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It feels amazing to lay in bed and relax after a day of adventure. My feet are snuggled against the soft blankets. The past two days have been full of education. My first placement took place at Colegio República de Siria, an elementary school in Chile. The school is built like a motel, as in the classrooms are built on the inside but when you walk outside of the classroom, you are outside. Carmen and I stopped for Middle Eastern food before heading over to the subway to meet Benjamin. He was taking us to our placement to show us what teaching in Santiago is all about. The food was delicious and the waitress did not speak english so Carmen and I paired up to determine how to ask the waitress we wanted the food to go and that we wanted to pay for it right away. The waitress was able to pick up on what we wanted by us using hand gestures and speaking slowly. Carmen wanted to tell the waitress that the money we left was a tip and I said, “Propina!” and she smiled and said “Muchas gracias!” Dr. Schmidt, Carmen, and I jumped on the subway and headed to Benjamin’s school. Ben is an English teacher. English teachers are foreign language teachers here in Chile because the common language in Spanish. Being an English teacher in Chile is like being a Spanish teacher in the USA. Ben’s placement was in first grade. I was looking forward to working in a first grade room because my favorite grade is first grade! The classroom had a projector and the alphabet lined the top of the walls. It had about thirty students. Chilean schools have many more students than in the USA. The rooms can have about 45 students. The children were VERY cute. I went over to a group of girls and they were learning things such as the colors, how to say their name, and the date in English. I wrote sentences in Spanish to them on the white board and I spoke to them in Spanish. I was there to help them learn English but at the same time, they were helping me to learn English! The end of the year project for the first graders was to learn how to sing a song in English and sing it to the entire school. The children could pick out what song they wanted and the groups chose We Will Rock You by Queen, Sorry by Justin Bieber, Wannabe by Spice Girls, Diamonds by Rihanna and more. The students were given the lyrics and they were asked to read the lyrics and sing the song. It was a bit challenging for the students who has Wannabe by the Spice Girls because lyrics reads, “zigazig ah” and the children could not make the “z” sound. I couldn’t help but smile when the children tried to say “zigazig ah” because the could not make the sound but they kept smiling and repeating it back to me when I told them to repeat after me. I took the other groups of children out into the hallway with other songs and one boy memorized parts of the song just by hearing it! Music from the United States is very popular in Chile and not only Chile, but all over the world. During recess, the children play outside in the courtyard located in the middle of the school. Colegio República de Siria reminded me of the schools I’ve had placements in the USA but with much less technology.
Today, I had a placement that really touched me. Abby and I went to a middle school to do our English teaching placement. The commute was an hour and a half and we went with a Universidad Mayor student, Steve. Steve is going to be an English teacher in Santiago and his placement is to teach middle schoolers English. First, we took the subway to get us to the correct bus stop. It was still dark outside because it was so early in the morning. I watched the city of Santiago wake up. In Santiago, many people do not drive because Santiago is similar to New York City it is much easier to use public transportation. It can get you wherever you need to be. Men and women in business attire boarded the and subway ready to start their work day. We arrived at the school. It is in a low income area. The school does not have technology and the teachers do not have computers in their classrooms. The classroom was barren and there was not many materials. The school held a special breakfast for Abby and I. They gave us peach juice, tea, coffee, and Chilean sandwiches made of pepper and chicken. The principal, director of pedagogy and the school staff continuously thanked Abby and I for our dedication to teaching the children English. During our breakfast, the principal took a phone call from the superintendent of the school to tell him about us. The seventh graders were completely amazed by Abby and I. They asked us what we thought of our president (we were asked this question many times by students throughout the trip), what we thought of Santiago, and if speaking Spanish was difficult for me. The eighth graders were even more excited about us being there. A girl named Catalina said she could not breath because she was speaking to someone from the United States. She started jumping up and down and was completely star struck. In front of the entire class, she told me how beautiful I was. If I had a dollar for every time I was called beautiful today, I would be rich! One of the activities I brought for the children was the fly swatter game. I taped words of fruits in English onto the white board. I called out the Spanish name for the words on the white board and the students had to swat the world that was the English word for the Spanish word I said. The students worked in teams and they had so much fun! I felt great that I was getting them to learn and have a good time! Their smiles made my day. The highlight of my day was during the lunch period of the middle school placement. The principal, director, and teachers went into the principal's office to award Abby and I a certificate and pin for our work in the school. They took pictures of us and pinned us. I decided to give Steve my gift from Buffalo during this time. The gifts I brought to Chile for the Universidad Mayor students were sponge candy packs from Fowlers because what could be more Buffalo then sponge candy?! He was grateful and I said, “You can only get that in Buffalo!” Today opened my eyes to what schools are like in different countries. Overall, kids are kids no matter where you go!
3 Comments
Dr. Patti
6/14/2019 01:02:43 pm
Hi Karly. I love reading about the activities you did in the schools and how engaged the Chilean students were. Thank you for writing such a detailed blog post. I like how you wrapped up your blog post by stating that "kids are kids no matter where you go." I think this is a great takeaway message. :)
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Dan
6/15/2019 07:55:22 am
Awesome blog post! It's very interesting to hear how schools in other countries function when compared to the ones we have in the States. I'm surprised that their assignment is to be able to sing a whole song, but it sounds like a fun challenge. Keep up the great work with your well detailed posts!
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Solicitar un préstamo ahora
2/5/2024 10:54:38 am
Buenos días señor / señora,
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Author My name is Karly and I am an Early Childhood and Childhood Education major with a concentration in Spanish. I love learning Spanish and I hope to be bilingual one day. I wanted to travel to Chile to help me become a better Spanish speaker and to see ArchivesCategories |