I know I said this last time, but bit by bit I'm going to try and recap life's happenings. The holiday break and many graduate school and scholarship applications have slowed me down... but first things first I'll recap on teaching, as that's what I came here to do! Life at school has become more "normal". I have a weekly routine, I'm slowly but surely learning the names of all 162 students I teach. I feel like I'm learning each of their personalities, their life stories every once in awhile. Thursday I spoke with one of my 14-year old students during a small group conversation focused on pronunciation, vocabulary, etc. We talked about what we do during holidays and summer-time. I learned that he was from Poland and that he goes back to visit family every year, or at least whenever possible. I'm amazed by some of the students in that class. He learned Polish as a first language, grew up in Spain so obviously speaks Spanish fluently, and is basically fluent in English as well. On top of that he's learning French and wants to learn Russian. The other student I was working with knows Spanish and English pretty much fluently, and is also good at French and is now picking up German. It reminded me how there are so many people in other countries in the world that can speak and understand so many languages! Of course it's especially important for people living in the EU, but I think it should be more of a priority everywhere. I can't even imagine having a bilingual school such as this one being the norm back home. For many students in this school, at least 50% of their classes are entirely in English. It makes me ponder what it would be like to have that the other way around in the States!
So now that I feel more comfortable at school, I've been able to really enjoy the experiences I have during classes. Not that I didn't before, but my first weeks of running around frantic are finally over. It didn't help to be thrown into the middle of the first trimester of course. But we are now in the second trimester, and I'm fully involved in the course planning and curriculum from start to finish. I have a grasp of what will be covered from now until the end of the school year in each of my classes.
In my first-year art classes, we are finishing up a unit on famous artists. Each student was assigned an artist. First they had to write a paper about the artist's life, painting style, and famous paintings. Depending on the fluency level, some classes wrote it entirely in English and others in Spanish with an English summary. Grading those 80 papers was quite the task... but it was fun too. I loved seeing the kids try so hard and so many really made such an effort at trying to capture what they wanted to say in English. Sometimes I'd come across a few words that looked like jibberish. It'd take some deciphering.. but usually I'd be able to figure it out and correct them! It actually helped me see what words and phrases they have the toughest time with, so that now I can do my best to correct them in the future. After the paper they did three drawings, replicas of famous paintings by their artist. The first drawing was to be solely in dots (pointillism), the second with only lines, and third with small cut-up pieces of paper. So many of them turned out great! It took several weeks and much patience, but they're all turned in and complete. This week they've been doing roleplays of their particular artist. Some of the less fluent students had trouble (as the presentations are fully in English), but I just had on Friday my 1A class, and they did fantastic! A couple of them even re-enacted their artist coming back to life and incorporated us as the audience into their play. It was amazing to see it all come together, and their full effort memorizing it all.
In my 3rd year art classes we just finished a several week project as well. They started with making a portfolio book that included all their brainstorming and research. For some students, it was tough for them to step out of the box and let their creatively run wild in the books. I think they're used to having strict guidelines to follow. But some really did have fun! They finished the assignment by using their research to create large posters on a particular topic high school students can relate to: bullying, anorexia, smoking, eating healthy, bilingual education, doing sports, etc. The creative process for this project reminded me of the graphic design projects I did in University. Felt good to put those ideas to good use! Was a funny moment introducing them all to Pinterest.. it was something none of them had ever heard of. But after explaining it, some of the girls were really excited about it! Hopefully they won't get as addicted to it as I do...
In my science classes I´ve been doing a variety of things. I spend several of them translating labs and articles for the teacher I work with. She has so many experiments and assignments she's used over the years that she wants to continue using, but with the switch to teaching in solely in English, she hasn't had the time to translate them all. So I do that for her, and it actually helps my Spanish vocabulary too!
I also do some lessons and labs with the students. Today I taught about the heart and circulatory system, and last week I had a bit of an incident... we were doing a lab on tobacco smoke. We replicated our lungs using a water bottle and lit a cigarette. Long story short, the cigarette wasn´t completely out when we went to throw it out and it caught a tissue on fire. I stepped on it and put it out by dumping water on it, but it could have been disastrous since one of the students almost threw it out the window into a bunch of brush and bushes.. would not have ended well. After that experience I am much more aware of the dangers that can occur with even the simplest lab experiments!
Okay I realize I´m writing pages of information on every specific thing in my classes, so I'll wrap it up. We just finished reading a book called Bodega Bay in my 1B English class, they're exam is next week. If this class wasn´t so loud it would have been easier, but hopefully they got something out of it.
In technology with the first-year students we just finished tables on tools and for third-years we have been learning Microsoft Access and how to create databases. It was my first time using the program, but it´s especially helpful to know for data entry!
Oh and here's a picture of my sunrise from a few weeks ago while I waited for my 2nd bus in the morning. The sun is slowly starting to come up earlier!!
Sorry for no other pictures in this post, I don't take my camera to school much. But I promise there will be many more to come!
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