finally...my own classroom! (martes, 10 agosto)

Yesterday I got my own classroom. They were still in the process of delivering all of my desks and chairs, so I wasn´t able to have classes in it until today. Yesterday I had to teach classes in my host teachers´classrooms, but they pretty much sat back and let me teach the class. They went well, and my host teacher said I did a good job with them. I noticed that the students seemed more willing to participate when I taught than when she teaches them. Most of them seem pretty excited to have a new teacher. They asked various questions about me (a little off-topic, but since they were speaking in English, I didn´t mind) such as where I´m from, what my hobbies are, what my family is like, do I like Iquique, etc. One kid asked me my age, and when I said 22, he said, ¨Oh really? I´m twenty.¨ I quickly set him in his place and called him out on lying (all of the kids in that class are 17). I will have to work to establish student-teacher boundaries. Some of my senior students have this idea that since my last name is difficult to pronounce, they can just call me ¨Miss Pretty Eyes.¨ I also had to put an end to that.

I´m excited about having my own classroom and decorating it. It´s on the 3rd floor in the older part of the building right next to the choir/ band room. It still smells of fresh paint, but there are worse smells in the world. The walls are off-white and the floor is a burnt-reddish color. I thought it was kind of strange that they painted the floor. There are also yellow curtains hanging on the windows. I opened them (I love sunlight) but for some reason the students keep closing the curtains. I might just take them down because I love the Iquique sun so much. I´m just glad I wasn`t the one who had to drag all those desks upstairs!! My room still looks pretty plain. Last night I made a blue poster with red and yellow letters that says ´Welcome to English Class!´ Tonight I´m going to make more posters to hang up in my class so the learning environment looks a bit more stimulating to the senses. The down side of my classroom is that the room directly below my room is a kindergarten classroom, so it is really noisy in my room, even when my own class is being quiet.

My 7th graders are very squirrely...having them first thing in the morning on Tuesdays definitely wakes you up! Today I played Simon Says with them because they were learning verbs (such as stand up, sit down, pick it up, get up, fall down, etc). One of my kids actually told my host teacher that my class is more fun than hers, and she got mad and said I´m not allowed to play games or do anything fun with the kids, because class is not supposed to be fun! I couldn´t believe it. I want them to learn, and it´s obvious that they´ll learn more if they can have fun learning.

Today the cafeteria staff made me vegan soy protein with vegetables. It was great to have a hot lunch for once! The cafeteria ladies are so nice, and I´m really fortunate they respect the fact that I´m vegan and go out of their way to prepare lunches for me.

Actually, my entire day was great. After school I started working on a banner to hang up in my classroom that says ¨Speak English¨in blue, white, and yellow with olde english style writing. It´s going to take longer to make than anticipated, but it will definitely look great once it´s done. At about 10pm my host cousin came home and we decided to go running. He has pretty good endurance because he´s a football (soccer) player. I kept feeling like I was making him run further than he wanted, but he kept up easily and said he didn´t mind. We ran along the beach and then the boardwalk. It was dark and almost no one was out. It was a very tranquil run and I returned to the house in a great mood. I´m glad my cousin likes to run, and it´s nice having a running buddy.

Okay...back to the poster now and then sleep. Chao!

written by

Sara Florecita on August 10, 2010 from Iquique, Chile

from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)

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