Trabajo

I am writing this in high spirits, mainly because outside my window Feliz Navidad is playing somewhere at full volume.  Christmas in October… I’m ok with that.

Well since the majority of my life here is spent working, I figured that I should talk a little bit about what I do here.  I work in a building called Genesis (pronounced “henesis”) with an organization called MCM, or Ministerios Christiana Mayordomia.  This translates to Stewardship of Christian Ministries, or SCM (this gets confusing when you consider that I am also here with the organization MCC, which in Spanish is CCM).  MCM has a few big projects like community gardens for single moms, a banking/loan problem to help people (mostly single moms) start small businesses, and day cares.  The biggest of their programs, though, is the elementary and high school called El Verbo.  The elementary school is preschool through 6^th grade, and the high school is a short walk up the hill.  This school is connected to the Sala Evangelica, where my family and I go to church.  Almost all of the Genesis staff attend this church as well, which is helpful for getting to know people in both places.  The school is Christ-centered, which means there are devotions Monday and Friday mornings, Bible classes, and LOTS of Bible songs.  .  It is a private school, but it is still very poor and just about all of the students are living in some degree of poverty. Although it has its problems, like all schools do, I have come to love this place and the people in it.  

As many of you know, I am working in the elementary school library… mostly.  Upon arriving here I learned that this would be my main responsibility, but I will most likely also be helping in some classrooms, working in the colegio (high school) library, and leading a teacher training later in the year.  The first few weeks that I was here, I spent almost all day every day observing in different classrooms in order to get to know the teachers, students, and the various methods of teaching/discipline.  I won’t lie—these first couple weeks were a shocker to say the least.  I had just finished my student teaching in May, where I had learned and practiced how to maintain a very organized, orderly classroom.  I’m struggling with how to put into words how different my experience was here.  Expectations for behavior seem to be very different here, as are procedures for discipline.  Basically what I’m saying is, there aren’t many… or sometimes any.  Of course, every teacher has different methods and expectations and I honestly felt like I learned from each one.  I don’t believe these differences are wrong, they are just different from what I was taught.  Here is a typical scenario of what one of these observations looked like:  I walk into a classroom, and explain to the teacher in my broken Spanish that I will be observing in their classroom.  I take a seat; 5 minutes later, the teacher leaves.  They might come back half way through the class period (which is 45 minutes long), or not.  Meanwhile, the kids go nuts.  They start yelling, running/jumping over things, fighting.  At first I was completely stressed out trying to calm the kids down and break up the fights.  After talking to my supervisor about this, I was told that I was not expected to actually do anything in these situations; the teacher probably just thought that since I was an adult sitting in the room, this would be a good opportunity to do other things.  Many times, even when the teacher is there, the kids are doing their own thing.  And many times, the teacher seems to be ok with it.  Although I struggled with this, I eventually stopped getting so overwhelmed when it happened.  I took the opportunity to get to know the kids and practice my Spanish.  I sometimes read books to small groups of kids.  It’s amazing how hungry for attention and love these kids are.  I feel like I get a million hugs a day, which I can’t complain about.  I also found some teaching methods that I really like here, some that I had never been taught in the U.S.   I actually wrote a report for the principal about some positive and negative teaching methods that I observed… if you’d like to read it please let me know I’ll be happy to send it to you.  It is in Spanish though.  :) 

 

Now that my orientation/observation period is over I am spending almost all day, every day, in the library.  I love it!  Yesterday I finally finished organizing all of the English books (there are over 600 of them… doesn’t that seem a little silly in a school where kids only speak Spanish?).  They are now color-coded by level and sorted by subject and alphabetized.  That feels like a huge accomplishment for me, and I just hope they get some use at some point.  Now I’m on to organizing the Spanish cuentos, and when I finish that I’ll work on the teacher resources and textbooks. I don’t have a lot of resources to work with, but I’m learning to be creative with what I do have.  Last month, I started an after-school reading program for 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders.  Every day I read with kids during their recess time, for about an hour and a half total.  November is the end of the school year, so lately I have been planning summer vacation reading programs for the kids.  I’m also hoping to start up an English club for some older kids.  Some of my other responsibilities this year will be to host each class in the library twice a week, visit and read to kids in the day cares, paint and decorate the library, create a simple card catalog system, create a check-out system for teachers (kids are not allowed to check out books), and work in the high school library.  

When I write it out, it sounds like a lot.  So far I am not overwhelmed (ok, sometimes I am)… mostly I am just excited.  I am gradually feeling a little bit more a part of the school, and I am (I hope!) making the library a more fun place to be.  Something I have been thinking about lately is that, in one year, I am not going to do much to improve students’ reading skills.  I probably will not make much of a direct impact on their lives at all.  So even though my title is “Reading program coordinator” I think there are other things that I need to focus on.  I want to emphasize respect and sharing in my classes.  I want them to know that the library can be a fun place and more importantly, a safe place to be.  And I want the library to be arranged in a way that makes sense and is easy to use, so that after I leave it can continue to be used by students and teachers.   Those are my goals.

One benefit of working here is that every night I bring home 3 or 4 books to read to my brothers, Paolo (6) and Hector (3).  They love this.  The second I walk in the door they attack me and ask, “Trajo mas libros?  Libros de dinosaurios?”  They are obsessed with dinosaurs. When I say yes, they scream and flail around uncontrollably.  Did I mention that they are the cutest little kids ever?   On a side note, last night I taught them how to do the Macarena.  It was maybe the funniest thing I have ever seen.  

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read these.  I love getting emails from you, and it’s nice to know that people are thinking of me.  I’m thinking of you too.  :)