Ladies and Gentlemen...it is time for a competition!
Help me & my friend Carla think of some awesome names for our bikes! If we choose the name you suggest...you win ice cream! The competition ends Friday, March 11 @ 8:59pm CST (23:59 Chile). Click the button below to play!
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A lot of people have been asking: "How was your first Christmas in Chile?" The answer? Lovely. Relaxing. Delicious. Hot. Bittersweet. New. Different. Fun. December 24 I "got to" begin Christmas Eve Day by going to school...hooray? I was a bit less than thrilled, but some of the teachers put together a convivencia (little party) together for everyone and then we got to go home around noon. I then spent the afternoon getting my house ready for our party that evening and I even had time to squeeze in a nap! And I would also like to take this opportunity to debut my back patio set-up and decorations I have been working on...what do you think so far?! Later that afternoon I headed to church for our outdoor Christmas Eve Service/Pageant. We read the story of Jesus' birth and sang song after song remembering our Savior's coming to this world to save us! "Goooooo tell it in Linares! Over the hills and everywhere! Go tell it in Linares that Jesus Christ is born!" After the church service, a few fellow immigrants found their way to my house and we had a "Gringo Navidad"! Jon's sister and a friend have come to visit for a few weeks (and so lovingly brought down a few gifts from our families...thanks again, ladies!) We were very excited to have Pastor Tim & Ellen here in Linares to celebrate with us as well! We feasted on lots of meat, played a game, exchanged some gifts, listened to Christmas music, watched the dogs chase each other, and enjoyed some homemade cookies sent from the states! As my guests walked out the gate around 2am...some Chilean friends pulled up in a taxi and we stayed up chatting until about 4:30am...have I mentioned that there are a lot of night-owls in Chile? December 25 After a nice morning of sleeping in with NO alarm clock set (best gift ever!), we drove out to Lago Colbún with the visitors and ended the day eating homemade ice cream in the plaza of Panimávida. Did I mention that it got up to 90 degrees? Not bad, Christmas in Chile, not bad... (I think the dogs had the most fun though!) If you're looking to be warm next Christmas, now you know where to come!
One more week of school work for me and then it is time for Summer Vacation!!!! Bring on 2016!
Pictures are worth a thousand words...you can CLICK HERE to access my full album of photos!
(Which will also fill you in on a few more details...because I know you are curious about those giant swans...) Since the Summer Solstice is just a few days around the corner here in Chile, I figured I better write something about Spring before it is gone! Remember these beautiful blooming trees in September? Here is what they look like now in December...I love seeing God's creativity at work in nature! (or neature for those Lennny Pepperbottom fans out there..."That's pretty neat!") And for good measure, some beautiful flowers: Coming soon...a blog post about my trip to southern Chile! Even though many have asked questions, I haven’t taken the opportunity to write about my school life yet…and the reason for this is, well, I want to be honest with you, my dear blog readers. Not everything has been rainbows and butterflies. (Not that I expected that.) But what I have wanted to do is to give you a good, real, and honest overview of not just school life, but also what it has been like to transition into being an assistant teacher. And processing everything that has happened this past semester has taken some time, so, thank you for your patience. Now, without further ado, I present to you: Liceo Polivalente Arturo Alessandri Palma Longaví, Maule, Chile Classes/Tracking
Daily ScheduleThe school year begins in March and ends in December. Each day, Monday through Thursday, begins at 8:30 and ends at 16:35. Friday classes are dismissed at 13:30. There are 9 class hours in the day. We run a block schedule of 90 minutes for most courses, however some are just 45 minutes long (depending on various factors).
Wall SpaceIf you ever entered my classroom at Great Plains, you probably realized that I enjoy using my wall space. (Ok, maybe that was an understatement…yeah, I LOVE it!) For various reasons, which are not important to discuss here and now, there is close to nothing hanging on the walls. It doesn’t completely drive me crazy...just a little bit. At least they aren’t white! {ha ha ha} StudentsThere was a movie released a few years ago called “Babies". The idea behind the documentary is that no matter what country/culture we are raised in, there are some universal things in humanity because babies are babies, and, people are people. I think it would be just as easy to make a documentary called “Adolescents” and come to the same conclusion: passing love notes (or texts), making paper airplanes, girls writing lists of boys’ names they like and giggling, seeing how much they can get away with before the teacher gets angry, talking about the latest song releases, boys punching each other, asking questions just to get the teacher off topic, worrying about a test, girls doing each other’s hair and makeup, wondering about the future… Being A Teacher's AssistantThis part hasn’t been easy. For the past 8 years I had my own classroom with my own management and procedures in place...when I arrived here, I entered someone’s classroom, in a different country, halfway through the year as an assistant...just a bit of a change, but I was intrigued by the challenge.
The first few weeks I was able to observe and absorb the teaching methods/styles, school procedures, and try to pick up on all the “unwritten rules” of the school. Many classes I am able to help small groups work on a worksheet or practice some pronunciation and some days if one of my teachers is gone I have been able to teach a lesson. Pro: almost zero prep time! Con: kind of boring. Placing native speakers as assistant teachers in the Longaví schools is still a rather young program and so some kinks are still being worked out. Unfortunately, two of those kinks were: 1) that my classroom teachers were not informed that they were going to have an assistant teacher and 2) the teachers were not well informed on how to incorporate this program into their classrooms. Jon & Elise had a bit of a smoother transition because their schools received native speaking assistants last year, but I was the first to come to the high school. Those kinks have made the transition a bit harder than expected and, as you can assume, caused me to second guess my decision to move. {I confess this to you because I want to be honest and real, so please don't think I am packing things up to leave!} Kingdom Workers, the Department of Education, Jon, Elise, and I are all committed to making this program work long-term in Longaví, and so we are already getting excited for next school year and discussing the steps we can take to make it better! I rest in knowing that God will use every decision made to his glory. I truly enjoy the time I get to spend getting to know my students and co-workers at the high school and I am praying that I will be able to work there next year as well. I ask you to pray for everyone involved to make good decisions as we finish this school year and work to make the next one better! |
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