It's been WAY too long since I've posted and for that I apologize. I'm writing this as I sit in my student's swanky lounge. I got here insanely early. On Tuesday I left my house at 9:05 and did not arrive at my class (the one I'm currently waiting for) until 10:08. The class starts at 10… so not ideal. In order to avoid this trauma I left my house today at 8:55. I figure, leave 10 minutes earlier, arrive 10 minutes earlier. False. I arrived at 9:30! Half an hour early for class and 40 minutes earlier than I arrived last time. Santiago, you and your bizarre traffic patterns never cease to confuse me!
My absence can be attributed to a multitude of tasks and annoying activities. I've been working on some things for next year which has taken up a lot of my time. By next week most of my planning for next year will have calmed down (I hope!). I've also been in overdrive since my student gave me his soul-crushing (albeit accurate) comments about my class. I've done everything I can to address the situation, but that's meant planning classes to a tee and not blogging.
I don't have much time at the moment to write a proper post but I will hopefully get back to posting more regularly soon. I will, however, leave you with this anecdote about gum in Chilean classrooms…
Before I came to Chile I read this weird book about Chilean culture. Pieces of the book are incredibly accurate, but other pieces of the book are clearly written for wealthy expats moving to Chile for important business reasons… certainly not for teachers going into poor neighborhoods to teach children. According to this book, gum is not accepted in formal environments in Chile. I assumed, therefore, that gum would be outlawed in classrooms (so to speak).
This brings us to yesterday (Wednesday). I was teaching a class of fourth graders. They are sweet kids, but totally insane. The school even warned us that this class has behavioral issues and they didn't know what to do with them. Anyways, we were teaching a class and I look over and see a kid pull a long string-rubber thing out of his mouth and squish it into the table. At first I genuinely thought it was rubber. He then coiled it back up and popped it into his mouth. At this point I stopped class and broke into fluent English (something along the lines of "Oh my god, that is so nasty!"). My co-teachers looked over and they too were horrified. The kids, however, were totally confused because their English doesn't span past numbers, colors, and a few simple phrases. They did catch on to the fact that we were talking about the gum.
Then things took a turn. The boy with the gum took the gum out of his mouth, rolled it into a ball and threw it at another student. This student proceeded to put the gum into his mouth! At this point my co-workers and I were laughing as well as disgusted… it was all a bit crazy. Then the gum dropped out of the second boy's mouth. He dove to the ground to put it back into his mouth(!!!). I, however, could not handle the grotesque notion of the gum's recent germ contact (who knows where the gum started--> boy 1--> table--> boy 1 (+his hands)--> boy 2--> floor) and I also dove to the floor. I got the the gum first and threw it away. This caused a stir amongst the kids who felt wronged that their (horrifying) piece of gum had been thrown out. I felt a little bad, but in the end I stand by my decision.
So there's my teaching anecdote for the day. Please excuse lack of pictures, as I said proper posts will come back soon!
Have a nice THURSDAY (TGIT)!
XX
A
Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Work. Show all posts
Rough Week
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Hi Guys,
Sorry for posting so sporadically lately. I haven't been having the best week and I wasn't sure that writing about it would interest anyone/be worth my time but in the end I think it'll feel good to organize my thoughts on here... Hopefully it's not too scary? Ha! The week started off poorly as it is back to work after a week-long holiday. Always terrible in my opinion. I find it to be so crushing to go back to reality. So I started my week in a less-than-happy mood. I told myself to get over it and move on. But Monday was rough. My classes felt disorganized and I felt sort of down about myself professionally.
Professionally speaking, Tuesday was worse. I had a student actually tell me that he thought my class wasn't well-structured (do I hyphenate that?). He implied that he did not enjoy the class and I got the distinct impression that he does not have confidence in me as a teacher. This was a big blow to my confidence. You see I enjoy my job, but I was essentially thrown into the deep end in terms of figuring out this whole teaching thing. And to make matters worse I was given two intermediate level classes and my company does not have a set curriculum for this level. I don't understand it at all... we have fully designed curriculums for Basic levels 1 and 2, Pre-Intermediate, and Advanced but no Intermediate. The problem is I can plan a lesson but I've quickly learned that planning a class is much harder. Especially because I'm not totally sure about what I need to achieve with the students in these classes.
I decided at first to follow the book and then add in fun activities. I quickly realized that the book was far too easy for my students and I'd have to figure out a better way to teach them. I think my student was also annoyed that we've been reviewing so much material. He said "I knows this". Do you? Do you "knows" this? Well sir, I've been speaking this language my entire life and I don't even know babies that would say "I knows this". OK, so I'm being harsh, but it was frustrating to be criticized and told I was subpar. I think the worst part, however, is that to a large extent he's right. I'm not prepared for this job and and it's valid to say that the organization of the class is off in that I don't know how to design a full curriculum. I have no intention of continuing in this career path. My aim was to travel and see South America, but this internal battle (desire to succeed v. the fact that this isn't a career I intend to pursue) is killing me a bit. Today I've felt like throwing in the towel, but I also can't stand the idea of quitting. So lame... or as Chileans would say que fome.
So today I've spent my day attempting to design a curriculum but I seem to have come down with some sort of sickness. I don't know what I've got but my throat is killing me, my head is pounding, and that part of your neck that people who are always getting sick always touch and say "I'm sick, I feel my ______ getting larger" hurt. I've been going between freakishly hot and cold all day. At first I thought I was sore from going running (everyday for the last week! WOOP!) but then I realized said soreness has spread through my entire body. YIKES! So basically not only my brain but my body as well aren't functioning properly.
I really just don't want to go to work anymore and I'm a bit panicked about this whole lesson plan situation. I'm sure it will get better, but I'll have to put in some serious work. I'll keep you guys posted, I just hope my mood improves soon!
OK well, internet, I'm terribly sorry for the less-than-happy mood in this post and I hope your week has been better than mine. Enjoy your lives around the world, little readers.
XX
A
P.S. Lack of pictures=LAME. So here are some pics I took on Sunday when I was woken up by a religious procession of sorts in the park across the street.
Sorry for posting so sporadically lately. I haven't been having the best week and I wasn't sure that writing about it would interest anyone/be worth my time but in the end I think it'll feel good to organize my thoughts on here... Hopefully it's not too scary? Ha! The week started off poorly as it is back to work after a week-long holiday. Always terrible in my opinion. I find it to be so crushing to go back to reality. So I started my week in a less-than-happy mood. I told myself to get over it and move on. But Monday was rough. My classes felt disorganized and I felt sort of down about myself professionally.
Professionally speaking, Tuesday was worse. I had a student actually tell me that he thought my class wasn't well-structured (do I hyphenate that?). He implied that he did not enjoy the class and I got the distinct impression that he does not have confidence in me as a teacher. This was a big blow to my confidence. You see I enjoy my job, but I was essentially thrown into the deep end in terms of figuring out this whole teaching thing. And to make matters worse I was given two intermediate level classes and my company does not have a set curriculum for this level. I don't understand it at all... we have fully designed curriculums for Basic levels 1 and 2, Pre-Intermediate, and Advanced but no Intermediate. The problem is I can plan a lesson but I've quickly learned that planning a class is much harder. Especially because I'm not totally sure about what I need to achieve with the students in these classes.
I decided at first to follow the book and then add in fun activities. I quickly realized that the book was far too easy for my students and I'd have to figure out a better way to teach them. I think my student was also annoyed that we've been reviewing so much material. He said "I knows this". Do you? Do you "knows" this? Well sir, I've been speaking this language my entire life and I don't even know babies that would say "I knows this". OK, so I'm being harsh, but it was frustrating to be criticized and told I was subpar. I think the worst part, however, is that to a large extent he's right. I'm not prepared for this job and and it's valid to say that the organization of the class is off in that I don't know how to design a full curriculum. I have no intention of continuing in this career path. My aim was to travel and see South America, but this internal battle (desire to succeed v. the fact that this isn't a career I intend to pursue) is killing me a bit. Today I've felt like throwing in the towel, but I also can't stand the idea of quitting. So lame... or as Chileans would say que fome.
So today I've spent my day attempting to design a curriculum but I seem to have come down with some sort of sickness. I don't know what I've got but my throat is killing me, my head is pounding, and that part of your neck that people who are always getting sick always touch and say "I'm sick, I feel my ______ getting larger" hurt. I've been going between freakishly hot and cold all day. At first I thought I was sore from going running (everyday for the last week! WOOP!) but then I realized said soreness has spread through my entire body. YIKES! So basically not only my brain but my body as well aren't functioning properly.
I really just don't want to go to work anymore and I'm a bit panicked about this whole lesson plan situation. I'm sure it will get better, but I'll have to put in some serious work. I'll keep you guys posted, I just hope my mood improves soon!
OK well, internet, I'm terribly sorry for the less-than-happy mood in this post and I hope your week has been better than mine. Enjoy your lives around the world, little readers.
XX
A
P.S. Lack of pictures=LAME. So here are some pics I took on Sunday when I was woken up by a religious procession of sorts in the park across the street.
The procession.
Complete with traditional dancers.
And the loudest band EVER. I think they played the same four notes for like 2 hours.
The virgin of honor (I think they were honoring a Virgin... they usually are).
OK, that's all folks!
Skiing with the Chillin'
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Hello World!
How are you all? I hope people have had a good weekend. Mine has been fun although not too relaxing. Yesterday I went with my boss, a coworker, and a lovely volunteer with 6 slightly wild children to the snow. We went to La Parva, a ski resort high up in the Andes. It's not far from Santiago, but the mountains are so steep you have to go up 45 switch back turns to get up there.
My day started when I woke up at 5:45 to get ready. I had to get to Puente Alto by 8am to pick up the kids. As I've mentioned before on my blog, One:One has a project called Saltamontes. The idea of Saltamontes is to provide English classes to low-income children who do not have access to English education. We are currently in the process of expanding Saltamontes which includes taking the kids on trips. None of the kids we took on the trip had ever been skiing and only one had ever been to the snow. It was cool to see how excited the kids were. They seemed to be totally shocked and amazed by every rock we passed. The screeching did get tiring, but it was worth it.
Between picking up the kids, getting clothes for them, renting equipment and all of the various traveling we didn't get onto the mountain until 2pm (when I used to ski as a kid we would be on the lifts as soon as they opened!). The kids took a lesson and we stuck around to help out. I only got in one real run but as you can see from my pics it was spring skiing... the snow was terrible and there wasn't much of it. So I don't really mind that I only got to do one proper run.
Anyways I'll stop blabbering on and on about my day and show you the pictures...
How are you all? I hope people have had a good weekend. Mine has been fun although not too relaxing. Yesterday I went with my boss, a coworker, and a lovely volunteer with 6 slightly wild children to the snow. We went to La Parva, a ski resort high up in the Andes. It's not far from Santiago, but the mountains are so steep you have to go up 45 switch back turns to get up there.
My day started when I woke up at 5:45 to get ready. I had to get to Puente Alto by 8am to pick up the kids. As I've mentioned before on my blog, One:One has a project called Saltamontes. The idea of Saltamontes is to provide English classes to low-income children who do not have access to English education. We are currently in the process of expanding Saltamontes which includes taking the kids on trips. None of the kids we took on the trip had ever been skiing and only one had ever been to the snow. It was cool to see how excited the kids were. They seemed to be totally shocked and amazed by every rock we passed. The screeching did get tiring, but it was worth it.
Between picking up the kids, getting clothes for them, renting equipment and all of the various traveling we didn't get onto the mountain until 2pm (when I used to ski as a kid we would be on the lifts as soon as they opened!). The kids took a lesson and we stuck around to help out. I only got in one real run but as you can see from my pics it was spring skiing... the snow was terrible and there wasn't much of it. So I don't really mind that I only got to do one proper run.
Anyways I'll stop blabbering on and on about my day and show you the pictures...
The view out my window just before I left the house at 7:00. It had rained the night before.
Snapped this horse-butt pic out the window of the van (which, BTW, was a terrifyingly tall van that I was sure would topple over on some of the curves). I tired to get a proper pic of the horse but I got my camera out too late. Also side note: there were tons of wild horses up in the mountains!
The view of the mountains as we made our (perilous) ascent up the mountain.
Isiadora. So cute!
A group shot with only some of the kids... that's me on the left.
Look! I skied in the Andes!
As you can see from this picture the snow was seriously dwindling. Despite that the view was still beautiful.
Overall it was a great day. The only problem is it makes me wish I'd actually taken advantage of the awesome mountains here. The runs are pretty great and there's actually powder when it's not spring. *Sigh* I suppose I'll just have to get back to consistent skiing when I'm in the states. The next two weeks should be interesting so I'll keep you guys updated!
XX
A
Popaico Part 2
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Hi World,
Excuse my radio silence. I've been insanely busy running around Santiago the last two weeks. I've finally started teaching at the Polpaico plant. Little did I know, the plant is actually owned by a huge global company. This means that each of my classes only have one Chilean student. I also have a student form Venezuela, 2 Argentines (Argentinians?), and one Brazilian. It's so cool to learn about other parts of South America! But I digress. The real reason I've decided to share any information about Polpaico is because I wanted to show you guys my classroom. Maybe you won't agree, but this room feels like a '70's board room to me. I imagine that the room is usually stuffed with a bunch of old guys smoking cigars and making important decisions. But when I'm there it's a classroom in which we play games about articles of clothing... such is the life of an expat ESL teacher. Ha! Anyways I thought I'd share some [awkward] pics I snapped while I waited for my students.
Excuse my radio silence. I've been insanely busy running around Santiago the last two weeks. I've finally started teaching at the Polpaico plant. Little did I know, the plant is actually owned by a huge global company. This means that each of my classes only have one Chilean student. I also have a student form Venezuela, 2 Argentines (Argentinians?), and one Brazilian. It's so cool to learn about other parts of South America! But I digress. The real reason I've decided to share any information about Polpaico is because I wanted to show you guys my classroom. Maybe you won't agree, but this room feels like a '70's board room to me. I imagine that the room is usually stuffed with a bunch of old guys smoking cigars and making important decisions. But when I'm there it's a classroom in which we play games about articles of clothing... such is the life of an expat ESL teacher. Ha! Anyways I thought I'd share some [awkward] pics I snapped while I waited for my students.
A snap out the car window on the way to the plant. It was a very smoggy day but you can kind of see the mountains in the distance (they're very faint).
I panicked as I took this picture because I thought someone was about to walk in and catch me creepily taking pictures of this seemingly uninteresting board room, so the composition is not the best. You can, however, see the 70's-esque interior and the old-man-cigar-ness of the place.
As I've mentioned before, Polpaico makes cement. They have all of these jars of pebbles and stuff in the "old-man-cigar-room"... which really contributes to the old man-ness.
See... they're all different!
So now you've seen the weir old-timey baord room I spend 6 hours each week in. Good times! I have another post coming up soon! In the mean time enjoy your Saturday :)
XX
A
LONG Day
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Hi Guys,
Just a quick post this morning. Yesterday was outrageously long. Now I know plenty of people leave the house around 8am and don't return until 8pm. I'm not complaining about being out for 12 hours (although it is exhausting), I'm more complaining about the progression of my day. It was ROUGH. I woke up a tad too late to shower (ew/oops) so all day I looked like a homeless freak with insane hair. NOT good. I also wore a very blah outfit which, as you may know, is not helpful when you are having a rough hair day. I thought I would return home from teaching around 3, but before my 1pm class my lovely boss (that is not sarcasm... I legitimately love my boss) informed me that we would be going to the Polpaico plant to begin teaching. My boss is incredibly busy and she thought she'd told me but she hadn't (again I totally understand... these things happen). This did mean, however, that my sad hobo-esque appearance would see me through meeting a batch of new students as well as two hours in a car.
The other things that made yesterday insanely long...
-Taking the bus to Renca (not nice neighborhood, very far)
-Take the bus/metro from Renca all the way to Las Condes (very nice neighborhood, very far)
-Endless car time to/from plant.
Anyways I did manage to snap some not-very-good pics with my new camera. I was terrified to take it out because I really don't want it to get stolen (slash make me look even more like a gringa than I already do). But hopefully I'll have some cool pics with the new camera soon!
Just a quick post this morning. Yesterday was outrageously long. Now I know plenty of people leave the house around 8am and don't return until 8pm. I'm not complaining about being out for 12 hours (although it is exhausting), I'm more complaining about the progression of my day. It was ROUGH. I woke up a tad too late to shower (ew/oops) so all day I looked like a homeless freak with insane hair. NOT good. I also wore a very blah outfit which, as you may know, is not helpful when you are having a rough hair day. I thought I would return home from teaching around 3, but before my 1pm class my lovely boss (that is not sarcasm... I legitimately love my boss) informed me that we would be going to the Polpaico plant to begin teaching. My boss is incredibly busy and she thought she'd told me but she hadn't (again I totally understand... these things happen). This did mean, however, that my sad hobo-esque appearance would see me through meeting a batch of new students as well as two hours in a car.
The other things that made yesterday insanely long...
-Taking the bus to Renca (not nice neighborhood, very far)
-Take the bus/metro from Renca all the way to Las Condes (very nice neighborhood, very far)
-Endless car time to/from plant.
Anyways I did manage to snap some not-very-good pics with my new camera. I was terrified to take it out because I really don't want it to get stolen (slash make me look even more like a gringa than I already do). But hopefully I'll have some cool pics with the new camera soon!
I have to walk up A LOT of stairs to get to my apartment... cherry on top of my never-ending day.
I indulged in another fresh squeezed orange juice. DEL-OI-CIOUS.
I hastily snapped this picture (and the next one) as we drove out of the Polpaico plant. The sun was setting and it was actually pretty beautiful. I personally like the moving effect, but I suppose it looks like I'm just terrible at taking pictures.
This is a blurry (arty?) picture of the plant itself. I have no idea what this tower functions as, but I thought the lights looked cool. Ha!
OK guys... I guess this wasn't exactly "a quick" post. Today is much more relaxed so I'll recuperate (tomorrow is the exact same as yesterday... eek!). Talk to you soon!
XX
A
Polpaico
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Hello Internet!
Today is a very relaxed day for me. I only have one class (that will change soon) and it's not until 6pm! Insanity! Tomorrow is a holiday, which means that virtually every Chilean is fleeing Santiago. Even though Friday is not a holiday everyone takes the day off. They call this type of holiday a "sandwich". Very cute. Anyhoo I thought I'd share my experience yesterday at the Polpaico cement plant. My language institute will begin teaching classes at the Polpaico cement plant over the next few weeks. It's quite an endeavor! The plant is located VERY far away from Santiago...
Today is a very relaxed day for me. I only have one class (that will change soon) and it's not until 6pm! Insanity! Tomorrow is a holiday, which means that virtually every Chilean is fleeing Santiago. Even though Friday is not a holiday everyone takes the day off. They call this type of holiday a "sandwich". Very cute. Anyhoo I thought I'd share my experience yesterday at the Polpaico cement plant. My language institute will begin teaching classes at the Polpaico cement plant over the next few weeks. It's quite an endeavor! The plant is located VERY far away from Santiago...
BUT... the drive is beautiful. Seriously gorgeous. I took some pics on (you guessed it!) my phone. They don't really do the scenery any justice, but you get the idea:
I'm really excited to teach these classes. It's far away, but the drive is nice and oddly relaxing... especially after dealing with the insane public transit situations in Chile!
I'll update you all soon! In the mean time have a lovely Wednesday!
XX
A
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