San Marcos

First things first, I never thought I’d feel homesick, but getting an e-mail that your grandma has passed away, makes you want to go home. That’s all I am going to say about that, since this isn’t about my family….

So yesterday was long day for me, went with my host-dad to his work to go to a day orientation in Arica, or ‘regional orientation’ There you ‘meet’ your regional coordinator, mine is Miriam, like most Chileans she is very nice.  Here at the regional orientation, we went to the Hotel Arica, it is very pretty with a huge pool, right on the coast.  We, as in another volunteer girl here in Arica with me, got to meet our ‘co-teachers’, mine is named Christopher and is a really good/cool guy.  He is 28 year old teacher that teaches elementary kids and high schoolers. And his English really good.  Apparently it is very hard for the Chileans to do something like I am.  Major difference, many of the English teachers want to go to the States, but all complain about how hard it is to get a Visa, as in Christophers’ case. 

I got to watch the last period of the Blackhawks game last night, big win in overtime, also great to hear some English, but they game didn’t end until 11:45 at night here in Chile, so I lost some more sleep…

So I am in my first day of observing a Chilean class.  I ‘co-teach’ at a Catholic School(San Marcos) from grade one to I believe grade 12.  They all wear uniforms, much like a Catholic grade school.  They have a thing called ‘Buenos Dias’ in the morning, its like a kind of reflection, run by the students, obviously with a Catholic influence, each class does a week, this week is St. Francis.  I had to stand in front of all the students and teachers and give a kind of introduction of myself. The students were giggling at me a little while I fumbled on a few words in spanish, however, about 3 students came up to me all different ages, speaking English pretty well.  Welcomed me and one little girl said I could talk to her if I ever got lonely. I am a ‘celebrity/new toy’ here and every student tries either to get my attention or say Hello/Hola. 

Pictures of the school:

 Middle of School, in one side of the court yard.

The students don't leave their classroom, so they put paper on their desks to decorate, so they don't ruin the desks. Here are some of the good ones:

Video of recess, this occurs all day.

The main differences in US schools and this particular one, is that the students do not leave their class room.  The teachers are the ones that roam to the different classes.  Also, I have been hearing the Chilean students are crazy in class, but so far this class of 6^th graders isn’t too bad, I mean they are just kids.  One cool thing about the students is they can bring in a large piece of paper and decorate it, then taping((laminating) it to their desk.  A lot of kids like hard rock music, and many of the little ones like your usual Hannah Montana or Justin Beieber. I also have been asked in almost every class whether or not I know any celebrities or famous people, or whether I have been to Hollywood. Sorry, Mr. Brendan Kelly, I told them I did not know any and they got very sad.