This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to an unfamiliar sound. Sure enough, I peeked through my curtains to see that the sun has begun rising and much to my surprise, the wierd sound that I was hearing was that of a rooster's annoying screech. It isn't as pleasant as I once thought...
At 7:15 I was out the door and dashing to the Metro. I made it JUST in time to catch the train and was at the Vina station on time at 7:30 to meet Lauren. We walked to the school where we now teach english.
I didn't really know what to expect from a public school here but basically could not have guessed that it could be any worse. All of the teachers are very nice, and I really like the students, but discipline is impossible and there is no order whatsoever in the classroom.
Lauren and I were placed with a younger teacher, Ana Karina, who only teaches English. Her english skills are pretty good, but it is obvious that she needs help in teaching the students how words should really sound, etc. We had three different classes today, and all were the same age group- 17+.
Any North American would be in shock at how the students act. Today we saw hair straightening, drawing on the wall, cellphone conversations (talking, not texting), crying from embarrassment of speaking in english, makeup fixing, and one girl was even making dredlocks in her hair. The class was all-girls, and its crazy how different they are from senior girls in the US.
They had to make presentations in english in front of the class, but most were to embarrassed to present...so they didn't. Its like most of them have nothing encouraging to make them work hard...its wierd. NOW I know why most people here get into private or semi-private schools.
There is another volunteer working with/for our teacher. Her name is Janet, and she is from Australia. She deserves a lot of credit for volunteering everyday in these classes, and many of the students pay attention to her. She's very nice and I think she appreciates the fact that now, Lauren and I can give her the help that she needs. The Chilean students have to hear english coming from people who speak english. It works the same for us when trying to learn spanish...we need to hear spanish from a native spanish speaker before we can truly understand how it all fits together.
And thats my analysis of the day.
Balty is still sick and has to miss more school. I think he gets sick because he never eats his vegetables and doesn't like fruit.
Now I have class.
Until later,
Lesley
