-
-
One of my sophomore classes on my birthday!
-
-
Mother’s Day celebration…the boys were fantastic! They got all fancy and tray-passed drinks and food the whole time….always with headphones!
-
-
Día de los Alumnos! A fun afternoon of activities and games for all the students to enjoy in celebration of the school’s anniversary.
-
-
English Spelling Bee..organized by a neighboring school, in which they asked me to be a judge with two of the other volunteers. It was a great event! They had special music and in the background you see all of the participants (5th-8th grade).
-
-
Volunteers de Arica!!! (missing 2)
-
-
My debate students!!!!
-
-
The most recent exhibition that my school set up in the downtown. It was to celebrate 7 de junio- celebration of the Battle of Arica when Arica became Chilean territory
I don’t know how I am going to catch you up on all that has happened in the last month or so! I have so much to say, so I think it is best if I break it up into two blogs. This one will focus on school and everything that has been going on with my volunteer/teaching duties. The second will be an attempt to share about all the exciting activities that have been going on from day to day.
Okay, so school! I work at a school called Colegio Integrado Eduardo Frei Montalva. It is a public school located near the downtown in Arica. I teach high school: freshman, sophomores, and seniors. Teaching here in Chile is an experience I could have never been fully prepared for. My first reaction was “what did I get myself into??” I felt as if everything I have been taught and all the strategies and skills necessary for being a good teacher were not at all applicable to this situation. I felt that all I had been prepared to do was teach to an ideal classroom; a classroom full of students who came to class punctually everyday, fully prepared, and ready to learn. Students that listened while the teacher was talking, politely raised their hand when they wanted to speak, maintained a positive attitude, participated in class, and always gave their best.
The situation that I find myself in on a daily basis is not anything like what I imagined a “should” be like. The classroom environment doesn’t support learning in any way I felt like it should. Daily norms include: cell phones ringing, students answering them, talking back, shouting out/complaining, sleeping, multiple conversations during instruction, unprepared (if 10 out of 30 students bring their books to class, it is a miracle! And there is always at least 4 students who never bring something to write with), showing up really late to class or not coming at all, always standing up and moving around (I have only seen note-passing twice because if a student has something to tell another student, he/she will just walk up to the person they want to talk to and hold the conversation in the middle of class), doodling on the desks, painting nails, applying make-up, playing games, listening to music (on headphones or out loud), whistling, throwing trash at each other or on the ground, and I experienced breaking up a fight for the first time last week! And I won’t even begin to quote the things my students like to yell out during class (because if there grade was solely based on inappropriate English words and phrases, they would all be passing!!) Rules and consequences don’t phase these students (at least they don’t phase most of them). There is a lack of respect for authority, school property, and occasionally other students. The language barrier is also a huge issue because, although I teach English, there is a strong necessity to know Spanish to explain more complicated lessons, teach important vocabulary, and converse with my students, parents, and colleagues outside of class.
The school environment is also very different than I am used to. There is no such thing as coming to school early on a regular basis or staying after school to prepare for the next day. When the bell rings, everyone is out the door. Grading papers and assignments happens during class time. School randomly will be let out early (half-day) at least a couple times a month due to a parade or something that is happening outside of school. Permission slips are hardly ever required to leave campus (the other day we took 6 classes of students off campus to go watch a play downtown, no permission slips or extra guardians required, which I have to admit, it was actually nice to not have to worry about that). If students or teachers participate in a parade or any event off-campus (even if it was only for an hour), they are usually able to go home and not required to return to school for the remainder of the day. Initially, I felt a strong sense of disorganization and unpreparedness because everything is last-minute and subject to change. I would prepare for my lessons and what I wanted to teach, and then the class would be cancelled, school let out early, or some other occurence would happen and all my efforts were useless. But I have realized that a lot of the reason I felt that way has a lot to do with my personality. I prefer things to be extremely organized; I always want to know what is going on in advance and I like to stick to a schedule, so I know what to expect. This is a giant cultural difference. It has been a big part of my transition, and now I am more able deal with the “daily surprises,” as I like to call them (even though they are no longer surprises. I often find myself mentally saying, “that’s Chile” or “ohhh Chile!”).
After saying all that, I am happy to say that I still LOVE to teach!! I experience days where I am very discouraged and don’t feel like I am making any sort of difference. I often feel very limited in what I can do to teach and reach out to my students. I often feel incapable because of the language barrier, but then I think that little things such as smiling and saying “hello,” or even the fact that I show up every day says something beyond words. I continue to be myself: I show up early to school (that thirty minutes before class is time for me to mentally prepare for my day), I plan outside of class, I think about my students and how I can better teach them, and I am in the process of decorating my classroom! I have relaxed my sense of urgency and sticking to a set plan, but still keep a pretty consistent routine in the classroom so the students know what to expect (greetings, warm-up, lesson for the day, activities from the book or one I have created).
I also want to say that I adore my students! They are so sweet and caring. Even at the high school age, they love to say hi to me inside and outside of school (Arica is pretty small, so I often see students outside of the school). It always makes me smile when I see my students.
I mentioned earlier that I initially felt like I had not been prepared for a situation like this and that my education was not applicable, BUT that is not at all true. I may not have all the same available resources and the ideal classroom, but as time goes on, I realize that many things that I have been taught continue to be very applicable. Yes, many situations I have found myself in are not ones I learned how to deal with in my schooling, but that is the case with most life experiences. It is more about applying the skills I have developed during education and student teaching, and making the most out of every situation. I have learned to be very patient and apply wait time in every one of my classes (wait time is where the teacher waits for his/her students to situate themselves and turn their attention to the teacher. Wait time in Chile in MUCH longer, but it works for the majority of the time). Also, positive reinforcement has become one of my most recent applied strategies. I found in the beginning when I was very frustrated with the students, I was not being encouraging or recognizing the positive things in my classroom. I was so wrapped up in confiscating headphones, shaking my head at inappropriate classroom behavior, going around asking each individual student to open their notebook (instead of recognizing the ones and thanking them for following directions), etc. There is a time and place to address specific behaviors, but I was spending way to much energy and time on ones that were sucking the energy out of me and leaving nothing left in me to appreciate the students who were working and paying attention. (I still confiscate headphones though!) Also, SDAIE (Specially Designed Academic Instruction In English) strategies are being applied to the MAX!! In California, you may have a good handful of students in your class who need extra modification and specific teaching strategies applied throughout the lesson because English is their second language and you want to make sure that the lessons are just as accessible to them as they are to the rest of your students. Well, here in Chile, all of my students are second language learners and I am having to apply these strategies like crazy! Everyday is full of repetition, speaking slow and very clearly, building on prior-knowledge, using novelty to create emphasis, modeling activities, and using applicable and real-life examples to create a successful learning environment for my students.
My co-teacher, Patricia, does a great job of teaching to the students. She uses repetition, frequently gives examples, and she always models what she expects the students to do. She encourages me often, and gives me great tips to improve my teaching. I am so thankful that she is my co-teacher, and this experience would NOT be possible without her.
Okay…so what have I done so far with the students?? I have had such a great three months so far! First of all, anytime there is a reason to throw a class party, they will. I have participated in 5 class parties so far! I had a welcoming party, a party for my birthday, a party for my Patricia’s (my co-teacher) birthday, a party for Mother’s Day, and a party for students day/Anniversary of the school. They love to celebrate life and celebrate people. They like to go all out with snacks and decorating…and there is always a beautiful cake!
One of my responsibilities here as a volunteer is to form and be in charge of a debate team. My co-teacher and I recruited 6 students to participate in the annual debate competition. For the last couple months, we have been working with them after school to compete in the competition. It was such a rewarding experience to work with 6 of the best English students. I really got to know each one of them and developed a special relationship with them. Just the fact that I know their first and last name (2 out of their 4 names), is better than the majority of my students. (My goal is to learn most of my students names by the end of the year, but as of now, I probably only know about 40 students names…it is really hard!) Anyway, the competition was held about two weeks ago. Although we did not move on to the next round, my students did such a fabulous job!!! I was very proud of them!
Other events that has taken place are the book fair, día de los alumnos (Students Day), spelling bee (in which I was a judge), parades (one of them I marched in to represent our school), and various exhibitions. It has been very eventful year so far and I have loved being a part of my school. I failed to mention earlier that from the moment I entered the campus on my first day, I have felt very accepted and so warmly welcomed by all of the staff. They expressed such appreciation that I would come to teach at their school. I am equally grateful to be at the school and am soaking up this experience because it is definitely one of a kind!
Here is a link to video that was made after our visit from the regional head of Education in Arica:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl7YtjpCSAc
XOXO
Un gran abrazo y besito!!!
andraspotlight 