chuuuuuuta....qué lluvia tenemos aquí en chillán! it´s been raining alll weekend, and now i really regret not having brought my galoshes and raincoat with me. my dad will just have to stick them in his luggage when he comes visits me in june.
but geez, it´s amazing how much it´s been raining...there has hardly been a pause. and the streets are just flooded! this morning, ruth, my host sister/coteacher, called every taxi company in chillán to send a taxi over to take us to school. however, she only encountered busy signals, and we had no choice but to begin the wet trek to school. after about walking 6 blocks, through deep puddles and blown back by rainswept winds, we were completely drenched. even the new boots that i had purchased this weekend in concepción no sirvieron, and i was not happy having my feet wet. that´s probably one of my biggest pet peeves. because neither of us brought an extra pair of pants, ruth decided that we should return home and change, and after all, as chilean myth goes, wearing wet clothing causes sickness. of course, we didn´t want that to happen. fortunately, we ran into two of her nephews who had just called their father to pick them up from school. they were going to go straight home and miss school. i soon realized that chileans treat their downpouring days like snow days...literally half the student body at escuela méxico didn´t attend school today.
while we were waiting for my host brother to come pick us up, i was watching 2 carabineros (policemen) at the flooded street corner, literally carrying students and other folks on their backs across the street to avoid the flood. it was such a cool sight! why don´t our policemen do that? btw, did you know that firefighters here are all volunteers? i wanted to take a picture, pero que lástima que no tuviera mi cámara y when ruth took out her phone to take a picture, the carabineros began to walk away. chuta.
soon, my host brother arrived, took us home, i changed, and we finally got hold of a taxi company to send a taxi over to pick us up. we arrived at school, and immediately i sensed that a ton of students were missing. in fact, when we went to see the first class of the day, who also happen to be ruth´s homeroom class, we only met half the class along with a sprinkling of students from one of the 8th grade classes. they were just fooling around and playing cards, which is something these kids seem to be quite used to considering how often they are left alone. but that´s a whole other entry, regarding how as they say, "desordenado" they are, very much contributed by the lax disciplinarian system they uphold at schools here.
to make a long story short, i spent the day playing hangman, watching over a class while they watched high school musical in english (without subtitles, but that didn´t stop them from singing like all the songs!!), and had more time to get to know my students more outside the english only classroom. they´re so darling, and i already know i´m going to miss them so much when i leave...but that´s the future, no use dwelling on that!
my rainy day ended with a surprise meeting with the english network of english teachers in the region. all of us volunteers were notified of the meeting just this morning! it´s been frustrating with horrible communication from the ministry of education officials, but oh well, fortunately i´m extremely flexible and i´m really good at going with the flow. that´s probably the word of the entire 9 months here...flexibility. i spent most of last night planning for today´s classes only to be met with half the number of students and realizing it wasn´t worth executing my planned activities with such a small group. it´s a pain, but what can i do? i just let myself be frustrated for that moment, take a breath, and continue on, knowing that dwelling on anger and bitterness only ruins my day.
and woot, i just found out moments ago that there´s no school tomorrow on account of the rain. it may sound a little silly that they treat heavy rain days like snow days, but the thing is some students come from farther distances and these streets are really dangerous to tread through. their sewage system isn´t as great as ours and so there is very serious flooding in the streets. moreover, wednesday is a holiday, so i pretty much have a 2 day holiday!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
matamoscas
for the last 45 minutes of my last class today, i was forced to teach all 40 students of 6th A, and i made the poor decision to play a game with them. let´s just say that my throat hurts from yelling at the same boys over and over. then stupidly enough, i made it a boys vs. girls competition. i forgot how preteens get so into these kinds of things. i´m sure the surrounding classes heard each group´s team chant. oh goodness. these kids were already going crazy, and they were even more locos during the game. but what was i to do? i wasn´t prepared to teach all 40 kids. my coteacher thrusted the responsibility at me when the director of the school once again made her film something with her tape recorder.
my most important lesson thus far since i´ve been here is the need to be flexible and ready for anything they might throw at you. already, i´ve either had my classes cancelled or i´ve had to teach all 40 students of a class by myself (instead of half the class for 45 minutes, and then switch groups for the last 45 minutes). on thursday and friday, i´m most likely going to have to teach the entire class by myself once again for the 5th, 6th, and 8th grade classes i have those days. my coteacher has to go to a 3-day conference in Conce, and the school doesn´t like to call for substitutes if it´s not absolutely necessary. me aprovechan, as they would say. ugh, well, however annoyed i may be, i´m just going to flow with it and let it be. i´m not one to stress out and raise a ruckus. i know i can manage an entire class of 40, though it may be a little messy.
all in all, after 1.5 weeks of teaching my own class, i´ve been having a great time. i´ve been doing a lot of interactive activities with my students, and i have the feeling they´re just not used to performing skits or throwing a ball around to designate taking turns. i can tell they´re enjoying themselves, and that´s my primary goal for now...for them to be excited to come to english class with me because then will i effectively capture their attention.
my most important lesson thus far since i´ve been here is the need to be flexible and ready for anything they might throw at you. already, i´ve either had my classes cancelled or i´ve had to teach all 40 students of a class by myself (instead of half the class for 45 minutes, and then switch groups for the last 45 minutes). on thursday and friday, i´m most likely going to have to teach the entire class by myself once again for the 5th, 6th, and 8th grade classes i have those days. my coteacher has to go to a 3-day conference in Conce, and the school doesn´t like to call for substitutes if it´s not absolutely necessary. me aprovechan, as they would say. ugh, well, however annoyed i may be, i´m just going to flow with it and let it be. i´m not one to stress out and raise a ruckus. i know i can manage an entire class of 40, though it may be a little messy.
all in all, after 1.5 weeks of teaching my own class, i´ve been having a great time. i´ve been doing a lot of interactive activities with my students, and i have the feeling they´re just not used to performing skits or throwing a ball around to designate taking turns. i can tell they´re enjoying themselves, and that´s my primary goal for now...for them to be excited to come to english class with me because then will i effectively capture their attention.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
¿cachai?
i´ve been at Escuela República de México for 3 days now, and i feel like i´ve just been so lucky to have been placed here. i feel so lucky to be placed with my AMAZING host family as well!! everyone here has been SO WARM, tan cariñosos, tan amables...especially the students! with every step i take in the school hallway, i hear a "hi miss," "hola miss," and many times i´ve been surrounded by students who all want to greet me with a kiss on the cheek (which is my favorite part of chilean culture, or latin american--and filipino!--culture for that matter). i´m soo going to bring this back to america. i´ve realized how cold and distant the american culture is, in comparison!
i haven´t started teaching my own classes yet; this week is reserved for observing my coteacher´s (who is also my host sister btw) english classes. and good lord does she have a lot of classes that she teaches! she works about 45 hours a week!! she teaches multiple grades, primarily 5th-8th grades, but she also teaches 2 3rd grade classes, 2 1st grade classes, 1 2nd grade class and a kindergarten class. she is seriously mi heroina. in fact today, she didn´t even have a lunch hour! during the normal lunch hour, she had to teach the 2nd grade class. she literally only had 10 minutes to eat her lunch before she was off to teach another class of 40 rowdy students. teachers are overlooked EVERYWHERE in the world! moreover, in the chilean public school system, teachers rotate from class to class, not students. there aren´t enough funds or resources to provide a classroom for each teacher. i, however, will have my own english sala because it was mandated by the ministry of education. one requirement the participating schools had to fulfill was provide the english-speaking volunteers a classroom of their own. i feel pretty bad about this, but what can i do? undoubtedly, this is going to make my job a lot easier...in addition to the fact that i will be teaching 20 students at a time, instead of all 40.
in the classes i´ve visited this week (along with many more to come at the end of this week), ruth, my coteacher, has had the students individually stand up and introduce themselves to me. each would repeat the script, "hello, my name is __________. nice to meet you," and i would respond with the obvious "nice to meet you too." as redundant as this might sound to us angloparlantes, this is nonetheless such good practice for my students because i´ve realized how poor their english speaking skills are and that they have little confidence in speaking english. and their comprehension skills? even worse as you can imagine. i am adopting an ENGLISH ONLY attitude with all my students, in which i only speak to them in english, even if they speak to me in spanish and don´t understand the majority of what i am saying. during the question/answer session each class has had with me, i rely heavily on gestures and drawing pictures on the board to make myself understood, which i gladly can say has been really successful! it´s very challenging i have to say, and i´m sure even more so next week once i start teaching on my own, but i am confident that they will get the hang of things. starting day 1 next week, i will fervently demand, ENGLISH IN (the classroom), and SPANISH OUT. i am determined to improve my students´english oral and comprehension skills...and i am damn excited to start.
Hoy día, agradezco a (today, i am grateful for)...
mis alumnos (my students) for all the lovely cards and posters and pictures and constructions they´ve made for me, welcoming me to the school. all my student´s besitos. their enthusiasm for learning english! making myself understood, speaking in only english to them! my kind and warm colleagues. my amazing host sister/coteacher, who i absolutely love! she always has a smile on her face, even when she´s exhausted. my host sister's support of my relationship with edgar, and understanding my need to talk to him every day. for edgar, and his love for me. i am sooo glad he is so positive and is doing so well! and seeing how productive he´s been! all our phone conversations and feeling more confident in strength of our relationship. the lovely presentation ceremony the school held to welcome me to the school and introduce me to the students. the welcome snack the teachers planned for me today in the teacher´s lounge. FEELING SO WELCOMED! talking to adrianne on gchat the other day. receiving an email from june. hanging out with the other 4 gringuitos of chillán 2 days ago. seeing jason! la fiesta del chivo! a "that´s so raven" by one of my cute chubby students. being overfed. palta (avocado). too much tea and coffee (i am served friggin 5 times a day!). drinking the tap water here and feeling okay. my oh so kind 70 yr old host dad and the funny way that he repeats things. properly using the word "fome" in conversation. speaking spanish.
i haven´t started teaching my own classes yet; this week is reserved for observing my coteacher´s (who is also my host sister btw) english classes. and good lord does she have a lot of classes that she teaches! she works about 45 hours a week!! she teaches multiple grades, primarily 5th-8th grades, but she also teaches 2 3rd grade classes, 2 1st grade classes, 1 2nd grade class and a kindergarten class. she is seriously mi heroina. in fact today, she didn´t even have a lunch hour! during the normal lunch hour, she had to teach the 2nd grade class. she literally only had 10 minutes to eat her lunch before she was off to teach another class of 40 rowdy students. teachers are overlooked EVERYWHERE in the world! moreover, in the chilean public school system, teachers rotate from class to class, not students. there aren´t enough funds or resources to provide a classroom for each teacher. i, however, will have my own english sala because it was mandated by the ministry of education. one requirement the participating schools had to fulfill was provide the english-speaking volunteers a classroom of their own. i feel pretty bad about this, but what can i do? undoubtedly, this is going to make my job a lot easier...in addition to the fact that i will be teaching 20 students at a time, instead of all 40.
in the classes i´ve visited this week (along with many more to come at the end of this week), ruth, my coteacher, has had the students individually stand up and introduce themselves to me. each would repeat the script, "hello, my name is __________. nice to meet you," and i would respond with the obvious "nice to meet you too." as redundant as this might sound to us angloparlantes, this is nonetheless such good practice for my students because i´ve realized how poor their english speaking skills are and that they have little confidence in speaking english. and their comprehension skills? even worse as you can imagine. i am adopting an ENGLISH ONLY attitude with all my students, in which i only speak to them in english, even if they speak to me in spanish and don´t understand the majority of what i am saying. during the question/answer session each class has had with me, i rely heavily on gestures and drawing pictures on the board to make myself understood, which i gladly can say has been really successful! it´s very challenging i have to say, and i´m sure even more so next week once i start teaching on my own, but i am confident that they will get the hang of things. starting day 1 next week, i will fervently demand, ENGLISH IN (the classroom), and SPANISH OUT. i am determined to improve my students´english oral and comprehension skills...and i am damn excited to start.
Hoy día, agradezco a (today, i am grateful for)...
mis alumnos (my students) for all the lovely cards and posters and pictures and constructions they´ve made for me, welcoming me to the school. all my student´s besitos. their enthusiasm for learning english! making myself understood, speaking in only english to them! my kind and warm colleagues. my amazing host sister/coteacher, who i absolutely love! she always has a smile on her face, even when she´s exhausted. my host sister's support of my relationship with edgar, and understanding my need to talk to him every day. for edgar, and his love for me. i am sooo glad he is so positive and is doing so well! and seeing how productive he´s been! all our phone conversations and feeling more confident in strength of our relationship. the lovely presentation ceremony the school held to welcome me to the school and introduce me to the students. the welcome snack the teachers planned for me today in the teacher´s lounge. FEELING SO WELCOMED! talking to adrianne on gchat the other day. receiving an email from june. hanging out with the other 4 gringuitos of chillán 2 days ago. seeing jason! la fiesta del chivo! a "that´s so raven" by one of my cute chubby students. being overfed. palta (avocado). too much tea and coffee (i am served friggin 5 times a day!). drinking the tap water here and feeling okay. my oh so kind 70 yr old host dad and the funny way that he repeats things. properly using the word "fome" in conversation. speaking spanish.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Let´s learn English!
About 40 of us Inglés Abre Puertas volunteers in our corny but snazzy "Let´s learn English" tshirts.
Chillán
Por fin estoy en Chillán, my home for the next 8 months. Yesterday, I arrived with 4 other WorldTeach volunteers by bus from Santiago, which took about 6 hours. right when we got to the bus terminal, we were met by 3 nice ladies, one who was the school directora of one of my group member´s school. they told us that they were going to take us straight to la escuela república italia, an escuela básica (kinder-8th grades), where they were going to hold a ceremony for us! we were stunned and in no mood to meet a ton of people because we were so tired. the ministry of education warned us that this might happen.
we got to the school, put away all our heavy luggage in the office, and waited for about a half an hour for the ceremony to begin. meanwhile, i started to realize what an event this was going to be. for one, there was a journalist in the office with us, talking to us for a bit. she was going to write an article about us in the local paper. we also met some of our directores of our school, which translates to school principals. some head honchos also came, like el jefe of all the schools and la directora of the department of education here in chillán. not to mention, everyone seemed to be wearing their finest attire. meanwhile, i was wearing black sweatbants and a tshirt with robots on it. i came to my senses and decided that i should at least change into jeans.
then it was finally time to enter the auditorium. we ended up walking down the aisle to the tune of that sting song that goes "on the fields of..." (i was never quite sure how he finished that lyric). and there were photographers galore! i´ve never had so many photos taken of me, save for my sorority days. they sat us right in the front row, treating us as the honored guests as we were. it was so amusing! there were speeches welcoming us, and some of the students of the school danced the cueca, a traditional chilean dance, for us and even invited a couple of us to join them on stage. thank goodness i was saved from the embarrassment. it looked really fun though.
then there was this formal meeting of our host families and coteachers, in which us 5 were individually called onto the stage and were then joined by them. luckily for me, my host mom/sister is also my coteacher (she prefers being my sister bc she´d feel old if i called her my mom, although she´s in her mid 40s). of course, more pictures were then taken. after the ceremony, i was met by a throng of students who i soon realized were some of my future students! they were so cute and so excited to meet me! i took some pictures with them, which i´ll hopefully post soon. one asked me how to say 5000 in english and then another asked how to say it in japanese, easily fooled by this asian face. i feel like this won´t be the only time.
my family is sooo nice btw. i pretty much hung out with my 70+ host dad (host sister´s dad) all day today, whose birthday coincidentally falls the day after mine. i foresee a joint birthday party coming up. i had to take care of some important tramites (errands), ie. register my visa and apply for an id card, and he accompanied me and showed me where to do all that. fortunately, vivo cerca del centro de chillán, where all the important buildings are and the fruit market. and omg fruit´s so cheap here! we bought 2 kilos of grapes for like 2 bucks! unheard of in the states! there´s no surprise though of course since they´re so plentiful here. and chillán is such a cool city! it has all the luxuries of a big city but also has that small town feel. i don´t know my way around just yet, but i don´t think it´s hard, even for directionally challenged me.
i start school on monday, which i´m really excited about! next week, i´ll just be observing classes, helping out my coteacher in the same classroom, but the following week i´ll be on my own. i´ll be in charge of like 12 classes a week! though it´s more like 24 classes bc we´re dividing each class for 45 minutes at a time. i´ll be teaching grades 5th-8th, which has 3 classes per grade, about 40 students per class.
we got to the school, put away all our heavy luggage in the office, and waited for about a half an hour for the ceremony to begin. meanwhile, i started to realize what an event this was going to be. for one, there was a journalist in the office with us, talking to us for a bit. she was going to write an article about us in the local paper. we also met some of our directores of our school, which translates to school principals. some head honchos also came, like el jefe of all the schools and la directora of the department of education here in chillán. not to mention, everyone seemed to be wearing their finest attire. meanwhile, i was wearing black sweatbants and a tshirt with robots on it. i came to my senses and decided that i should at least change into jeans.
then it was finally time to enter the auditorium. we ended up walking down the aisle to the tune of that sting song that goes "on the fields of..." (i was never quite sure how he finished that lyric). and there were photographers galore! i´ve never had so many photos taken of me, save for my sorority days. they sat us right in the front row, treating us as the honored guests as we were. it was so amusing! there were speeches welcoming us, and some of the students of the school danced the cueca, a traditional chilean dance, for us and even invited a couple of us to join them on stage. thank goodness i was saved from the embarrassment. it looked really fun though.
then there was this formal meeting of our host families and coteachers, in which us 5 were individually called onto the stage and were then joined by them. luckily for me, my host mom/sister is also my coteacher (she prefers being my sister bc she´d feel old if i called her my mom, although she´s in her mid 40s). of course, more pictures were then taken. after the ceremony, i was met by a throng of students who i soon realized were some of my future students! they were so cute and so excited to meet me! i took some pictures with them, which i´ll hopefully post soon. one asked me how to say 5000 in english and then another asked how to say it in japanese, easily fooled by this asian face. i feel like this won´t be the only time.
my family is sooo nice btw. i pretty much hung out with my 70+ host dad (host sister´s dad) all day today, whose birthday coincidentally falls the day after mine. i foresee a joint birthday party coming up. i had to take care of some important tramites (errands), ie. register my visa and apply for an id card, and he accompanied me and showed me where to do all that. fortunately, vivo cerca del centro de chillán, where all the important buildings are and the fruit market. and omg fruit´s so cheap here! we bought 2 kilos of grapes for like 2 bucks! unheard of in the states! there´s no surprise though of course since they´re so plentiful here. and chillán is such a cool city! it has all the luxuries of a big city but also has that small town feel. i don´t know my way around just yet, but i don´t think it´s hard, even for directionally challenged me.
i start school on monday, which i´m really excited about! next week, i´ll just be observing classes, helping out my coteacher in the same classroom, but the following week i´ll be on my own. i´ll be in charge of like 12 classes a week! though it´s more like 24 classes bc we´re dividing each class for 45 minutes at a time. i´ll be teaching grades 5th-8th, which has 3 classes per grade, about 40 students per class.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
YES, I'm finally in Chile!
hello amigos!
it's been a long time coming since i've created this blog and updated on my time in chile, but i've just been suuuuper busy with orientation. my first week here, i was holed up in a room pretty much all day for 8 days for worldteach orientation. it was undoubtedly helpful for most of us newbie teachers, but as you can imagine, i was pretty exhausted every day. now i'm in a different hostel from the first, doing my second round of orientation with the ministry of education. we go from 9-6 every day, which yes, sucks. i just want to go to chillan already! i wish i could finally be settled! oh well, i'm having a good time though nonetheless. it's been so nice bonding with the other worldteach volunteers because we're becoming one happy family. there are about 30 other volunteers that i recently met during the ministry orientation, but us worldteachers have become quite an exclusive bunch. frankly, i'm all socialed out, and i'm just concerned about getting closer with my fellow worldteach folks. we'll be seeing more of each other after all.
i haven't seen much of santiago unfortunately since my days have been pretty packed, but we get weekends off! but from what i've seen, santiago is quite a bacan (cool) city. it's friggin huge, and there are so many different comunas with its own personality. interestingly enough, there are quite a few chinese restaurants here and even japanese restaurants. i tried one chinese restaurant and wasn't very satisfied, but i appreciated the effort. from what i've observed walking in the streets, there is a small population of asian folks here in santiago. it's always funny when i see an asian person on the street and she sees me and we immediately lock eyes and bond for those 5 seconds.
i think this weekend, i and some of the ladies in the group are going to head to valparaiso and vina del mar, which is about an hour away and by the coast. one of pablo neruda's house is there, so i'm excited to visit. he also has a house here in the city, but i still have yet go see it. i still have 2 weeks left in santiago, so i have time. plus, i'm most likely going to return to santiago and the surrounding area during my break.
so let's see, what have i learned about chilean culture so far? chileans have their own spanish and are very proud of it. it's kind of annoying to have to learn a different sort of spanish, but at the same time, it's kind of fun to use their slang. a lot of people smoke here too, and it's allowed in pretty much all establishments. i went to an electronic dance club several nights ago, and i just came home wreaking of cigarettes since everyone was dancing and smoking around me. also their fruit juices are reallly sickeningly sweet and concentrated. i'm not a huge fan.
this wasn't much of an interesting entry, but i'll be sure to update more later. i realized i'm not much of a blogger, so i might just switch to sending emails out or something.
it's been a long time coming since i've created this blog and updated on my time in chile, but i've just been suuuuper busy with orientation. my first week here, i was holed up in a room pretty much all day for 8 days for worldteach orientation. it was undoubtedly helpful for most of us newbie teachers, but as you can imagine, i was pretty exhausted every day. now i'm in a different hostel from the first, doing my second round of orientation with the ministry of education. we go from 9-6 every day, which yes, sucks. i just want to go to chillan already! i wish i could finally be settled! oh well, i'm having a good time though nonetheless. it's been so nice bonding with the other worldteach volunteers because we're becoming one happy family. there are about 30 other volunteers that i recently met during the ministry orientation, but us worldteachers have become quite an exclusive bunch. frankly, i'm all socialed out, and i'm just concerned about getting closer with my fellow worldteach folks. we'll be seeing more of each other after all.
i haven't seen much of santiago unfortunately since my days have been pretty packed, but we get weekends off! but from what i've seen, santiago is quite a bacan (cool) city. it's friggin huge, and there are so many different comunas with its own personality. interestingly enough, there are quite a few chinese restaurants here and even japanese restaurants. i tried one chinese restaurant and wasn't very satisfied, but i appreciated the effort. from what i've observed walking in the streets, there is a small population of asian folks here in santiago. it's always funny when i see an asian person on the street and she sees me and we immediately lock eyes and bond for those 5 seconds.
i think this weekend, i and some of the ladies in the group are going to head to valparaiso and vina del mar, which is about an hour away and by the coast. one of pablo neruda's house is there, so i'm excited to visit. he also has a house here in the city, but i still have yet go see it. i still have 2 weeks left in santiago, so i have time. plus, i'm most likely going to return to santiago and the surrounding area during my break.
so let's see, what have i learned about chilean culture so far? chileans have their own spanish and are very proud of it. it's kind of annoying to have to learn a different sort of spanish, but at the same time, it's kind of fun to use their slang. a lot of people smoke here too, and it's allowed in pretty much all establishments. i went to an electronic dance club several nights ago, and i just came home wreaking of cigarettes since everyone was dancing and smoking around me. also their fruit juices are reallly sickeningly sweet and concentrated. i'm not a huge fan.
this wasn't much of an interesting entry, but i'll be sure to update more later. i realized i'm not much of a blogger, so i might just switch to sending emails out or something.
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