he “whited” out during the debate section. I had trouble identifying the specifics of the 45 minutes, but somehow managed to teach successfully. One of the Peace Corps business tech advisors observed the class, and she told me I did a great job getting my point across and that despite what I thought, the kids actually picked up on the lesson.

So I have two more classes to go to successfully complete training, along with the other three goals. It’s crazy to think I’ve almost been in country for a month, and that in a month’s time I’ll actually know where I’m going to be for the next two years. Time is flying by!