Now, Back at School 3

April 1st, 2008
Third day

Finally today, I arrived to the school with no problems. I was not lost at all. Because of that, I was really happy and I felt that it would be a great day.

Something I did not like very much, was that the little students are learning how to repeat, instead of thinking in the answers. The clearest point is that the kids answer “I am very fine, thank you” even though they might feel sad or bad. So, they are not really thinking in what they are answering, they just repeat it. Moreover, there is something that is pretty ambiguous for I do not know if it is good, bad or both. This is that, for example, she teaches in the three 2° grades the same. It may be good because they are in the same level. It may be bad, because she does not consider the different students in the different classes. The students are treated as objects with this methodology, because, as I said before, she does not consider what every single students can bring or what things can they come up with.

Anyway, it was a short day because the small kids I am with went home earlier today. The reason for this was that the elementary teachers had a meeting. I was pretty relaxed and we had a lot of time to talk and to prepare materials such as drawings for the English room. During the talk, I got to know Ximena, my teacher, better. She told me a little more about her personal life, her education, how she got to be a teacher and some things about the school. That was really good for me, because at that moment I did not really trust at her. In other words, I did not have much confidence to tell her my opinions, but after the long conversation I got more confidence.

Although I had only two classes, today was a really good day because I had more time to get to know Ximena and to discuss some things about the school. I hope Thursday to be a great day too.

Now, Back at School 2

March 27th, 2008
Second day

Today was really exhausting. In my school, three teachers had to go to Fundación Belen Educa to attend some kind of seminary. Because of this, the rest of my group had to be teaching alone. That was not my case, so I decided to ask Ximena if I could go and help Katherine. She said “no problem”

However I helped Kathy, I had some classes with Ximena. I noticed how she makes every class a sort of competition because she gives a sticker for every student as a prize for the winning row. Moreover, she prepares funny and relevant material for the kids to learn nouns (toys), colors and numbers. Also, she uses body language so the kids can remember the words when they see certain movement. Another useful activity is to ask certain questions every day, such as What day is today? And what’s the date? I think this is a very good technique because the kids will always remember these certain questions and answers.

Although the good things I like about Ximena as a teacher, I don’t like some things about her. For example, many times she has severe reactions to some kids’ behavior, such as kicking them out and even making fun of them in front of everybody. She also has the misconception of school as only existing for students to study and not as an institution that creates a culture and has many relationships within the people inside of it. Ximena almost never treats the kids with some love.

As far as I’ve seen, the school is really good because the small kids really learn. It also accomplishes its purpose of helping people because it provides good meals to the students. Another good thing, in my opinion, is the time for English. This is only one pedagogical hour, twice or three times a week. In this way, kids don’t get really bored with more time doing the same.

My experience with Katherine in 5°c was really terrifying. When I arrived to the classroom, Kathy was standing there in silence as hoping for a miracle to happen. All the students were making noise and standing without even noticing we were there. I did not know how to start, how to tell them to be quiet and how to start working. Kathy started handing out some activities and I shouted for them to listen the instructions and the explanation of why Miss Rosita was not there. To conclude, I must tell you that it was scary and exhausting and luckily we made them sing and revise the numbers.

As I said before, this is only the beginning and I’m looking forward for more.

Now, Back at School

March 25th, 2008
First day
I had such a strange beginning this day. First of all, I was extremely nervous and anxious because of today’s experience. Secondly, I have never had such a hard time getting to an address. Thirdly, because of my bad luck my trousers got torn in a leg.

I finally arrived at 9.15 to the school and my group was already there. I signed my arriving time paper and we talk to Miss Nirmia. She told us to wait until the break and we were leaded to the Teachers Room. During the break, we met Miss Rosita, Miss Ximena and Mr. Cesar. Then we were introduced to the person we will be working with, in my case Miss Ximena.

Ximena is an English teacher and we will be working with primary students, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. Honestly, that was not what I wanted. I really wanted to be with older students. Anyway, at the end of the day, I realized that it was a really good experience because it is amazing to see kids so little learning a new language. And they do it very well.

About what I saw of the teacher, I must say that, in general, I liked it. She has very good ways of making the kids quiet by singing songs as “shh, shh, baby sleeping” and “twinkle, twinkle little star” and you can see that the kids remember and actually learn English. They know things as animals, what’s the weather like, the date and classroom material. Something I did not like is that she told a 2° grade student to go out because he answered “manzana” when she asked “what is the month”. Sometimes, teachers kick students out so as to avoid the problem and think in a solution. By kicking this student out, Ximena kicked the problem out.

The school has a great structure and infrastructure. They have a special room for English and the students go there to practice the four language skills. There it is a video and TV set, radios, books and they work by groups in circle tables. Every student has the chance to go there. Teachers (not only the English teachers) were very kind in general; they said good morning and treated us very well.

This first day was an extremely good day, but it is only the beginning. I am certain that in some months there will be many changes in me and in what will be my opinion about this school. This is why I am really looking forward to the following days of my first experience to see and learn more about this particular school’s culture.

Becoming Jane

Yes Nato, you will see that I am very into this. The truth is that, as I told you, for me Ms. Jane Austen is the greatest woman ever for all the things she accomplished. Nowadays, everybody can write a novel a story or anything, but, in the time Jane Austen lived, writing was something that few people, actually man, could do. What is most interesting about this is that she did it. And she did it perfectly. She wrote six of the greatest novels in English and you can say this of very few authors.

Unfortunately, I do not have enough words in this language to express what she means to me. Actually, she is one of my inspirations to get better everyday! It was amazing to watch the movie Becoming Jane and see that she could not be with her greatest love and yet she experienced love with her body, heart and soul.

I recommend everybody to watch this movie and you'll see that many of their characters are taken from her life.

Do you think Lady Catherine de Bourgh is like Lady Gresham from the movie? I really think so (answer in the comments)