Kyle Posts 2 Blogs in One Day!?

The Situation So Far...

When we first arrived in Pichilemu, the town looked much bigger than what I had been expecting. Everyone that we had talked to about our teaching situations had made it sound like it was straight out of Little House on the Prairie. Pichilemu is actually not that bad, but for me, in the Rural schools, man where they right. The second day we were here, we spent the better part of it driving out to the 4 schools I was assigned to. Panul, Barrancas, Ciruelos and La Villa. The largest class consists of 18 students, the smallest one being Ciruelos at a whopping 8. The thought that kept running through my mind, as we drove from school to school was, “how the hell am I supposed to get out here.” As of now, I still don't know what they were thinking. Each of the little towns are about 18 kms from Pichilemu and about 5 km from each other. I don't have a car and there is one bus that sometimes goes to 3 of the schools. For Panul and Ciruelos, the professors come to pick me up in the morning and drop me off in the evening. It only took a little over a month for us to figure this system out. It's obviously very complicated >,<>

So as of now, my week is supposed to look something like this. Monday, relax, no school. Tuesday, the professor from Panul picks me up in the morning, I teach the first half of the students for a good 45 minutes before they start to loose interest. We eat lunch and I do the same thing with the other half of the students. At 5, Don Francisco takes me home. Wednesday, I get up at 6:30 so I can eat and get ready to leave the house by 7 so I can make it to the bus stop at 7:30. I then wait for 15 to 45 minutes for the bus to come. Of the past three times I have waited, it has come once. Thursday, Don Carlos from Ciruelos picks me up, I repeat the same process of 45 min teaching, 1hr 15 min of talking to myself, Lunch, repeat, home. Friday, I'm not really sure what I am supposed to be doing but so far it hasn't really mattered, in fact, I have yet to have had a solid week without interruptions. The first week after my new and improved schedule was organized, We had a slough of meetings to go to. The next week, we had to go to San Fernando to clear up the mess with our Identification cards. See Van's blog for the beef on that one. This week, more mess with Identity and now I have a cold! I just don't know when things are finally going to get into some kind of a routine around here. I am starting to think that routines just don't exist in Chile. Nothing seems to function the way it should.

I am becoming more and more tranquilo each day. I am starting to realize that while things don't run as they should around here, no one really expects them to. As long as no one is getting mad at us for the inefficiency of others, why should it bother us so much? In the end, they are the ones that suffer for it. I know that sounds a bit harsh but the truth is, we came here to help. If they don't want it, what will getting all worked up about it do to help the situation? Instead, I think we are all coming to the realization that we just have to take things day by day and hope that, at some point, we will actually teach some kids some English.

Kyle Finally Posts a Blog!!!

Ciruelos

Ciruelos is undoubtedly my most interesting school. Not my best behaved, but the most interesting.The professor there is Don Carlos Leyton. He is really something else. His father was one of the first students there and later became the professor of the school, then handed down the position to his son. The school itself has been around since I don't know when and it's age is really starting to show. It's a one building school that has been divided into two parts. One half is the classroom and the other half is Don Carlos' office that seconds as a classroom and thirds as the computer lab/tv room. They do have a computer, which is a pretty big step up for them but the tv gets one channel and there is no vcr. There are 4 other buildings on the school grounds. The kitchen, the museum, the bathrooms and another building slightly bigger than a tool shed that I think might be the wood working shop.

The Ciruelos Museum is, by far, the nicest building on the property. It's pretty much a three room house that has been converted. The displays consist of some rather interesting artifacts belonging to the Mapuche culture that once thrived in the region and the Incans as well. Another section is mostly old machines from the turn of the century including a huge old movie projector that still works and a collection of fire arms. Don Carlos has also amounted a very impressive taxidermy collection that I honestly have to say I was a bit concerned about. I appreciate the scientific aspect, but some of the species he has in the collection are very much endangered and a few may even be extinct. I know that Don Carlos is not capable of driving a species to extinction himself but I am afraid that he may impart the human superiority mentality necessary to amount such a collection on to the students. The is a mind set that, I am afraid is far too common here in Chile. Animals just aren't thought of the same way here as they are in the States. Animal protection is a new thing here and I don't think it's caught on in the country yet. The crowning glory of the Museum's collection is a huge, eight foot tall Leather back turtle that according to Don Carlos was caught just off of Punto de Lobos about 5 years ago.

The students have been pretty great so far. Most of them are very interested in learning English and all eight of them really enjoy having a new face around to talk to and play with. As far as school is concerned though, we are all kind of at ground zero. Basics are still a struggle. Numbers, letters, how are you, what's your name, etc. The way it goes now is, I spend 4 hours a day with the older kids and 4 hours with the younger ones, split up by recess, lunch and snack time. This is a really easy schedule for me to work with, but it's not very conducive to them actually learning. They loose interest fast and when they aren't paying attention, there's really no point for me to keep talking.

Last time I went out was a very interesting day. I have learned to be much more laid back about things around here and as such, I wasn't just itching to get them back in the classroom. So, when I saw Don Carlos going into the forest with a couple of students from the other class, I decided that was a good time to call it a day and see what they were up to. What I saw, when I caught up with them, made my heart rate double. One of the older boys, Sergio, 10, was revving up a chainsaw with no gloves, no safety glasses and obviously no real training. About ten feet away from Sergio, two of the girls from the class were crouched at the base of a tree, hacking away with hatchets. Don Carlos meanwhile, was swinging away, Paul Bunyon style, with what looked to me to be a two headed battle ax. After I came out of my state of shock at the situation, I ran over to Sergio who had just gotten the chainsaw running and put my sunglasses on his face. I turned to see how the girls were coming along just in time to see one of them barrel roll out of the way of the falling tree without a second to spare. After four trees had been cut, they were taken away by some guy in a truck and I still don't know what for. It was the most interesting time I have had yet teaching English. That day the students learned the words tree, ax, hatchet, chainsaw, and the two most important words of the day, safety and TIMBER!!!

The Chile School System

The United States schools are divided into two seperate sectors, private, and public. The Chilean schools are divided into three, 1)public, 2)private, and 3)half public and half private. The half private, half public, and the full private schools are able to pick which students are allowed to attend. The other schools have no decision making power and accept all students. However, unlike in the US, there are no school districts directing which school a student must attend. The parents have a choice of which school their child may attend, allowing that the school has openings. For example, there are many rural towns within a thirty minute drive of Pichilemu, with their own schools located within the town, but because the parents can elect their choice school, I have many students in my schools from the rural towns. These students live in boarding houses during the week, to avoid the cost of transportation, and then live with their parents on the weekend.
I am working at two basico public schools, Divino Maestro and Digna Camilo. Basico means that the students range from pre-kinder to 8th grade. It is a combination of elementary and middle school. These schools, although similar, have differences as well. For instance Digna Camilo is a much older school and has been around since the begining of time, at least Pichilemu's time. Divino Maestro is brand spanking new and was built two years ago, primarily because there was a need for another school for students from the rural areas. Because there seems to be a lack of available teachers, some from Digna Camilo were reassigned to the new school. Evidently there was no option for the teachers to stay or go, they were told what they would do, and they obeyed. Something that all Chilean public schools have in common is a general lack of funding and materials. Books are almost always available, but projectors, radios, televisions any other teaching supplements are not provided or available.
When I say that I am working at these schools, I should clarify that I am a volunteer at these schools. Schools with english programs apply for volunteers through the Ministry of Education and a volunteer is assigned. There is supposed to be this rigorous process with many different requirements but the only real requirment seems to be having a school and frankly, none of us really understand why they choose the schools they do. As a volunteer with English Opens Doors, my only requirements seem to be that I speak English and I have a degree (not that they have seen it or asked for it.) I am then assigned to an English teacher in a designated school, that I am supposed to work with. We divide the classes up into 20 and 20 and after 45 minutes, we switch groups. I am to work with listening and speaking while the other teacher works with reading and writting. Our plans are supposed to correspond with each other, but at the moment, I am breaking the rules and focusing soley on getting the kids to the level of understanding and responding to basic questions such as "What is your name? and "How are you?" Interestingly, the kids hear the question "How are you?" everyday, and respond in unision "Fine, Thank you." but have no idea as to what they are saying. For all they know or care, they are saying, "I am a monkey and you are too!"

The school buildings are incredibly poorly built out of concrete, and without insulation or temperature control additives such as heaters or ACs. Because South America is in the Southern Hemisphere, we are in Fall, which in Region 6 is not an extremely cold season, and in fact very close to the temperatures in central Texas, but because no public buildings have heaters the buildings contain the cold as if it were their sole purpose for standing. The schools might as well be the Ice Palace in Narnia with the only difference being the addition of desks and a white board. Unfortunatly, although I teach in the Ice Palace, I lack the power to freeze any students who deserve the ice staff, which happens to be all of them. I feel like the buildings are taunting me sticking their cold, concrete tongues out in a way only a school can, chanting "just try to teach students, who all need Ridalin and corpral punishment, and as an added bonus, you'll have to keep moving around to avoid from freezing to the desk!" Ok, so my students haven't frozen to their desks yet, and I don't think we are actually located in Narnia, but I truly wear gloves, a hat and three layers of clothes to school in Fall because it is colder inside the classrooms than outside. The teachers, during their breaks, drink tea and coffee, not for the taste I don't think but for a substitute heating device. I am definitly looking forward to the rainy winter when not only will we have to battle cold, but we will have an extra adversery to add to this delightful picture; wetness.

I have a better understanding of the school system than I thought was possible, considering my ignorance of the language, but I am still confused about this next situation. I am under the impression that there is a teacher shortage in Chile considering that the majority of the teachers now, are all over 40 and counting. However, the schools claim that there are too many teachers per school to give each teacher their own classroom. Therefore, students have their own classroom and the teachers move around from ice room to ice room. This means that the 40 students in each classroom rule their class. The classroom is their domain, their jungle, and the teachers are just passing visitors or lion tamers for an hour and a half. If there are any decorations on the walls, it is not the teacher's doing. Materials are carried from class to class by the teacher throughout the day. Luckily, the students love to carry their teacher's things and are more than willing to enslave themselves for 5 minutes to help their teacher. Once in the classroom, it's a very different story.
Other differences include a lack of a discipline program. There is no such thing as ISS (In School Suspension) or Alternative school. There is also a law in Chile that all students have to be in the classroom at all times during the school day, so being sent home is not an option either. Basically if a student misbehaves regularly, there is nothing to be done except possibly call the parent, who may or may not care to discipline their child and the child is then left in class to continue their disruptions. With 40 students in one class and no threat of consequences, discipline is a near impossible feat. Along with no discipline program, there is no school nurse or school counselor or anyone else for that matter. There are teachers, one to two secretaries, an equivalent to a Principle and a Vice Principle and that about wraps it up. The other day, I had a student in my class who started to cry becuase she felt sick, and there was nothing for me to do with her, except let her lie down on the chairs. There was no school nurse to send her to and I was at a loss. When I asked my English teacher about it, she said "We are teachers, nurses, psychologists, mothers, and whatever else the kids need us to be."
The different schools: Divino Maestro (DM) and Digna Camilo (DC). Divino Maestro is about a ten minute walk from my house. This school is larger than DC because there is more than one of each grades. So instead of one single 7th grade class there are two seperate classes where at DC there is only one class of each grade level. Divino Maestro also has an English teacher who speaks English pretty well. Her name is Brenda. I somtimes forget that she is not a native speaker. I am so thankful to have someone to speak English with that I start to talk at my normal rapid pace, before she has to slow me down. Brenda is a lovely, single woman who lives on her own in one of the nicests houses in Pichilemu, with black curly hair, and a strong love for her family in Talca. She worked over 60 hours at three different schools for several years in a row to save up and build her own house. She teaches her English classes in English which is a rarity here in Chile. Carmen, a very sweet older woman with a lazy eye is my principle English teacher at DC, but I also have the priveledge of working with two other teachers at DC giving me a grand total of 4 teachers to coordinate lesson plans with. There is a serious lack of English teachers in Pichi, so any teacher who is the most qualified, meaning they have had at least one course, is the next in line for teaching this foreign language that no one knows. Carmen has taken English courses, but the only English words I have ever heard uttered from her mouth are Hello and Good-bye. Loreta and Louis are the other two teachers I work with. Loreto is currently enrolled in English lessons, and Luis actually speaks some and understands some, but I honestly feel more comfortable speaking in Spanish with all of them. Carmen is the teacher who has been informed as to why I am at their school, and what my true purpose is here, but still to this day, the other teachers at DC have not been properly informed as to how best to utilize me. I have tried explaining how the program works, and what I am supposed to do, but because they haven't been told what the English Opens Doors Program is really about, they don't really know what to do with me even after I have attempted explainations in both languages. (We were supposed to have a meeting yesterday, but Carmen fell ill, maybe next week).

Teaching Adventures

On a whole, I have more problems at DC primarily because of discipline problems. On my first day working with Loreto in the 7th grade class, I was horrified. I was horrified at the lack of respect the students gave her, and I was also horrified at how she could just ignore such blatant, and atrocious behavior. She walked into the class, greeted the class with the stamped and approved salutation of the Chilean English class:
Teacher: Good morning
students: (standing at their desks) Good morning Ms. So and So
Teacher: How are you?
students: Fine, sank you
Teacher: Sit down please.
students: Sank you ms.
Normally this is the most tame part of every class, but this particular class, takes the disrespect to an all new level of outrageousness. Maybe three students of the 40 stood up and responded to Loreto, the rest continued walking around and discussing gossip with the other students. She then had me try and teach the lesson since I was the token English speaker. The lesson first began with a worksheet with a word bank and a scene from a typical city block. The sheet had blanks next to objects such as a bus, a road, a newspaper stand etc. Dictionaries were handed out and the work was to begin. A couple students completed the worksheet and the rest just copied after thirty minutes of talking and ignoring the worksheet staring up at them. I found this particular worksheet humorous because it used all British terms such as Zebra crossing for crosswalk and others that I can't think of at the moment. After this worksheet was completed, the teacher had me read a passage from the brand new English books. Before I continue, I must say that I think the new English Books designed for the Ministry are great, colorful, and entertaining, but are way too high of a level for my seventh graders in Pichilemu, who can't answer the question "how are you?" The passage, "A tour of Babylon, a city of the past" included words such as "divided, unequal parts, Euphrates River, consisted, King Nebuchadnezzar, Hanging Gardens, impressive ect." Basically, in this passage, the kids could only understand the word "the." She wanted me to read this two paragraphed passage to them out loud and not only expected them to listen but to understand anything that came out of my mouth. I did as she asked but I tried to make it interactive and have the kids figure out the vocabulary as we went. They stayed interested for half of the passage probably because I made a fool of myself and they found me amusing for some time but after I was no longer interesting, they returned to their normal activities of yelling, screaming, climbing on desks and generally being animals in a jungle. I then tried to teach the clapping method of attention grabbing. I clap once, they clap once, I clap twice, they clap twice, I clap three times, they clap three times and so on until everyone in the class is paying attention and silent except for their hands. However as soon as they figured out how this clapping thing worked, they erupted into cheers, and hollered even louder than before the clapping. My exhausted voice failed me and I sat down as the teacher failed to get them to pay attention.
The second time with this class I nearly walked out. They had behaved better than normal for my first visit because a novel person was in the room, but as soon as I became old news, life resumed back to chaos. It was the same story as before except for worse and with less attention. I should note that this is not the only class I have wanted to walk out on. Last week while teaching the 6th graders basic questions, I decided to remove ten students, about half of my class, from the classroom because they refused to pay attention and didn't listen to a word I said. They don't seem to understand that the more time they yell, wrestle, play their recorder, scream my name and tattle tale on each other, the less time they will have to play the game... if I have a game. This particular day, I was planning on playing musical chairs with an added twist of English, but this class didn't have time to play because I had spent so much time just trying to get them quite.
At Divino Maestro, I have more problem students rather than problem classes, not to say that I don't have problem students at DC, but the situation is different. In one of the 7th grade classes, I have a 17 year old who has been held back at least three times and loves to make teachers wish they had never entered into the teaching profession. He is at least a head taller than me, and last week proved this to me by sticking his chest in my face as an intimidation method. He also grabbed another kid by the shirt and yanked him around. His parents were called, who knows if it will help. Other students like to hang and swing on the railing in the library. And I have a couple of girls in separate classes who refuse to speak or participate.
I don't want it to seem like everything about Chile's schools are bad because they aren't, the bad is just more apparent at the moment than the positive attributes. There are kids in the groups who are surprisingly knowledgeable and intelligent, and there are also kids who genuinely want to learn English. I have these kids in every one of my classes and I wish I could just teach the ones with genuine interest, but as that is the wish of all teachers around the world, I will just have to continue teaching them all. Some positive aspects include getting notes, drawings and gifts from my students almost daily. My first day of observing at DC, a little girl drew a lovely portrait of me in my kacky skirt and red shirt with stars circling my body. At DM I received a note from a little girl entitled "Tia Banesa" This note was not only cute for it's misspelling of my name, but also the content. The girl wrote "I hope you are happy and I hope that I have class with you because you are very pretty and nice and your husband too." She then drew a picture of Kyle and me at the bottom of the note, both holding briefcases and wearing pink shirts. At both schools I am a celebrity and get swarmed by little girls who want to hold my hand and ask the gringo questions as I walk to the teachers lounge . I appreciate the attention because, lets be honest, we all know I like attention, but sometimes it feels a little weird to have little girl ornaments every time I walk the halls in my school. But after a frustrating class, it is nice to have that little girl hug.

A side note: Because the kids had a hard time understanding my name, they started calling me Tia Vienesa, which is a hot dog brand. And it seems that no Spanish speaker can pronounce Kyle's name correctly so the students gave up all together and call him Tio Gringo. The other volunteer here in Pichi also has a very difficult name in Spanish; Bethany. The "th" sound comes out like an "s" so what you hear is "Tia Bessa me" which translates to Tia Kiss me.

Orientation into the schools.

My first experiences with these schools were very conflicting and confusing. In Pichilemu we don't have a coordinator and there is no one assigned from the Ministry of Education to help us. Our first week of orientation with the town and our schools, we were left to flop around in the cold, salty, treacherous sea of schedules and details, without any lessons as to how to swim or any possiblity of a rescue anytime soon. The second day in Pichilemu, we were handed off to different men from the provincial, who were taciturn, un-smiling and un-informative. The driver was plump with glasses and a lazy eye, while the other wore a black leather jacket and had squinty eyes. They took Kyle, Bethany and me out to Kyle's rural schools one by one so that he could meet his teachers and figure out some type of schedule. (This part will be an entirely different story so we won't go any further with the Kyle section, except to say, that the "schedule" didn't work out)


After a long day of riding in a small truck on bumpy roads behind two strange men, that never introduced themselves and obviously thought this was an unwanted chore, we were ready to jump off this welcome wagon head first. Still to this day, we remain unsure as to what their names are. Nothing of my schedule was settled and so we were off on another exciting journey with the two jolly men. Our shady guides took us first to Divino Maestro, where the principle speaks at the speed of light, to discuss my "horario." I was glad to go there first because my initial impression was that this school was friendlier. The motor mouth principle, on our first day, had been extremely excited to greet us and inform us that we were very welcome and that I would be very happy with them. He said they considered my presence a privilege. Bethany, our friend and the other volunteer in Pichilemu, was the mediator since she was the only one of our crew who spoke both languages. I had 25 hours of actual teaching time to divi up between the two schools, and 16 hours were assigned to Divino in that meeting. I sat in the cramped office, similing, nodding and listening as Bethany did all of the talking. The meeting with Divino was a piece of cake however, in comparison with Digna C. At our next stop DC, the principal was an unhappy camper when she discovered that 16 of my 25 hours had already been assigned to Divino M. Because I hadn't become fluent within 48 hours of being in Pichilemu, I sat looking from frowning face to frowning face, trying to figure out what was being said about me. They were allotted a measly nine hours, and they wanted more. They wanted me to either work more hours than my designated 25, or to work more extra-circular hours with them than Divino M. They also wanted Kyle to dedicate his extra time to their school. I understood why they were unhappy, but because we were dropped to the sharks without a life jacket, and left to figure out all of the nitty gritty details on our own in a foreign language without any help or protocol or official meeting between the schools, there was nothing to do except doggy paddle as best we could and hope survival was one of the options. The schedule at Digna Camilo was not decided that day, but later in the week. The schedule was ironic, because Digna C had decided that although Kyle was not assigned to them, he was to work 9 hours at their school anyways. Because Kyle's schedule was so confusing and he had no way of actually getting to his rural schools at the time, he didn't argue and dutifully followed the schedule.
After this rather painful meeting which felt like having all of my teeth removed without anesthetic, the easy part was to begin; the teaching! Har har har! Luckily, there was a protocol as to when to start teaching and it wasn't until after two weeks of observation of the real English teacher. DC redeemed itself with the welcome ceremony they threw for Kyle and I. A construction paper sign was hung on the wall outside stating, "Welcome At Our School." A speech by the principle, and the English teacher was made about how much we were appreciated. The national dance, which I have now seen at least 6 times at different functions, was performed. A Spanish and English color song with balloons was sung, the national anthem as well and little Chilean flags were presented to us gringos. Also a birthday song for "yours truly" (since the next day was my birthday), and a little question and answer session for me by two little girls. It was a lovely welcome ceremony and I loved every minute of it. They wanted to share with us how appreciative they were to have us volunteering at our school, and they succeeded. After the welcome ceremony with the whole school, the teachers held a separate wine and empanada celebration afterwards, with more of the "cueca" dance and more singing of Chile songs. A nice, but strange woman sitting next to us, who was missing several teeth continually chatted with Kyle and me as if we understood every word. She didn't seem to mind that our reactions only consisted of smiling, laughing and nodding, she continued to tell her life story to the new guests of DC. If this was my introduction to the schools, I had no idea what to expect for the "real life" part.