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Our second week here in Chile has commenced! Yesterday was a bit lighter in terms of afternoon activities and events, so I was able to take advantage of some rest time. I do love that our schedule is filled with a variety of excursions, school experiences, field placements, classes, etc., but it can definitely be a bit tiring! Last night, however, Nico (amigo de Universidad Mayor) walked with Katie, Renee and me around Barrio Italia – a neighborhood in Santiago with approximately a 7-block radius. It’s not very large, but the blocks are filled with adorable cafés, shops and restaurants. Our destination was El Oasis, which is a ministry in Santiago that welcomes all college-aged Spanish speakers who want to improve their English. From my understanding, it’s Christian-based, but welcomes everyone. Nico wanted to show us because it’s lead by students from the United States who studied abroad in Chile and returned to live here for a longer amount of time. They dedicate their time to plan engaging and enriching events with free food and fun! Renee, Katie and I were able to stay and participate in some of their English learning games, which gave us a great perspective as teachers. The topic for the night was the conditional tense (“If”, “would”…), and the members were asked to complete sentences (in English) in the conditional tense. For example, we were asked to add to the sentence: “If I woke up one morning as Beyonce, I would…” Some of the answers the Chileans came up with were hysterical! It was a ton of fun to be involved in their event, and as an English speaker, I enjoyed helping to perfect their responses. In addition, I appreciated their patience in helping us with our Spanish as well. It was a great night! I am hoping there will be room in our schedule next Monday evening to return. Not only am I being exposed to the language everywhere I turn, we are continuing to get a glimpse into the education system. We met with professors from the Education department at Universidad Mayor today, which turned into an incredibly rich conversation. We discussed teachers’ certifications, special education systems, teachers’ pay scales and different education programs/degrees offered in both the U.S. and Chile. I find it interesting that it is extremely competitive to obtain a job in private schools in Chile, while public schools are more preferred in the United States. In other words, teachers in Chile earn a much higher salary in private schools than in public schools. In contrast, teachers in the U.S., specifically New York, who work in the public schools have the opportunity to climb their pay scale and join the Retirement System. Teachers in private schools remain at a constant salary (as far as I know). In addition, from my understanding, many schools in Chile end a bit later in the evening, and some parents have the opportunity to choose a school for their child based on their work schedule. In the U.S., the school days are generally consistently between 7 or 8 AM through 2 or 3 PM. Some students in Chile are in school until 6 or 7 in the evening! If a parent works later, they may prefer their child attends a school with a later dismissal. We have a field placement tomorrow at Colegio Benjamin Claro, a Special Needs Centre. This school is a public school which has already begun to adopt the inclusion method, so I am interested in finding out what this looks like in Chile. More on this later. Buenos Noches!
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We awoke bright and early on Saturday to begin what was about to be an unforgettable weekend. We drove a few hours up into the Andes Mountains before stepping out to continue hiking with a purely spectacular view. I could not physically produce any words to describe how extraordinary our surroundings were. I wanted to take photos at every turn, but I realized very quickly that pictures do these beautiful mountains zero justice. I had to remind myself several times, "I'm actually hiking in the Andes Mountains. The Andes. In Chile." I spent a lot of time assimilating the enormity and processing where I was actually standing. It felt so wonderful to breathe in the fresh, pure air at our several-thousand-feet altitude. We walked about seven miles altogether but I could have gone another twenty with the view we had (despite how tired I may have been). We could not have had a more beautiful day for our excursion: sunny; not a cloud in the sky; 65 degrees... It was a perfect day. We stopped on our way back home for empanadas, and I chose an empanada con jamón (ham), tomate (tomato) y queso (cheese). It tasted even better after our long day of hiking! Today (Sunday) included a trip to Valparaíso and Vina del Mar – the coast of the Pacific Ocean! We had a delicious (large) lunch at a restaurant by the water. They served shells with chopped fish and crab and empanadas for our appetizers, and I chose fish for my entrée. So yummy! Our evening ended with walking down to the beach to enjoy the shores of the Pacific Ocean. A handful of us (myself included) had never seen the Pacific, so it was awesome to be able to put our feet in the water. It's currently fall in Chile right now, so even though it's not swimming weather, we were still able to stand on the shores and allow the water to engulf our feet and the sand around us. We were at the beach at sunset, giving us yet another beautiful view. Not only was the weather perfect in the Andes, it continued throughout the weekend. This has undoubtedly been a weekend to remember. Looking forward to entering our second week in Chile! After a weekend of excursions, we are back to classes at ECELA in the morning. Buenos noches! Please enjoy a slideshow of photos from this weekend below. :) Our days have been filled with adventure, enlightenment, new experiences, delicious food and breathtaking views! Our time in the schools has been incredible. Both Wednesday and Thursday, we visited Colegio Maestra Elsa Santibañez, located south of Santiago. Schools in Chile allow students free time every couple of hours – complete free time. The children are able to run around in the courtyard, play games (tag, sports, etc.), have fun with one another and take a break from sitting in their classroom all day. We arrived at the school on Wednesday during their afternoon recess, which was perfect timing! We walked through the courtyard, which was filled with students of all ages, after being welcomed in by teachers and administration. The children were thrilled to have some visitors, especially from the United States! We were swarmed by dozens of students, who were trying their hardest to speak to us in English. They were excited to find out that we do speak a little Spanish, too! They gave us hugs, asked us endless questions, posed with us for photos and just loved that we came all the way from New York to visit them. My heart was overflowing. We popped into a Kindergarten classroom for a few minutes before heading to the 7th grade classroom, where five of us spent the afternoon with 32 students. The teacher provided some time for us to do a lesson with the students, and Rachel jumped right in with hers! The four of us supported her thoughtful and successful lesson – the students loved it, especially the postcard activity. We observed for the remainder of the time, and we were lucky enough to be in their classroom for their English lesson. They planned an imaginary party to practice their English (describe who they would invite, what food would be there, what time, etc.). It was wonderful to use some of my Spanish to help them with their English! We returned again yesterday (Thursday), and I was able to visit a 4th grade classroom. I was also lucky enough to use one of my own lessons! I demonstrated an interactive read aloud for the teacher, to which the students responded very well. The read aloud was followed by a whole-class game (Memory). The book was about counting, so I laminated cards with numbers and number words for the students to match up. I gave the book and the cards to the teacher following my lesson, in hopes that she will be able to use them in her classroom in the future. Many educators in Chile are concerned with the lack of materials they have to use in their classrooms, especially books, so I was happy to give these to her. I enjoyed simultaneously observing her as well during our time in her classroom. She utilized song to engage the students, which is very useful in teaching. Though this would be functional anywhere in the world, teachers in Chile, for example, may rely on activities such as singing due to their lack of physical materials. This class has a daily routine of introducing the date & weather, as well as practicing days of the week and emotions – all in English! The students seemed to enjoy this time, and it is great practice for their English. I will definitely incorporate song into my teaching in the future.
Cariñosamente,
Christine
Empanadas, empanadas, empanadas – so many empanadas! We had two welcome lunches yesterday – one at ECELA, and another immediately after at Universidad Mayor. Guess what both schools served? Empanadas! The ones at ECELA were filled with meat, beans, egg, olives and cheese. I then had an empanada at UMayor with queso y tomate – it tasted a bit like pizza! After two huge empanadas, I was as stuffed as the empanadas were, but I couldn’t help but try them both. Our host mom, Maria (“Pachi”), is also wonderful. She cooks us breakfast each morning and dinner on the nights that we are home, and the presentation is always adorable! She sets up a table for two by the kitchen window, so Katie and I drink our coffee and enjoy our breakfast overlooking Santiago. Their terrace is also beautiful, and we plan to have breakfast out there soon on a warmer morning – it overlooks the Andes! Due to our host mom speaking minimal English and Katie and I speaking limited Spanish, it’s been another awesome challenge telling her all about our experiences here and learning more about each other. She sat with us at dinner tonight and despite the language barrier, we were teaching each other about irregulars in English and Spanish and laughing about silly things. I’m glad she likes to sit and chat with us, even though it is just as much as a challenge for her! Liz and I visited an English Pedagogy class today at Universidad Mayor, which consisted of students studying to become English teachers. The professor and the students were very interested in learning more about Special Education and wanted any advice we could give them when it comes to teaching students with special needs. We learned that teachers in Chile are given limited strategies to best accommodate these students (or even none at all). In an already chaotic environment (with an upwards of 40-60 students), adding a student (or multiple students) with specific needs to a classroom can cause a teacher to only focus on the students that are less demanding. This seems to be a fairly common situation in Chile, unfortunately. I am looking forward to learning more about these environments while teaching and observing.
We have our first field placement in a school tomorrow, and I’ll be going with Katie to Colegio Maestra Elsa Santibanez to observe and hopefully teach one of our pre-prepared lessons, which will contribute to our research. My only worry is not knowing the students’ level of Spanish ahead of time and whether or not they will be able to understand our interactive read aloud lesson. We will have to modify as we go, but that’s part of the learning experience! Chau for now! I am still adjusting to the fact that we have flown nine hours to an entirely different continent, hovering an entirely different ocean, using an entirely different language. In case you’re wondering, I’m actually just going to completely block out the sleepless flight for most of us that departed from Atlanta last night at 10:30 PM and landed in Santiago at 7:30 AM this morning. It's safe to say it wasn’t my best night of sleep. Katie and I have a warm and welcoming host family, which consists of only a mom and a son, who speak very minimal English. We are up for the challenge of learning to communicate more and more with them as these three weeks continue! We spent most of today unpacking, settling in and getting lunch with our Buffalo State group. Tomorrow is our first day at ECELA, our Spanish class, and I am looking forward to beginning to build on my Spanish foundation (which has very much crumbled over the past few years from lack of use, unfortunately). We’ll be meeting people from various areas of the world, and as the Social Butterfly, it’ll be my job to reach out to them and introduce our group… I can’t wait to find out who we’ll meet! I'm also excited to see our Universidad Mayor friends!!
Thankful to have gotten here safely, thankful for our group of girls (plus Justin, of course), and thankful for all of the support I have been given in preparation for this experience. So thankful. Our exciting day of travel to Chile has finally arrived, and I can't help but quote Dr. Seuss - one of my very favorite children’s literature authors. In Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, Dr. Seuss writes, “You’re off to great places, today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so… get on your way!” I find this to be perfectly fitting for this experience, as TODAY we are off to CHILE. Figuratively, our mountain of adventure (our work in the schools, exploring Santiago, our Spanish class, etc.) is waiting, but, in a literal sense, the Andes Mountains are waiting for us, too. I still cannot begin to imagine what is in store for us these next few weeks, but I am ready to savor every moment. We will soon be on our way!
As we near our last Chile class on Buffalo State’s campus together as a cohort, I can only reflect on how far we have come in such a seemingly short semester this has been. We have been given a variety of tools to succeed down in Chile – especially learning strategies to most effectively teach English Language Learners (lots of repetition, manipulatives, visuals, group interactions, etc.!). I’m curious to find out how our ECELA (Spanish immersion) class will be structured, and if we will see similar approaches to these while they are teaching us Spanish. Of course, I am excited to implement my instructional activities and lessons while actually in our Chilean classrooms – contributing to both my teaching experience and research on interactive read alouds. A few of us are exploring whether interactive read alouds might be an effective approach for Chilean classrooms. We will have the opportunity to demonstrate different teaching methods and materials for the teachers to possibly begin to use in the future. I truly hope we are able to have a positive impact on these students and teachers, as I know they will on us. To put it more simply: I just cannot wait!
Last week’s class meeting included the assignment of our travel roles, or “jobs” for each of us while we are down in Chile – such as the Navigator (helps the group find their way around), the Translator (helps the group communicate with others in Spanish), the Planner (always knows our schedule of events), our “Mamá” (looks out for the health well-being of each of us), and several others! I was, very appropriately, assigned the role of the Social Butterfly. I’m not sure I really see this as a job any more than I see it as my natural way of life (I tend to make friends everywhere I go), so I’m looking forward to having more of a reason to take this quality with me to Chile. We were finally assigned our host families a few days ago! To really put a cherry on top of all the excitement, I learned that I will be living with Katie, who has truly become my best friend over the past year. We endured the ever-dreaded Block 1 (but totally awesome – hi, Dr. Z!) together, and most importantly, we ultimately made the decision together to apply for the IPDS Chile 2017 experience. We hoped to have the experience together (whether we lived with the same host family or not), but now we really can! I’m glad we will be there to provide support – emotionally and physically – for each other, that I am sure we will both need at times. For now, working on packing, preparing instructional materials and tying up various loose ends before travel remain at the top of my list – my many, many lists. It’s tough having to first finish up other obligations of this semester – finals week is among us, amigos – before getting to focus solely on preparing for travel. I am a bit in denial that we are leaving for Chile in 13 days, 6 hours and 25 minutes, but who’s counting? |
Bienvenidos!
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