This blog is coming a little late, but the past week has been nonstop and our wifi at home is a little temperamental so this is the first opportunity I have had to really sit down and write a little about my experiences in Chile thus far!
Let me take you back to Monday, our first day of school. Following a tour of the Thomas Jefferson School, the director of the school informed me that the 4th and 7th grade math teacher, who I was assigned to work with, was in the hospital and would remain so for the next several weeks. I got a little panicked, but my anxieties were quickly alleviated when she explained that I would instead be working with Mr. Chris...a spanish speaking gringo?! Jackpot! This was going to be easier than I thought...
It turns out, however, that Mr. Chris is a mechanical engineer student, and he was fully relying on me to handle the situation. Which I suppose makes sense, as I am a teacher...or so my degree tells me. Needless to say, the first day was crazy! My new motto? Fake it until you make it.
I barely speak Spanish, I knew none of the students names, and had little idea of what exactly in terms of content I should be teaching. Can you say, substitute teacher to the extreme? The classroom environment at TJS is already much more relaxed than I am accustomed to and I spent the majority of my day just trying to get them to stop running wildly around the classroom...by the end of the day I wasn't even sure if this was a reasonable expectation. Maybe Chilean students just do not sit during class?
By Friday things were far less chaotic now that I am a familiar face and each day I spend at the school gets easier and easier the more I get to know my students. Because all in all, kids are kids.
I have been working with the administration of the school so I am better able to plan activities and lessons for the students. My fourth graders began a unit on creating tables and various graphs to organize data. And my spanish has definitely come in handy, I am hardly fluent but I have been able to understand the students questions and problems and they can usually make out my spanglish as they call it!
The school here is more like a family and so I have found that building a closer, more personal relationship with my students has definitely helped the students to respect me more (especially those preadolescent 7th graders!) I have made a point to set aside time in every class, each day, when we can just to share our lives with one another. They love learning all about life in Louisiana, I've showed them pictures of tiger stadium and various LA landmarks! Next week we are going to keep track of the weather and rainfall in Baton Rouge and compare it with Concepcion using a line graph.
I am looking forward to a much smoother 2nd week, and in the mean time I am going to enjoy my weekend with my incredible host family! I'll leave you with a few pictures of my adorable (and wild) students! Chao!
(Students creating their own surveys to collect data...now that´s cooperative group work if I ever saw any!)
Let me take you back to Monday, our first day of school. Following a tour of the Thomas Jefferson School, the director of the school informed me that the 4th and 7th grade math teacher, who I was assigned to work with, was in the hospital and would remain so for the next several weeks. I got a little panicked, but my anxieties were quickly alleviated when she explained that I would instead be working with Mr. Chris...a spanish speaking gringo?! Jackpot! This was going to be easier than I thought...
It turns out, however, that Mr. Chris is a mechanical engineer student, and he was fully relying on me to handle the situation. Which I suppose makes sense, as I am a teacher...or so my degree tells me. Needless to say, the first day was crazy! My new motto? Fake it until you make it.
I barely speak Spanish, I knew none of the students names, and had little idea of what exactly in terms of content I should be teaching. Can you say, substitute teacher to the extreme? The classroom environment at TJS is already much more relaxed than I am accustomed to and I spent the majority of my day just trying to get them to stop running wildly around the classroom...by the end of the day I wasn't even sure if this was a reasonable expectation. Maybe Chilean students just do not sit during class?
By Friday things were far less chaotic now that I am a familiar face and each day I spend at the school gets easier and easier the more I get to know my students. Because all in all, kids are kids.
I have been working with the administration of the school so I am better able to plan activities and lessons for the students. My fourth graders began a unit on creating tables and various graphs to organize data. And my spanish has definitely come in handy, I am hardly fluent but I have been able to understand the students questions and problems and they can usually make out my spanglish as they call it!
The school here is more like a family and so I have found that building a closer, more personal relationship with my students has definitely helped the students to respect me more (especially those preadolescent 7th graders!) I have made a point to set aside time in every class, each day, when we can just to share our lives with one another. They love learning all about life in Louisiana, I've showed them pictures of tiger stadium and various LA landmarks! Next week we are going to keep track of the weather and rainfall in Baton Rouge and compare it with Concepcion using a line graph.
I am looking forward to a much smoother 2nd week, and in the mean time I am going to enjoy my weekend with my incredible host family! I'll leave you with a few pictures of my adorable (and wild) students! Chao!
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