I'm a teacher?

Yep, I’m a teacher. I have a big girl job. It’s kind of weird.

I’m teaching four basic English classes and one intermediate class. Next week I’ll have a class of fellow teachers as well.

Classes meet twice a week for an hour and a half each class. One weird thing is that the classes don’t meet at the same time or in the same room for the second class in the week. For example, I have one class that meets on Mondays at 1:45 and Fridays at 8:30 in the morning. I think the way Witt does it is a bit easier.

Three of my basic classes have 18 students each (18 is the maximum students allowed in the class). The other basic class and the intermediate class have only about 7 students each. It’s nice having both bigger classes and smaller classes. It’s easier to do activities with the bigger classes, but I can give more attention to the students in the smaller classes.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my long days. I have a class at 11:30 and another one at 7pm. I don’t go home because my commute is about 25 minutes long and 600 pesos each way, so I just hang out in the teacher’s lounge. It helps there’s a mall right next to the school and a grocery store right there too.

Students are still enrolling so they’re getting their books this week finally. I’ve been making up my own activities and lesson plans for class.  In my basic classes, we’ve covered greetings, basic phrases, the present tense, etc. I think I’ve realized that English makes no sense and it’s not that easy to teach it. There are always exceptions to the rules on our language. Oh well, it’ll be done!

Some of my students have had English before…others know absolutely nothing. I was surprised the first day of teaching because my intermediate class, who have taken a whole year of English, don’t know hardly anything it seems. I’ve spoken mostly in English in class, but sometimes I have to speak a little Spanish. Guess I have to give it time. Most of them seem like that want to learn so hopefully that continues!

I think that's everything about school.....ask me if not!

view of the Andes from the school

view of the courtyard from above

classrooms

one of the classrooms I teach in

teaching my intermediate students "used to." I'm a wonderful artist, I know.

the mall right next to the school

I made it!

Well, I made it to Santiago last Sunday, the 20^th. My flights weren’t too bad…got to fly through Canada…fun, eh? I made it to the hostel..got somewhat settled and took a walk and hung out with some fellow teachers. 

Monday, three other teachers and I took a bus to Viña del Mar/Valparaiso. The two cities are very close to each other and right on the Pacific coast. It was cloudy, but we went to the beach to hang out..and I still managed to get a sunburn. We left the beach and after looking up and down the city for an open liquor store, we drank some beer for the rest of the afternoon/night. We were pretty proud of ourselves the following day because we did something educational- we went to Pablo Neruda’s house in Valparaiso, “La Sebastiana.” If you don’t know who Neruda is check out this link: http://www.fundacionneruda.org/en/pablo-neruda/biographic-chronology.html

Wednesday, we took a bus to Con Con, a town a bit north of Valpo, also on the coast. Our mission: eat empanadas at Las Deliciosas. If you’re familiar with Anthony Bourdain’s show on the Travel Channel, No Reservations, then check out his show on Chile. Las Deliciosas was featured on his show.

At Las Deliciosas

The rest of the day was spent at the beach and the evening was spent at a bar and a club in Valpo with some Chileans.

Left- white wine and strawberries, Right- Pisco sour

Empanada that I ate

Thursday, we were lucky enough to receive an invitation to go to the house of a family member of one of the fellow teachers in Algorrobo, another small town on the coast- this time south of Vina. We arrived in the early afternoon and were lucky enough to have a huge typical Chilean lunch- the first course was an empanada  and a pisco sour and a drink of white wine and strawberries. The second course was a soup with a bunch of seafood and onions and tomato. We finished with fruit and a nap followed that. It was such a huge and delicious meal and it was great company with Spanish all around.

We spent the night at their darling house. Friday, we took a long walk on the beach (check the vid), had a smaller lunch this time, and went back to Santiago to find the rest of the teachers that have arrived while we were gone. 

On Saturday morning, we met the TeachingChile coordinators and went over some information. This week is a week of training and classes start the 7^th of March…so soon!

With any hostel, internet connection is hard to get sometimes, so my addiction to Facebook and technology is getting better…I have a cell phone here but I don’t use it too much at all. It’ll be nice when I have a routine when school starts…I’m so used to using my planner and having a schedule. Overall, everything is going well…met some great people and had some great times. We’ve given each other nicknames (apodos) already….Mine is “patita”…little duck in Spanish because I’m usually with 6 foot girls who walk a lot faster than me…I’m always in the back. 

For all of my study abroad amigos- Pio Nono looks the same, I saw the pregnant lady on the Nono, I've visited the school (still the same) but have not walked over the bridge that we walked over many times or visited La Dominica yet. 

That’s about all for now. Feel free to comment! :) Hasta luego!