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We started our second week of the trip by going to Santa Lucia Hill, La Moneda, and the Central Market with Paul, Fernanda, and Rosa. Paul and Fernanda are our friends from the U Mayor delegation that came to Buffalo in February and Rosa is the faculty member from the English Pedagogy program who came with them! First we went to Santa Lucia Hill which is the historical point where Santiago and, eventually, Chile began. At the top of the hill we had an amazing view of the city. Then we went to La Moneda. This is where the president of Chile works. It is similar in appearance to the White House. We ended our day by going to the Central Market for a seafood lunch. The market was similar to those in movies because there were many different kinds of fish stacked up on the counters. The food was great, but the smell… not so much!
On Monday we began our field placements in Chilean schools. I went to Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna. It is a girls only public school in the city. It is one of the few single sex public schools left in the area. The layout of the school building creates an enclosed area for the children to play during recess. In Chile students get 15 minutes of recess for every 90 minutes of instructional time. When we arrived at the school I saw students jumping rope, playing Twister and hopscotch, and playing tag. The school does not have a playground so there are different things painted on the concrete for students to use. There were not many adults supervising the children. In fact, a teacher saw Krista, Dr. del Prado, and I watching the students during recess and told us to go inside. We think that she thought we would like it better inside, but we were actually very interested in what the children were doing during recess. Dr. del Prado, Krista, and I went to two English classes. The English teacher pushes into the classrooms for 90 minute lessons. The teacher candidate, Daniela, taught the first class (3rd grade) and the English teacher, David, taught the second class (4th grade). Daniela had the students work on practicing a dialogue about transportation. She went over a PowerPoint presentation and had the students practice the dialogue verbally and eventually they cut, organized, and pasted a dialogue in their notebooks. On Wednesday we went to Ben’s school, República de Siria. On this day Ben was teaching 2nd graders. They were learning songs to sing for the upcoming English week. The students sang songs such as Happy by Pharrell Williams and Everybody by the Backstreet Boys. Kayla, Dr. del Prado, Ben, Ben’s mentor teacher, and I pulled small groups to practice singing the songs. We had so much fun working with the students and it was obvious that they were having fun too! I was impressed by the way Ben managed the class. I recognized some of the strategies he used to get the attention of his students like callbacks, claps, and telling the students to hold a bubble in their mouths. He told me that he got some of these strategies when he visited the Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy in Buffalo. The major difference between schools in Chile and schools in the United States is that there are double, if not more, students in Chilean classrooms than in the United States. They can have up to 45 students with only one teacher. The teacher candidates from U Mayor were jealous when I told them that I only had 16 students in my class for my field placement in Lake Shore. I think that such a large amount of students requires the teachers to be very creative when it comes to developing activities that are fun and engaging but also maintain some sense of order in the classroom. Another difference I noticed is that students and teachers are more affectionate towards each other in Chile. The students often swarm their teachers with hugs and give them different treats. I also saw that David (the English teacher at Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna) gave all of his students a hug and kiss on the cheek when they were leaving for the day. He said that many of his students have difficult pasts or home lives and he hopes that they feel loved and secure in his classroom. In particular, I know that a few of his students are from Venezuela. David said that he thinks of all of his students as his own daughters. Visiting the schools was the perfect opportunity to practice my Spanish speaking skills. The students knew very little English so I had to find a way to communicate with them in Spanish as well. We all felt like celebrities at the schools because the students were very excited to meet people from the United States. They asked what we liked about Chile, if we knew Donald Trump, and our favorite foods, colors, and songs. It was fun sharing with the students! We finished the week by going to Valentina’s house. She is another U Mayor student who went to Buffalo in February. Her mom prepared classic Chilean dishes for us such as empanadas, sopapillas, pebre, pastel de choclo, and homemade bread. Valentina’s mom thanked us all for coming and gave us all bracelets that say Chile. It was very special and I’m so thankful for the friendships we have made with the U Mayor students. Every day in Chile is a day well spent!
2 Comments
Dr. Patti
6/26/2019 01:46:18 pm
It sounds like you had wonderful experiences in the schools. That is so cool that Benjamin was using strategies in the classroom that he learned here in Buffalo. I am sure soon you will be using strategies that you learned while in Chile! :)
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Solicitar un préstamo ahora
1/23/2024 03:18:37 pm
Buenos días señor / señora,
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Author¡Hola! My name is Kelly and I am an undergraduate student studying elementary education at Buffalo State. This is the first time I will be traveling outside the United States and Canada. I am very excited about the opportunity to learn more about Chilean culture, work with English language learners, improve my Spanish skills, and conduct research! I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my Chilean adventures! ArchivesCategories |