A little about my school

NOTE: This is fairly long (I apologize) but the school is just so different here. And there is so much more to tell. So if you are only interested in my trips, you will probably want to skip this one. Plus there are no photos.

Everyone keeps asking for stories about the school and teaching. You all need to just calm down, take a deep breath, and be patient. Below I have compiled some stories about the school. Hopefully this will satisfy you for now. I am sure many more wacky things will occur.

I am teaching 3rd grade. The students are in class M-F from noon until 5:00pm. Kinda weird but at least I get to sleep in. The day is broken up into 7 periods with a recess in the middle. Each class is 40 minutes. After each period, a bell rings (it has to be manually pushed in the office after each class... so usually it is late). I currently have 21 students. On a typical day, I only teach about 4 of the 7 periods and then I have the other 3 periods free for planning, grading, etc.

Here is a typical day:
12:00 - 12:40 I teach math. Most of the kids are fairly good at math if you stick to computation and there is no reading or word problem involved. We also have no manipulatives to help out.

12:40 - 1:20 The Social Studies teacher comes to my room and teaches the kids (in Spanish). I leave and plan elsewhere. Often on a plastic chair in some shade on the playground.

1:20 - 2:00 I return to the room and teach Spelling/Phonics or Grammar. This is one of the only times I can sneak in actual writing. I guess they don't really emphasize having the kids write. They just use the grammar workbooks so it is all out of context and inauthentic. I try to get them to do some real writing. Their writing is really low, but probably because they never really write. If anyone wants to do pen pals with my students let me know. At least it would create an authentic reason to write and edit to make their writing comprehensible

2:00 - 2:20 The kids have lunch and recess. The kids can buy food from the school "cafeteria". It is really expensive but somehow many kids seem able to afford it. On our salary, Christina and I can never eat there and instead have to eat PB&J sandwiches everyday. There is no refrigerator or microwave on campus so our options are limited. The cafeteria is just a wooden shack that sells pizza, candy, and soda (healthy choices). The kids eat on the playground. The playground itself is very lacking and dilapidated. There are metal swings with giant holes in the seats, bars for swinging that are so high the kids stand on uneven cinder blocks to reach them, some tires half sunk in the ground (for jumping???) and a basketball/volleyball/soccer court in one. Although, the only balls available are small, hard , and plastic with no air inside. The jungle gym is metal but is not placed in concrete, it is just dangerously resting on the dirt. Oh, did I mention the heat?

2:20 - 3:00 The Spanish teacher comes to the room and I go elsewhere to plan or whatever.

3:00 - 3:40 The kids either go to computers (where apparently the teacher shows them how to play solitaire) or they go to P.E .(where apparently all they learn is how to walk back and forth or jump rope). Both of these are taught in Spanish.

3:40 - 4:20 I go back to the room and teach reading. This mostly consists of doing picture walks, me reading aloud the story while the kids follow along. We discuss different parts. They practice reading it individually or with partners. The majority do not comprehend any of the story, even after all the discussions. This will greatly improve once we get all the donated books sorted.

4:20 - 5:00 I teach Science. This is a joke. The textbook is insanely hard for them and we have no resources or money for science experiments or hands on work. This is really the most frustrating time of the day. Luckily I have access to videos I can download from the internet to help some. This period is often canceled for other events though. Like every Friday there is an assembly or for the next 3 weeks we practice marching everyday for the Independence Day parade in the heat (the marching is a nightmare...I can't wait until the parade is over).

The students are very well behaved when I am teaching. They really respond to the slightest bit of positive comments. The other teachers seem to have no classroom management skills at all. During those times, the kids just walk around the room whenever they want, are always talking, and don't really listen to the teacher at all. I am no expert myself, all I do is give them stars on the white board (yep, we have them here too) for good behavior and erase them for poor behavior and this simple idea seems to work extremely effectively with them. I can't really figure out why the other teachers don't have something like this. The other teachers also seem to have a habit of just leaving the room for extended periods when they are supposed to be teaching. I will often find them in the office chatting or they even leave school to run errands... during class!

As with any class, I have a wide range of abilities. I have students that are fairly fluent in English and have a strong vocabulary. These students seem to understand everything I say, can read the textbooks fairly well, and mostly comprehend the lessons. On the other end, my lowest students have extremely limited English, very poor pronunciation, and just stare at me with a confused look when I ask even seemingly simple questions. Some don't even have complete letter/sound recognition. I am very thankful for the donation of books we had shipped here. Without these, we only have textbooks, which would make improving reading very difficult. Thank you again to those who were able to donate. As with most children, these kids really want to learn, it is just a matter of thinking of inventive ways to reach them with the limited resources. Ideas are welcome. The trouble is, at some point, I am still expected to complete workbook pages (yuck!).

Oh, I didn't even mention how no one who works at the "bilingual" school speaks English. The 1st grade teacher is a joke. He self taught himself English and he has extremely limited vocabulary, poor pronunciation, and grammar. The 5th and 6th grade teachers are fluent in English. There is one high school teacher who speaks fluent English. Besides that (and Christina and I) no one else speaks any English at all. No one in the administration or office, no one. So, really, the only times the students are practicing and hearing fluent English is when I am teaching, about 4 periods a day. No wonder the kids have such limited English abilities. At least we will make and impact though, hopefully.

Ahh, there is so much more to tell but I will save it for another time.