Monday, March 21, 2011

Teaching - Day One

Well, I made it through my first day of teaching. How did it go, you may ask? Well...it wasn't a disaster. But I wouldn't say it was a total success. It was, in summary, okay. Some classes went better than others. Definitely seventh grade was the easiest and my lesson went so smoothly, but I know the reason for that is because the seventh grade classes are much smaller than the rest, like half the size. Eleven kids were much easier for me to handle than the twenty something fifth graders and then the eighth graders, they were probably the hardest. They just do not stop talking! But then, that was really no surprise.

But overall I'd say it was fine. I'm sure I will continue to learn how to be a better and more interesting teacher over time. It's a matter of learning what works and what doesn't. I found already that stickers are great tool. In one class I started giving stickers to kids who answered my questions correctly, and suddenly everyone wanted to participate. Thanks Mom for sending me thousands of stickers, I have a feeling I will be using them all!
I also had my first workshop today with fifth and sixth graders. It's definitely a little easier since I can be more relaxed and do more fun things. I think it went pretty well, but a few times I felt that I was starting to lose control. But they are my biggest group for workshop, so I'm sure the others will be easier. Plus they are the youngest with the lowest level of English, so, even though I know I'm not supposed to, I spoke in spanish quite a bit. But honestly I think the fact that the kids now know I am able to speak spanish has helped, they definitely lesson better when I speak in spanish, and they seem to respect me more. At least they now know they can't say whatever they want because I understand.

Students keep asking me if I know Justin Bieber. This is hilarious to me, because I literally know next to nothing about him. I could only name one song, and that's only because it's nearly impossible not to have heard that one where he repeats "Baby" over and over, it's a total earworm. I think they get confused when I tell them my brother's name is Justin, and assume either that Justin Bieber is my brother, that I know all people named Justin, or simply that since I am from the US, I must have run into him at some point.

Today Obama came to Chile. This was a huge deal here; to Chile, the US is still the most powerful country in the world and it is very important to them that the president chose to come here during his brief tour of Latin America. Conveniently, his plane arrived just in time to be broadcasted during the hours of almuerzo, so I was able to watch his arrival, as it was on pretty much every channel. And actually, watching that made me a little homesick. As much as I love Chile, the US is my home, and I can't help but miss it sometimes.

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