I know I'm very far behind in my updates... I'm sorry! This week has just been kind of crazy. I'm hoping to catch up on all of the days I've missed today. Here we go!
Tuesday was an interesting and educational day for me. Not that every day isn't educational, mind you, but this was more hands on learning as opposed to sitting in a classroom learning. I finally got to start my Service Learning internship out in a neighborhood called Polígono. It's about a 20 minute bus ride from my house, but it literally drops me off right outside the school. Since it was the first day, Yuki (my professor) went with me to make sure that I would know how to get there and to make sure everything went smoothly. She showed me where to get off and how to get into the building. She introduced me to the principal and then headed on her way. The principal is SUPER nice. He introduced me to the first teacher I'll be working with (I can't remember her name right now...) and pointed out the immigrant kids to me. In her class (a "3rd grade" class according to the Spain system, so they are 8 to 9 years old) there are 2 students whose parents are from the Middle East and at least 2 students who's parents are gypsies (out of 15 students in the class). On top of that, there are a couple students who have learning disabilities. I've always known that going to school in the Bellevue School District spoiled me, but I am realizing how spoiled I've been. Overall, the class is actually very well behaved. Most of them had their homework done, they listened to the teacher, and were actually paying attention. The teacher is super nice and let them ask me questions at the beginning of class. They asked a lot about my family in the United States (not my host family), they asked if I like Michael Jackson (I thought that was really funny...), and they asked about where I'm living here, etc. I was really surprised, but none of them asked if I had a boyfriend. Usually when I meet little kids that is one of their first questions. Once introductions were out of the way, the teacher let me run the first lesson! It was really easy because all I had to do was say a number (1-10) and one of the primary colors. Their job was to color the right number the right color. It was a lot of fun. They really are very sweet.
If the 3rd graders were sweet, the two 5th grade classes I'm working with later in the day are... not. Well, let me modify that: they are sweet individually, but all together they are rather scary. In every way that the 3rd graders were good, the 5th graders were the opposite. Few had their homework done before class and even fewer listened to the teacher or paid attention. I was shocked at how little (or no) respect the students have for the teacher. That is something you would never see in the United States (at least not with the whole class). Each student just sort of did what he/she wanted. In order to get the attention of the class, the teacher (different teacher than the 3rd grade one, his name is Manuel) had to yell at least 3 or 4 times and/or bang on the desk. If a teacher did that in the U.S., it would only have to happen once, but here, it happened every time he wanted the attention of the class. It was scary. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about working with the whole class... I guess I'll have to toughen up! (Scared? You should be! :P )
Again, in ways that I really liked the first teacher, I haven't quite decided how I feel about the second one. He is really nice, but in some regards I can understand why the students don't respect him. He just expects respect and doesn't do much to earn it. I know with some students it's hard to "earn" their respect, but it doesn't seem like he even tries. There are a number of "trouble" kids in the first of the two 5th grade classes and I feel like he could be doing more to figure out how to reach them. I'm making it my goal to figure out how to get their attention. I don't intend to focus solely on them, but the other students seem to at least do their work before disrespecting the teacher.
The other thing I noticed was the way they teach English here. I'm not sure I completely understand how it works. In the 3rd grade class it made sense to me (colors, numbers, etc.), but in the 5th grade class... I just don't get it. Maybe it just seems like they should be at a higher level by the time they are 10 or 11, or maybe it's just because I never learned English as a second language and I learned Spanish very differently than most. It just seemed odd to me. I would be interested in talking to someone who is in charge of curriculum and find out how they are planning the curriculum. Granted it's only been one day, but I don't understand what the overall objectives are for the year. What are they supposed to have learned by the time the year is over?
I work from 11am-2pm every Tuesday (I'm required to work 3 hour each week for my class and I only have time on Tuesday mornings) and by the time 2pm came around, I was ready for a nap! I totally would have napped on my 20 minute bus ride home, except there was a bee on the bus. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but I was terrified! And the stupid thing wouldn't fly out the door! It just keep buzzing around my window! It was awful! Finally my bus stop came up and I all but ran off the bus. I didn't have my "parents" there to protect me with the flyswatters from the scary bees!
I got home, ate lunch, worked on my Philosophy paper (that was due the next day) and rested a bit before it was time to go back to the Fundación for class. My lazy Tuesdays are officially not lazy anymore! I'm going to get home and be in desperate need of rest before class! At 5:30pm I headed off to class. I was there rather early (which I prefer) so I brought my book and read until it was time for class. Class went by fairly quickly and before I knew it, it was time to head home again. Tuesday night really wasn't that eventful because I literally just worked on my essay and then once I finished it, watched "Homicidios" with my "mom". And then went to bed. See? Not very eventful. But I feel like my day activities make up for the boring-ness, yes? :P
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