I just felt an urge while I am on the internet a bit to mention that I have been doing a ton of reading and movie watching down here. I think it comes from having a decent amount of down time and no tv or internet that is easily accessible. I don´t want to make it seem like that is all I do, but it is a big and enjoyable part of life down here.
Some books I have read or am reading:
Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (kinda boring, but I finished it)
The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes
La casa de los espiritus by Isabel Allende
Mi planta de lima-naranja by some Brazilian dude
The White Man´s Burden (my bro sent it down)
Three Junes (I forget the author)
Some movies I have seen down here:
The Reader (I really didn´t like the love story part in the beginning but it is interesting)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (A sad, sad, sad Holocaust tale)
Blindness (not nearly as good as the book, but I thought some of it was real good)
The Case of Benjamin Button (not a fan really at all - especially of the stupid hummingbird symbolism)
Slumdog Millionaire (I thought it was pretty good - especially for the window I thought it kind of offered into a world I know nothing about)
Also, some El Salvadorian film about a kid during the civil war and the movie is really really good, but our copy down here is fried halfway through. So, if you figure out what movie I am talking about, please do not ruin it.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Teaching the Little ´Uns
I have come to actually really enjoy my marathon hour-and-a-half long English classes with the fourth grade kids. Although there can be definitely moments when it is overwhelming (say, when they are all coming up to you, shoving their notebooks in your face to show you that they finished copying the alphabet and demanding that you write excellent or perfect so that they feel validated), it is really quite enjoyable too.
A good example of a fun moment from yesterday´s class with 4b was when I was singing a basic good morning song with them (to the tune of Frair - I have no idea how to spell that - Jacques). Now, a gringo with a terrible singing voice is funny enough, but then I let them also pick what style I would sing in. We went through abuelita, niño, baby, mujer (they loved that one), and finished with monkey style in which I jumped all over the room and scratched my armpits and what not while singing. I guess I just was in really good spirits and feeling very into being silly - a formula that definitely seems to work to a tee with the young ones.
I have also implemented a system in which I have the kids broken down into teams. I find that it helps me keep the discipline positive - for instance, instead of getting frustrated with a kid or telling him to sit down over and over again, I can be like ¨oh man, I really think that this team does not want to earn points because they just don´t seem to be listening¨ or I can focus on the positives of what are going on, like ¨team monkeys are really working hard, they are looking for some serious points¨- and the kids have latched on to the idea. When I go team by team at the end of class giving points and explaining how each team did that day, the kids are just spell bound. And I imagine that as more time passes, they will be thinking about it more and more in the class itself.
Another little moment to share from yesterday was not quite as positive, though I think I handled it well. In my fourth year of secondary class, my brain was spazzing a lot for some reason and I kept having to erase what I had wrote or add something else in with what I had been explaining. I could tell the kids were quite lost and myself was feeling very much all over the place. So I just stopped, sat own on a desk and asked the kids how they were doing. I said, ¨let´s talk about something else for a few minutes¨ and then just chatted a bit with them. Then I apologized for being all over the place and confusing and told them we would go back to the beginning and go over it all again. They seemed to understand it much better the second time and I personally felt like I was being much clearer and precise with the present simple tense (which we were reviewing). So a negative scramble did have its positive ending.
Oh, and one more thing - I am definitely struggling with getting kids to actually do their homework and have tried to add in more reminders (stopping by the classes on days I don´t teach them, reminding them at the beginning of the day) and talked with them about why this is happening, but am very open to any and all suggestions on the matter. Please help!
A good example of a fun moment from yesterday´s class with 4b was when I was singing a basic good morning song with them (to the tune of Frair - I have no idea how to spell that - Jacques). Now, a gringo with a terrible singing voice is funny enough, but then I let them also pick what style I would sing in. We went through abuelita, niño, baby, mujer (they loved that one), and finished with monkey style in which I jumped all over the room and scratched my armpits and what not while singing. I guess I just was in really good spirits and feeling very into being silly - a formula that definitely seems to work to a tee with the young ones.
I have also implemented a system in which I have the kids broken down into teams. I find that it helps me keep the discipline positive - for instance, instead of getting frustrated with a kid or telling him to sit down over and over again, I can be like ¨oh man, I really think that this team does not want to earn points because they just don´t seem to be listening¨ or I can focus on the positives of what are going on, like ¨team monkeys are really working hard, they are looking for some serious points¨- and the kids have latched on to the idea. When I go team by team at the end of class giving points and explaining how each team did that day, the kids are just spell bound. And I imagine that as more time passes, they will be thinking about it more and more in the class itself.
Another little moment to share from yesterday was not quite as positive, though I think I handled it well. In my fourth year of secondary class, my brain was spazzing a lot for some reason and I kept having to erase what I had wrote or add something else in with what I had been explaining. I could tell the kids were quite lost and myself was feeling very much all over the place. So I just stopped, sat own on a desk and asked the kids how they were doing. I said, ¨let´s talk about something else for a few minutes¨ and then just chatted a bit with them. Then I apologized for being all over the place and confusing and told them we would go back to the beginning and go over it all again. They seemed to understand it much better the second time and I personally felt like I was being much clearer and precise with the present simple tense (which we were reviewing). So a negative scramble did have its positive ending.
Oh, and one more thing - I am definitely struggling with getting kids to actually do their homework and have tried to add in more reminders (stopping by the classes on days I don´t teach them, reminding them at the beginning of the day) and talked with them about why this is happening, but am very open to any and all suggestions on the matter. Please help!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Finding a Rhythm
As the school year is starting to get into the flow of the third week, I am definitely finding myself getting into a rhythm of teaching and just generally life here in Tacna. I have my schedule for running and step class, have planned out an entire week ahead of time (although I am still trying to get a feel for what can and what can´t be accomplished in my 45 minute and hour and a half blocks of classes), have found a regular lunch vendor (instead of trying to brave the hordes of kids and parents around the school door trying to pass lunches back and forth only to eat at a street cart or the same chicken everyday at the women´s house who sent us food last year, I and my good friend Juan have settled on having one of the kids mother´s send it into the school for us), and perhaps most important, have begun to feel like a real teacher.
Other than that, not too much else new to note. In our community, we are struggling/discussing the issue of whether or not to invite neighborhood kids over to the house to perhaps hang out, or cook something, or play guitar (and I still harbor hopes to learn myself how to play during my two years here). There are many issues at stake (the privacy of a home, Peruvian versus American culture, worries about the kids becoming dependant/infatuated with us, etc), and I think a number of us in the community feel really strongly about it. We have handled it really well (yeah for Community - and yes, with a capital c) and are discussing the issue with multiple perspectives and advice from others.
On a perhaps more interesting note, the most popular band in Peru came to Tacna on Sunday. I really wanted to go, but partly because of the fear of it lasting until like 4 in the morning I did not. As evidence of why this might have been the case and just generally more Peru craziness, the ads about the city were split between some saying it started at 3 pm and some saying 6 pm, but as of 6, there was no one even in the venue (and, apparently at these types of concerts, the opening act and the main act can go on for like 3 hours each - yikes). Also, this group - they are called Grupo Cinco and play cu-cu-cu-cumbia (said like the bird that goes I´m cu-cu-cu-cu-cucu for coco puffs) is just generally hilarious and here is a picture of them if you want a good laugh: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bAo4_wj7mig/RovcNL1ywmI/AAAAAAAAAj8/Cui0nZjBSuU/s400/grupo5.jpg
Other than that, not too much else new to note. In our community, we are struggling/discussing the issue of whether or not to invite neighborhood kids over to the house to perhaps hang out, or cook something, or play guitar (and I still harbor hopes to learn myself how to play during my two years here). There are many issues at stake (the privacy of a home, Peruvian versus American culture, worries about the kids becoming dependant/infatuated with us, etc), and I think a number of us in the community feel really strongly about it. We have handled it really well (yeah for Community - and yes, with a capital c) and are discussing the issue with multiple perspectives and advice from others.
On a perhaps more interesting note, the most popular band in Peru came to Tacna on Sunday. I really wanted to go, but partly because of the fear of it lasting until like 4 in the morning I did not. As evidence of why this might have been the case and just generally more Peru craziness, the ads about the city were split between some saying it started at 3 pm and some saying 6 pm, but as of 6, there was no one even in the venue (and, apparently at these types of concerts, the opening act and the main act can go on for like 3 hours each - yikes). Also, this group - they are called Grupo Cinco and play cu-cu-cu-cumbia (said like the bird that goes I´m cu-cu-cu-cu-cucu for coco puffs) is just generally hilarious and here is a picture of them if you want a good laugh: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bAo4_wj7mig/RovcNL1ywmI/AAAAAAAAAj8/Cui0nZjBSuU/s400/grupo5.jpg
Monday, March 9, 2009
Second Week - Grabbing Life by Los Cuernos
Last week, I was definitely frustrated by the lack of organization at Santa Cruz. I felt like
I just could not really do anything and the excitement I had to start the year was waning as the other English teacher and I did no planning, we had only five students (when the class sizes are 30 to 40) in some classes, the schedule was still up in the air, and just generally there was chaos and confusion.
Talking with my community mates helped a lot and starting late last week I have just decided that I need to be more active and just take the initiative. With this in mind, I made placement/diagnostic tests to help us figure out how to divide up our classes (in secondary - which is basically middle and high school combined - there is one other English teacher and we split each class in half and I take the advanced/more interested students and she takes the others.). I also decided I would take it upon myself to make sure we recognized International Women´s Day, which for those who don´t know was yesterday. I chose a nice little poem to read that I borrow from a community mate and the only movie I could find to show was ¨Frida.¨ It ended up being a real interesting choice as it is very racy and has a couple real sex scenes, but I think the constant thought that I might not skip those parts kept the kids more interested. Also, she is a good example of a strong Latin American woman and someone new for them to learn about.
To give everyone out there a little bit of a sense of how my job will work, here is what my schedule for a week is like. Mondays I always get there early - at 7:45 - for Lunes Civico, during which they sing the national anthem and have a general school assembly in which the Director, Padre Jorge, usually goes on about puntuality and other assorted issues. It is always a little funny to me that he is giving the lecture on puntuality to the kids who arrived on time, while the late ones have to stay outside the school until the assembly is over.
For each of the five years of secondary, I teach three pedagogical hours (forty five minute blocks). But since the English teacher - her name is Sandra - also teaches somewhere else in the morning (it is not unusual for teachers here to have two jobs or even to be working two jobs and still taking further career development classes - which is part of the reason why they tend to only spend the hours they need to teach at the school), these classes never begin until 11:15. In the mornings, I do some prep, chat up different teachers who are around and Padre Jorge (both of which I found is the easiest and best way to find out what is actually going on around the school), and hang out with the kids during their 15 minute recess.
I also am starting this week my primary classes, for which I will be teaching 2 pedagogical hours in a row with each of the 4th year classrooms. Last year, the classes I sat in on or helped teacher with these little uns was quite an experience and I am trying to think of how I am going to handle it this year. I think I am going to really emphasize movement (singing, dancing, etc.) and maybe alternative means of grading as opposed to simply tests. Last year, each time we tried to do a worksheet or a test, it was a real struggle to have them focus, not cheat, and generally the grades came out quite low.
Outside of this weekday/teaching stuff, I also am on of the co-leaders of the Youth Group for the parish that meets on Sundays and I am involved in coordinating and running the tutoring program for which students from the most wealthy (and probably best) school come on Saturday mornings to Vinani. They come from Cristo Rey, which is the school where Nate teaches and with whom I went on Mes de Mision.
I just could not really do anything and the excitement I had to start the year was waning as the other English teacher and I did no planning, we had only five students (when the class sizes are 30 to 40) in some classes, the schedule was still up in the air, and just generally there was chaos and confusion.
Talking with my community mates helped a lot and starting late last week I have just decided that I need to be more active and just take the initiative. With this in mind, I made placement/diagnostic tests to help us figure out how to divide up our classes (in secondary - which is basically middle and high school combined - there is one other English teacher and we split each class in half and I take the advanced/more interested students and she takes the others.). I also decided I would take it upon myself to make sure we recognized International Women´s Day, which for those who don´t know was yesterday. I chose a nice little poem to read that I borrow from a community mate and the only movie I could find to show was ¨Frida.¨ It ended up being a real interesting choice as it is very racy and has a couple real sex scenes, but I think the constant thought that I might not skip those parts kept the kids more interested. Also, she is a good example of a strong Latin American woman and someone new for them to learn about.
To give everyone out there a little bit of a sense of how my job will work, here is what my schedule for a week is like. Mondays I always get there early - at 7:45 - for Lunes Civico, during which they sing the national anthem and have a general school assembly in which the Director, Padre Jorge, usually goes on about puntuality and other assorted issues. It is always a little funny to me that he is giving the lecture on puntuality to the kids who arrived on time, while the late ones have to stay outside the school until the assembly is over.
For each of the five years of secondary, I teach three pedagogical hours (forty five minute blocks). But since the English teacher - her name is Sandra - also teaches somewhere else in the morning (it is not unusual for teachers here to have two jobs or even to be working two jobs and still taking further career development classes - which is part of the reason why they tend to only spend the hours they need to teach at the school), these classes never begin until 11:15. In the mornings, I do some prep, chat up different teachers who are around and Padre Jorge (both of which I found is the easiest and best way to find out what is actually going on around the school), and hang out with the kids during their 15 minute recess.
I also am starting this week my primary classes, for which I will be teaching 2 pedagogical hours in a row with each of the 4th year classrooms. Last year, the classes I sat in on or helped teacher with these little uns was quite an experience and I am trying to think of how I am going to handle it this year. I think I am going to really emphasize movement (singing, dancing, etc.) and maybe alternative means of grading as opposed to simply tests. Last year, each time we tried to do a worksheet or a test, it was a real struggle to have them focus, not cheat, and generally the grades came out quite low.
Outside of this weekday/teaching stuff, I also am on of the co-leaders of the Youth Group for the parish that meets on Sundays and I am involved in coordinating and running the tutoring program for which students from the most wealthy (and probably best) school come on Saturday mornings to Vinani. They come from Cristo Rey, which is the school where Nate teaches and with whom I went on Mes de Mision.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Just the Second Day of School Blues...
So this afternoon finds me a bit down and a little bit shell-shocked. There is still the issue of not really having classes (even though school has started, there is no schedule because of teachers having issues with the way it was done because it leaves them with blocks in the middle of their classes where they have nothing - god forbid they have to be at school when they are not teaching, some classes only have four or five students showing up - even though school HAS begun, some classes are just left on their own for long stretches because the teachers are just sitting around talking). But on top of all that, here are two interesting, to say the least, events that took place today:
1) The beginning of the day was interrupted when the five primary school teachers that the government is trying to place in the school showed up with the police. The padre ended up having to call in the school´s lawyer and go into court, but the basic issue now is that this still isn´t resolved between the teachers from last year (who the Padre has chosen and wants in place) and the state-appointed ones. It seems to me like it is definitely affecting the school and the kids in these lower school classes. The situation boggles my mind - especially that it is still not resolved - but I am trying to remain sympathetic and supportive since I do believe that much of the school community spirit and just generally the sense of justice dictates that the old teachers should stay.
2) For the last few minutes of my last class of the day, I kept hearing some booms coming from nearby. As there is a lot of construction going on and generally random noises or smells or random assaults on the sense, I did not think twice about it. The noise ended up coming from a shootout between the police and some of the people who had set up invasiones (these are the estera homes that people just pop up) on private land. I think the police were coming to clear them out and this crazy shootout broke out. And so what does our school do? Well, we let the kids go just as this shootout is moving closer and closer to one of the compound´s sides and just tell the kids to be careful. Of course they all end up running over that way to see what was going on and I almost had a heartattack. I was sure something was going to happen and thank god it did not, but again, I am left very confused.
I mean, I keep trying to maintain an open mind and remember it is a different culture, but sometimes isn´t there a limit to what makes sense or should happen?
1) The beginning of the day was interrupted when the five primary school teachers that the government is trying to place in the school showed up with the police. The padre ended up having to call in the school´s lawyer and go into court, but the basic issue now is that this still isn´t resolved between the teachers from last year (who the Padre has chosen and wants in place) and the state-appointed ones. It seems to me like it is definitely affecting the school and the kids in these lower school classes. The situation boggles my mind - especially that it is still not resolved - but I am trying to remain sympathetic and supportive since I do believe that much of the school community spirit and just generally the sense of justice dictates that the old teachers should stay.
2) For the last few minutes of my last class of the day, I kept hearing some booms coming from nearby. As there is a lot of construction going on and generally random noises or smells or random assaults on the sense, I did not think twice about it. The noise ended up coming from a shootout between the police and some of the people who had set up invasiones (these are the estera homes that people just pop up) on private land. I think the police were coming to clear them out and this crazy shootout broke out. And so what does our school do? Well, we let the kids go just as this shootout is moving closer and closer to one of the compound´s sides and just tell the kids to be careful. Of course they all end up running over that way to see what was going on and I almost had a heartattack. I was sure something was going to happen and thank god it did not, but again, I am left very confused.
I mean, I keep trying to maintain an open mind and remember it is a different culture, but sometimes isn´t there a limit to what makes sense or should happen?
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Last Hurrah
So, tomorrow classes finally start for me. It´s been almost four months and I have spent a fourth of it in a small town working with adolescent boys, a month of it traveling, a month living with host family, and just a few weeks sprinkled here and there actually living in Habitat and on a routine. I have to say, I am sort of looking forward to finally getting into the meat of the experience. Also, I have to say that I have been feeling odd about living like a tourist and enjoying the benefit of my host family and status as a Westerner who is living quite comfortably. I am sort of looking forward to the challenge of involving myself more in the lives of my students (who are poorer and have much fewer resources than even I do). And I want to do this not because I see myself necessarily as helping them a ton or being able to offer them something, but just because I want to try to accompany them and come as close as I can to feeling and knowing what life is truly like for these Peruvian children. Whether or not I will be able to overcome the obvious obstacles to this, we will see.
The only down side to it all is that pretty much nothing is planned and ready for tomorrow. I know I will be teaching 16 hours of classes with the secondary kids - but I have no idea of my schedule and haven´t planned out anything with the other english teacher. If we do it like we did last year, I will be teaching half of each class (the advanced or ¨better¨ half). I also will probably be teaching the fourth grade little ones. I really need to do some serious brainstorming for some opening activities, so if anyone has some good good ideas, please feel free to post them as comments to the blog!! I also am not too worried because I know I will not be jumping into teaching right away and I have a sense of the school and the kids since I did spend about two months with them when I first arrived.
This past week I spent in Lima - which is a suprisingly enjoyable 20 hour bus ride away. The buses - and we did ride and nicer and thus safer as well line - are pretty nice. They serve meals, the seats pretty much turn into beds, they play almost continuous movies (though quality varied from Spider Man 3 to Norbit), and they play bingo for a free return ride (which I won coming back from Lima and which will serve no purpose for me since you have to use it in a month). Some highlights of the city included the beach (which is like right off the edge of the city with this cliff, so it has some amazing views and little touristy spots), getting pooped on by and pigeon in one of the nice old churches and then being sketichly cleaned off by some random Peruvians (who may or may not have been trying to pick my pockets as well - and that isn´t just paranoia), eating some tasty tasty anticuchos on the street (anticuchos are the cows heart and it was a dollar thirty and so amazingly tasty - I can´t use that word enough), seeing some random traveling band from France perform in the middle of one of the nicer parks, and just generally enjoying city life. It made me realize how much I miss just a real real city and I was soaking up all the observing of the different markets, people, and general hustle and bustle of the city. The bus system is especially interesting as it is all privitized and so the result is a million buses going like crazy men trying to pick up fares and without any real rhyme or reason.
As promised, here finally are some photos with the accompanying, hopefully helpful-enlightening captions:
This was one of the ways we got to and from work most days on Mes de Mision. This was the safer way....
Mes de Mision (with the laguna that we checked out and provides much of the electricity to the region in the background)
This is a picture of some of the dances going through the street in Puno during the fiestas. They were all this wildly dressed.
Street meat - Lima-style. Look how happy we are!
The only down side to it all is that pretty much nothing is planned and ready for tomorrow. I know I will be teaching 16 hours of classes with the secondary kids - but I have no idea of my schedule and haven´t planned out anything with the other english teacher. If we do it like we did last year, I will be teaching half of each class (the advanced or ¨better¨ half). I also will probably be teaching the fourth grade little ones. I really need to do some serious brainstorming for some opening activities, so if anyone has some good good ideas, please feel free to post them as comments to the blog!! I also am not too worried because I know I will not be jumping into teaching right away and I have a sense of the school and the kids since I did spend about two months with them when I first arrived.
This past week I spent in Lima - which is a suprisingly enjoyable 20 hour bus ride away. The buses - and we did ride and nicer and thus safer as well line - are pretty nice. They serve meals, the seats pretty much turn into beds, they play almost continuous movies (though quality varied from Spider Man 3 to Norbit), and they play bingo for a free return ride (which I won coming back from Lima and which will serve no purpose for me since you have to use it in a month). Some highlights of the city included the beach (which is like right off the edge of the city with this cliff, so it has some amazing views and little touristy spots), getting pooped on by and pigeon in one of the nice old churches and then being sketichly cleaned off by some random Peruvians (who may or may not have been trying to pick my pockets as well - and that isn´t just paranoia), eating some tasty tasty anticuchos on the street (anticuchos are the cows heart and it was a dollar thirty and so amazingly tasty - I can´t use that word enough), seeing some random traveling band from France perform in the middle of one of the nicer parks, and just generally enjoying city life. It made me realize how much I miss just a real real city and I was soaking up all the observing of the different markets, people, and general hustle and bustle of the city. The bus system is especially interesting as it is all privitized and so the result is a million buses going like crazy men trying to pick up fares and without any real rhyme or reason.
As promised, here finally are some photos with the accompanying, hopefully helpful-enlightening captions:
This was one of the ways we got to and from work most days on Mes de Mision. This was the safer way....
Mes de Mision (with the laguna that we checked out and provides much of the electricity to the region in the background)
This is a picture of some of the dances going through the street in Puno during the fiestas. They were all this wildly dressed.
Street meat - Lima-style. Look how happy we are!
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