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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!
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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? Yesterday, Saturday, April 29th, officially marked three weeks until we embark on a journey that has awaited us all semester. I can’t begin to count the number of times I stopped to think, “Wait, we leave three weeks from today?” It is unreal that we have so little time left in the States to prepare ourselves culturally, academically, and financially as well. It feels like I just received the email telling me the incredible news that I have been accepted to participate in IPDS Chile 2017. I have continuously felt an incredible amount of certainty that this IPDS experience will change me for the better, as both a person and an educator. I know that the semester flying by means that our time in Chile will do the same, but this only shows me how much I’ll need to absorb each and every second down in Santiago. I am feeling ecstatic, nervous, appreciative, anxious and so joyful pondering what I could possibly be about to experience. Though I have been out of the country to Poland before, this will be my first academic-related travel abroad experience. Our group of nine girls (and our three incredible professors!) have spent the past few months growing as a cohort, group of teachers, and most importantly, as a family. I cannot wait to spend the three weeks together, immersing ourselves in all that Chile has to offer. Of course, I am beyond thrilled to see our Universidad Mayor friends again very soon! I am glad we had the opportunity to meet them when they visited Buffalo in January & February – I am excited that they will be there to show us around the city! Our host families, Chilean students, Universidad Mayor friends, the Andes Mountains, an endless amount of opportunity and lots of new foods to try (!!!) await us… Here’s to an experience of a lifetime!
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Bienvenidos!
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