Challenges but Blessings...always

This is La Iglesia de San Diego.  (Church of St. Diego)  I went here for mass, and it is gorgeously decorated in gold over the whole inside.  Since they had a sign with a camera crossed off at the entrance, I didn't take a photo of the inside.  This is the church where my host parents were married....neat, huh?

This week seemed to fly.  I can't believe I have literally one month left.  This week was full of some challenges but also blessings.  The students in one of the classes were caught copying English homework from each other in another class, and my cooperating teacher reprimanded them by telling them that they will not be able to take the trimester exam.  This made me think about how I will handle this kind of situation when I have my own classroom and have to give consequences.  I'm not exactly sure what I would do, but I realize now that rules and consequences is something I need to give more thought to before setting up my own classroom some day.  This week was also challenging in that we are under pressure to finish the February book.  There are honestly too many pages in the book to cover in depth in one month to the extent that students will really understand the content.  Unfortunately, I think my math presentations will have to be cut.  My cooperating teacher told me that we'll likely only have enough time to share the answers.  I think I will have to adapt my original plan, and instead, maybe I can have students share their general problem solving strategies as a large class.  This won't allow everyone to share, but I'd rather do this than just share answers and move on.  I'm definitely learning how to be flexible with my lesson plans so that I can still follow the curriculum and school requirements.

Despite some of the challenges, I do enjoy teaching, and I feel like I'm getting better with time. One day this week, I gave the students a list of pages in their book to work on independently after I explained them.  I really enjoyed giving them work time, since it allowed me to circulate the classroom and help individuals or small groups with specific questions.  This is another way I've found that helps me differentiate.  Students can work at their own pace, are always active doing something, and I'm able to meet their individual needs through 1-1 conversations.  In one of my classes, I also realized that over half the class understood the math page we were doing well, but a chunk were still confused.  I set them to work on the page and pulled a semi-circle of students up to the board for further explanation.  I think this was really helpful, because just about everybody seemed to know how to do the math problems (multiplying decimals) when we were done.  The only tricky part about this independent work time is that I have to eventually pull everyone back together, so that we're on the same page.  Overall though, I think it made classroom management pretty easy.  Only near the end of the day did I have to remove them from partner work to go back to their own seats, since I could tell they were starting to get chatty and unfocused.  The students are responding well though.  When I have them move from teams to their own seats, I tend to include a countdown from 10 so that they move more efficiently and know that I'm serious.  So far, this seems to work well.

Next week, I'm moving on to full time teaching.  I'm excited to see what the week will bring!  I need to finish the Feb. book, start the March book, and do reviews for the trimester exams that start March 9th.  I think I'll learn a lot about time management and balancing priorities!!

This weekend, I'm going to be doing a bit more planning than normal, since I decided to take advantage of some cultural opportunities this week in the evening.  Wednesday night, I went to El Museo del Estado for a torito exposition.  I learned that they throw painted egg shells filled with confetti and closed with tissue paper at the torito and on top of each other's head as a way of celebrating.  My host aunt was so kind as to make sure I was able to have a head covered in confetti.  :) I saved a confetti filled egg, and I'm hoping I can travel with it uncracked back to the U.S.  in a small plastic box I have.  Thursday night, Sonia and I went to a concert at el Teatro José Rubén Romero.  It was a woodwind quintet playing classical music.  I was surprised that maybe only 40 or so people attended, and it was in this fairly decent size theater.  Maybe classical music isn't so popular here?  I learned from my host family that these places have cultural or music events like this EVERY Wed. and Thurs.!!  There's also a place that has cultural events on Fridays.  The best part about all of this?...Todo es gratis.  (Everything is free of charge!)  What a blessing it is to live within a 15 minute walk of all of these amazing cultural places and events that are generally free or very minimal costs!!  Moreover, I feel really blessed to have met Sonia and be able to share all these things with her.  Our host families often are busy with jobs, house chores, and their every day lives/responsibilities, so it helps that we can go out and explore the city together often.  We live 5 blocks away, have some basic things in common, and get along really well...what a blessing!  Plus, we can talk Spanish together at a rate that we both understand, but we're still learning new things, since we can share new vocab. that we picked up.  I feel very privileged to be here and be taking in all of the cultural experiences in addition to teaching.  Even when some days are hard, something good follows it and I am always, always surrounded by a lot of really great, caring people.

I'll close with some fun cultural tid bits.  I must say first though that some of these may just be the culture of my host family and not the culture of all Mexicans:

• Here, we put salt on fruit to cut the acid and prevent canchor sores (How intelligent, eh?)
• The people here seem to eat a lot more parts of the animal (and not just in sausage form!) One comida this week included tamales with entire shrimp inside (yes, the legs, heads, and shells).  I picked these parts off, but my host dad definitely ate the head.  My host brother ate out every part that was edible other than the shell. 
• I drank a really red water that had shreds of lettuce, orange slices, and peanuts in it.  At the end, I asked why it was so red.  I found out it was made with the juice from raw BEETS!  I do not like beets, but this water was actually pretty decent!  (I learned that it's just best if you try something and eat it all before asking what it is....best to avoid any preconceptions.)
• Chile and limón go on absolutely everything...meat, fruit, vegetables, and even french fries!
• Oh, this is all of Mexico:  PDA is not acceptable within the house.  That's why you see it all over the street and in parked cars.  My host mom told me that it's completely taboo for unmarried couples to be in a bedroom together at all and if you're really traditional (like my host grandma), it's completely taboo for unengaged couples to even be in each other's houses at all (even if it's just with the whole family for a meal, visiting, etc.!)  At night, couples will be outside the girl's front door saying good night or spending their more intimate time on park benches, quieter streets, or in vehicles.  This is pretty much the opposite of our culture in which the joke is always, "Get a room."  I think if there were a saying like that for here, it would be "Get a quiet street." However, it seems more acceptable to have PDA here.  Couples constantly walk the streets with the guy right behind the girl and his arms wrapped around her (as opposed to holding hands side by side).  Sooo interesting.  My "norm" is their oddity and vice versa.  Such is life.

Half way done...wow!

Well, I am now about half way through my time here, which I can hardly believe.  It is going very quickly!  So far, I feel like I've gained more confidence as a teacher, improved my Spanish, become part of a new family here, and learned a lot about the culture in Mexico, Morelia, and at Varmond.  I've also definitely had the opportunity to practice being flexible, open minded, and positive.  I find it kind of amazing that I feel pretty much at home here.  There are still times when I can't follow some Spanish conversations well or participate.  However, for the most part, I feel like I fit in here...not to the extent that I could live here indefinitely or for a very long period of time, but I know I'll miss the people, places, and culture here for sure.

Over the weekend, I went with my host family to Copándaro de Galeana, a small pueblo less than an hour away.  There was a Carnaval there which involved a "toro" (bull) parading around the city streets.  Don't worry...it was just men under an adorned, flashy bull costume.  A band came behind the toro to provide music (brass, drums, and woodwinds), and the toro stopped at assigned houses that provided drinks for the huge mass of people that were parading around the city with the toro.  When the parade stopped, there was a dance in the street with the toro.  I have some neat videos of this parade to share but am unfortunately experiencing some technical difficulties with my camera right now.  If I'm able to, I'll upload the video in another blog.  The Carnaval also entailed much of what we would think of as a carnival with rides (tilt-a-whirl, ferris wheel, etc.) and food vendors set up in the middle of the pueblo.  

Toros have been parading around Morelia since Saturday.  When someone pays them, they stop in the street, play music, and dance!  I've heard them pass by my house as late as 11p.m. when I'm trying to sleep!  It's a little crazy, but just part of the tradition here.  They have toros now, because they signify the bad.  They celebrate with them before Lent starts (like our Mardi Gras, except it's a 4 day event here!)

In the school, I'm doing most of the teaching this week, and I'll be completely on my own next week.  This week is a little crazy, because we're trying to finish up the February book with enough time to review before the standardized exams in the second week of March.  Some students are leaving for vacation and need to take parts of the exam early, so that makes things yet more interesting! 

One way I'm trying to keep the focus more on the process of learning while still completing all the pages is by turning all of the math word problems in the book (over 20 of them) into presentations.  I assigned a word problem to each student, I'll give them time to work on it in class/ask questions, and I'm going to have them present their problem to the class on either this Friday or Monday (or some on each day).  I found that this was a great way to differentiate.  I read through all the problems first so that I could assign problems according to students' ability levels.  I'm hoping this will allow all of the students to successfully complete the assignment of being able to explain the process of solving a math problem to their classmates.  I'm also using this as a way to get them talking in English more.  

Classroom management is going fairly well.  The students know that I'm watching them, and making eye contact and using physical proximity has continued to be helpful.  My only challenge now will be to bring them initially to attention at the start of a class or in the middle of an activity when there's more noise in the classroom.  I want to find something that makes a noise (like a stuffed animal or whistle) to use as a signal to start class, bring the class back from team work, etc.  I think I'll be making a little shopping adventure this week or weekend.

Okay, well I need to get ready for bed now.  I'm not sure how soon I'll be sleeping.  Two more toros just went by our house complete with bands.  (I've given up on early bedtimes during the Carnaval.)

La Comida Mexicana (Mexican foods)

I thought it'd be fun to begin this blog with photos of foods that are all quite delicious here:

                

 "Pan Tostada" with "Atole"         

This is toast...yes, toast, that comes pre packaged aaaand pre-toasted.  Crazy, huh? Atole I may have mentioned.  It's like a thick, milky tea. Possible flavors may include: Strawberry, Chocolate, and Cookie.  I know there's others. These are just the ones I've tried.

     Mexican Tacos

Left: Taco with steak and salsa

Right: "Choriso" (spicy pork) with beans

Top: Quesadilla with "la salsa verde" (green salsa)

  Note: It is made with thick mozzarella cheese and not enclosed like our quesadillas.  

          

The Equivalent of the 

Mexican Sandwich:      

Bottom: "Una tostada"    

(a crispy tortilla)

Middle: Cold refried beans 

      pureed and ham

Top: cooked potato and 

     carrot cubes; fresh 

     lettuce, tomato, and

     onion; cheese, "crema"

    (cream), and la salsa

     verde (green salsa).

All the food groups on one 

delicious tostada.

 "La sopa tarasca"

This is a fancy and DELICIOUS tomato soup with "la crema" and chiles that have a lot of rich flavor but are not at all spicy.

                               

"Ejotes verdes con salsa mexicana"    

Green beans with Mexican Salsa 

                

"Puntas de filetes con salsa verde y corundas"

Pork tips in green salsa with beans and a tomale-like bread covered in cream.

My teaching went pretty well this week, and I learned some important lessons!  One I learned was in spelling.  I was able to turn two of the workbook pages into a game.  However, since the students rarely have an opportunity to work in teams, they are not accustomed to how to behave in this setting.  I learned quickly that I needed clearer rules, and they needed to be rules that were fair.  If anything at all seemed to give an unfair advantage to one team, the students were sure to point it out.  At the beginning of the game in which students needed to listen to clues and write spelling words on the board, students crowded around the board to help their teammates and ended up shoving and pushing each other.  I had to stop the game to establish clearer rules about only one person from each team at the board and walking instead of running to and from the board to avoid accidents.  In future game/team settings, I will be sure to give more explicit rules in advance to avoid such problems.  However, I did enjoy using a game versus the traditional way of filling out the workbook pages.  It provided a nice change of pace, since we had over 2.5 hours of class in a row without a break.

I did learn that classroom management is much easier if the students are constantly engaged in some activity or given some task to do.  In a lesson today, I continuously gave the students something to do next.  I noticed that the only students talking or goofing around were those that finished early, so I kept giving them new activities.  I eventually had to bring everyone together so they'd be on the same page.  Eventually, I want to integrate more additional activities outside of the curriculum to keep those students who always finish early engaged in something and challenged.  I realized the importance of this technique of keeping students engaged when I observed my 6th graders in another class.  They were giving presentations one at a time to the class, but during each transition between presentations, the students had nothing to do.  The room erupted into kind of a recess time every single time there was a transition, and it took a long time to bring them back each time.  I don't blame the students.  I think we adults do the same thing if we're at a conference or event and there's a break in the programming/activity.  We start to chat with those around us.  If that is what we do, how can we expect our students to behave any differently?  When my students are given a task, they are overall hard workers during class....even if it's just another workbook page!  They work pretty quietly and diligently as soon as they have something to do and know and understand exactly what is expected of them.  I think I just always need really clear directions at the start and a constant "What should I do next?" list of activities.

This weekend, there is a Carnaval in just about every city or pueblo in Mexico I think.  It's a pre-Lenten celebration (kind of like an extended Mardi-Gras but with more cultural events added in.)  In Morelia, it started on Thursday and will last until Tuesday.  I plan to catch some of the events in Morelia, and I might be going with my host family tomorrow to a neighboring pueblo for their Carnaval.  More on this on Tuesday!

I'll close with a few interesting Spanish phrases/words I've picked up while here.  Some are different from what I learned in H.S. Spanish:

• "Padre" = Cool  /   "Bien Padre" = Waaay cool  ("Qué padre"- "How cool"  is a common phrase here)
• "Andale pués" is their way of saying "well," "um," or filling up space.  It's often used right before saying good-bye
• Everyone here says "Bye" but with a really odd accent (to me).  I'm sure you'll hear me use it when I return!
• "Panza" = Stomach (not "estómago")
• "Cholla" = Head (not "cabeza")
• "Pasto" = Grass (and it's what they use to refer to the lawn...not "césped")

Sights of Morelia

This is La Casa de La Cultura.  It is an ex-convent and now houses some cultural events and Mexican art work.  The pegs sticking out of the side of the top of the building are the rain gutters.  These is a pretty common style of gutter on the older buildings.

This is the gaspacho that Sonia and I ate.  It is just a cup of fruit, but it is covered in limón and orange juice, chile, and cheese.  Most of the fruit here is eaten with condiments on it (in shops, at parties, at school, everywhere).  The flavor was a bit strong for me, but I ate it all!

This is the fireworks shooting off from the Cathedral.  There are fireworks from the Cathedral every Saturday night and sometimes other nights, too.  I can't believe I saw fireworks in February!

This is the Cathedral downtown all lit up at night.  You can see all the people packed around to see the fireworks!

This is the aqueduct in Morelia, one of the most famous architectural structures.  It is a very long structure, probably spanning at least a mile long.  It used to carry water within the city but is no longer in use.  I ride along this structure every day on my way to school.

I can't believe that this is my fourth week here, and I'm coming pretty close to the middle of my time here!  Wow! 

This weekend was fun.  I saw more of Morelia, since Sonia and I walked around Saturday night and Sunday morning/afternoon.  I love that I am within walking distance from all of the major cultural/historical attractions.  I will have to check more of them out during my time here!  I have photos of some sights above.  Other places I've visited include El Museo de Dulces (museum of sweets) and El Museo de Arte Colonial.  Since you can't take photos in many of the museums here, I don't have photos from these places.  However, I learned a couple interesting things.  Sweets/candies is a major product made here, and it has been since before the Spanish colonization.  Sweets are still made with natural ingredients like the pulp from fruits and sugar. At the museum, we got a little test taste after watching how the sweet was made. :) At the art museum, the Colonial art was all Christian and included many crucifixes.  I learned that some of the crucifixes were made from the husks of corn (how resourceful!).  Something I find sooo interesting is that all of the images of Christ and the saints in all of the churches and museums here have completely white skin, even though we know that Christ wasn't actually white.  I think it must be the Spanish colonial influence.  (As an aside, the toy dolls are all mostly white in stores/markets.  It bothers me that I haven't seen more images of Mexicans represented in the dolls, especially since they're clearly the majority here.  It really opens my eyes to the "White" power/privilege on a more global level.)  Well, that's about all for my cultural update.

On the school front, I'm keeping quite busy.  We're a bit behind in the February book.  It is hard to keep up with the breadth of material and still make sure students are understanding the content.  Today, I went back in math to review one of the pages and answer questions students had.  At the same time, I need to think of some additional activities for the advanced students.  When I gave the students work time, three of them had already done the page.  I have some sudoku puzzles (A puzzle in which you have to fit the numbers 1-9 in each box, each row, and each column) from a book I brought along, which I think might work well for them.  It would still relate to math, since they'd have to practice thinking logically.  I also think it could offer them a challenge, since the puzzles are sometimes challenging for me!  As I take over more of the classes, I want to integrate more activities for students to do when they are done with their work.  Too often, students have dead time as they wait for others to finish their work.

I asked my host teacher if I could convert some of the workbook pages into activities or games to complete them, and she said that would be fine.  I plan to find some ways to do this, since I think it would be much more motivating and engaging for the students.  I also think it would make classroom management easier.  Many times when there are behavioral problems in the class, I can tell it's because the students are bored and not interested in the content or the typical lecture/worksheet way in which it is always presented.  

As far as classroom management, I've begun trying out some non-verbal ways of managing the class.  The students are used to hearing a voice telling them to stop doing something, but instead, I've been trying to use the "teacher look" and proximity (walking closer to/standing next to those who are talking).  This has been fairly successful so far.  Students notice that I'm watching them, and they snap back to attention most of the time without me having to say anything.  Since students are slow to move back to their seats from group work, I've started giving them a countdown from 10.  This seems to help a little.  As time goes on, I hope to experiment with some more classroom management techniques.

I'm going to get going.  I think either tonight or tomorrow I'll be helping my host cousin make some baby shower invitations, since she is expecting in late March! 

Trying to Think Outside the Box but Teach Within It

Here is a photo of me with my cooperating teacher, Miss Monica.  We are decked out in red and pink for Valentine's Day. Note the palm trees surrounding Varmond School.  I looooove them.

On Friday, we had a Kermesse at school for Valentine's Day.  Each grade had 1.5 hours free to go to the party. They could play games, purchase food and V-day gifts, and attend the Disco (the name for dance places here).  This was very exciting for the students.  Above I've included a video of the students dancing to give you an idea of what it was like.  I think this song is popular here, since it was also at my host mom's uncle's b-day party.  I think it's funny, because it reminds me of the country songs that we dance to in the U.S., and everyone here seems to know how to dance to it and enjoy the song!

This week in school, I taught how to make pop up (3-dimensional) heart cards in Composition, so my students could make them for their V-day card exchange.  Each student received a name of a classmate and had to make a card for them.  Overall, the cards turned out very nicely, and many of the students enjoyed making the pop-ups.  I quickly learned the challenges of giving clear instructions to a group of 27-28 students at one time.  Since making the pop-ups was really challenging for some students, I made sure it wasn't a requirement for the assignment.  One thing I learned about the Composition curriculum is that there really isn't a clear assessment method set up.  The grading seems pretty subjective to me.  I plan to write a general rubric for comp. work so that I can be sure that I'm grading more fairly and designing assignments in which the students know exactly what my expectations are.

In math, I came up with a really brief kinesthetic activity that worked well.  For teaching multiplying decimals by multiples of 10, I had students stand and take steps to each side saying "multiply" and "divide" to help them remember which way to move the decimal point for each operation.  I liked that this was a quick, effective, and fun warm up.  Afterward, all of the students seemed to remember which way to move the decimal in the problems!  I think I need to include more activities like this that are brief, since this is about all we have time for normally.

I was able to talk about the challenges of the curriculum with my cooperating teacher, and we seem to be on the same page.  There's always so much content to cover, and almost none of it overlaps or is connected.  Each content area is pretty much a separate subject entirely, which makes for a curriculum with a lot of breadth and minimal depth of understanding.  We must cover 7 content areas during the week, and we only meet with each class for 1.3 to 2.5 hour each day depending on the day.  Also, because we are required to have the students fill out all the workbook pages, regardless of how valuable they will be for our students, there's only so many of our own ideas that we can include in the classroom.  It's frustrating to have to teach within this box all of the time.  My biggest challenge is to think outside of this structure a little.  I still need to work on being more creative with the workbook pages and the few additional activities that we can include.

One student made a really interesting observation, which spurred a lot of reflection for me.  He asked me how long I've been studying Spanish.  It's been about 8 years for me (a little less, since I didn't take Spanish every semester in college).  He then noted that they, in sixth grade, have been learning English for about the same length of time!  Honestly, they've spent much more time than me in English classes in this bilingual school setting.  Here I am in this Spanish speaking country, able to use my Spanish to communicate with my host family, colleagues, and others around the city.  I still struggle with the language barrier here and sometimes need people to talk a tad slower, but overall I can function living here.  When my students try to talk to me in English or ask me question, it's usually a big chore for them.  I can tell that they are still translating one word at a time many times and often searching for words they don't remember or know.  In their writing, their grammar often reflects Spanish grammar patterns more than English ones.  This tells me that they're still not able to think in English in the way that I can think in Spanish.  I find this really problematic, because they've certainly had more time devoted to their foreign language than I have to mine.  I think this problem is partly rooted in the fact that the curriculum does not include many opportunities for talking in English, which I believe is an integral part of language acquisition!  One of my major goals now is to restructure the way in which I utilize the curriculum books so that the students are talking in English much, much more.  I want them to gain a level of comfort and confidence speaking English.

All right, well I best be going.  Frida, my host sister's 4 year old daughter who is visiting today with her family, has been begging me to play a game with her!  The game is called "el lince," and I've never seen it before or heard of it.  I hope I can learn how to play!

This weekend, I hope to check out some of the museums here.  I live in the historical center of the city within walking distance (of 20 or 30 min. max?) of all the major historical buildings and museums.  Cool, huh?  I also home to rest my voice a bit and recuperate more.  My cold is muuuch better, but I still have a bit of a sore throat.

I will leave you with this Spanish Joke I learned this week:

--"¿Quál es el pollo que te quiere más?"  ("Which is the chicken that you want most?")

--"¡'Po yo!  (Which is an abbreviation for "Pues yo" which means "Well me!")

--Jajajaja (this is how you write "Hahaha" in Spanish.)

Under the Weather but Onward with Teaching

I’m a bit under the weather this week, just with a head cold, so this will probably be a little shorter than usual.  My weekend included a mix of activities.  Friday night while walking around the city with Sonia, I saw a clown doing a street performance.  He juggled and rode a unicycle, much like American clowns, but he was much, much funnier.  His vocal expressions and jokes were much funnier than what I’m used to seeing.  Saturday, I decided to try out washing clothes by hand.  My host family does not have a washing or drying machine, so they do most of their laundry by hand using tepid or cold water, a few buckets, and a few drying lines they have in part of their house.  (This method of washing clothes is fairly common for the Mexicans of middle and lower social classes.)  Have you ever tried wringing out a soaking wet sweatshirt by hand?  It’s quite the chore.  Although washing clothes by hand was tiring, I thought it was a neat way to be more in solidarity with my family and embrace their simpler way of living.  Saturday night, I went to La Plaza Morelia with Sonia and a 10-year old who is the daughter of a doctor, who Sonia works with in her hospital internship.  The girl is also in a bilingual school and wants to improve her English, so we talked in English for the night.  At La Plaza, we watched salsa dancing.  The show included professionals in elaborate costumes dancing with very quick feet and fancy turns.  On Sunday, my host sister, who lives out of town, came with her three little kids, so I spent most of the day with them.

This week, I’m teaching composition, spelling, and math.  Composition is fun, because the main project is making Valentine cards for an exchange on Friday.  I’ll be showing them how to make pop-up (3-dimensional) cards tomorrow. J  I learned that the students really enjoy competing against one another when I had them race in teams today to write spelling words on the board.  I think activities like this outside of their book are more engaging.  Although the curriculum doesn’t allow much time for such activities, I’m going to try to fit more in.  Although sixth grade is supposed to be a review from all the primary grades, I learned that math is a difficult content area, at least for some of the students.  I need to be really thorough in my explanations and check for understanding frequently. 

My main goal this week is to be very clear when I am teaching (explaining content, giving directions, etc.)  I have to keep reminding myself that my students are all learning English as a second language.  Sometimes I speak too quickly for them or use words that they don’t understand (just as most of the Mexicans do when I try talking to them in Spanish, so at least I can sympathize!).  I am working on slowing my rate of speech down, repeating instructions, and thinking about what words I use to explain something.  I’ve also found that using more visual aids with my explanations is very helpful.  The nice part about this placement is that I teach everything twice.  I enjoy having the opportunity to teach something a second time, so I can adapt and improve parts that didn’t work the first time.

Here’s a fun cultural fact to finish this blog:  Mexicans eat hot dogs, but they call them “Salchichas.”  They sometimes eat them in a bun, but I’ve more commonly seen them in a soft tortilla like a hot dog taco!  They also add things to them like salsa and chile, which makes them quite uniquely Mexican.

Note: Friday’s blog may appear on Saturday, since on Friday, the teachers have a V-Day party at the elementary coordinator’s house.  

Extra Extra.....Just Photos!

Above is a pot full of pozole, the soup made of corn and pork. If you look closely, you can see that the corn is much different looking than the corn we would put in a soup. 

Below, is another view of the pozole.

Above is a pot full of tomales, the food we ate for El Día de Las Candelas.  You don't eat the corn husk, just the stuff inside.

Below is the flag of Mexico, which stands really tall on a mountain top in Morelia.  I can see it from the streets around my house, but it appears really tiny.

This is the outside of my host family's house.

I am cold....in Mexico...haha.

Guess what? I am in fact cold here in Mexico. Sometimes, I think I'm colder at night and in the morning than I would be in the Upl.S. This is because, houses and buildings in general here do not have any heating, since they don't really need it! Well, the low here will reach 40 or 50 degrees at night. That means that it will in fact reach about 50 or 60 degrees inside every single building. Varmond has many walls made completely of glass or plexi-glass, so the cold comes right through. Still, I'm quite grateful to be avoiding the weather in which your wet hair turns to icicles and the inside of your nose freezes. I told people here that this is how cold WI is right now, and they couldn't imagine it. Haha!

Even though this week was a short one for us, it still felt quite long. Tuesday through Thursday was spent mostly in finishing workbook pages, preparing for the open class, and having the open class. The open classes with the parents went well on Thursday. The second one was better than the first, since we learned how to organize the games better from the first class. My role in the open class was the math problems in English. I held up a problem related to fractions, and the students had to run to the tables to find a card with the answers. Sometimes, we had parents participate and answer the problems, which made it more fun. The open class gave me a chance to meet some of the parents, and talk to the Principal and Academic Dean of the school a bit. All of them were very friendly! The Principal said he'd love to have more student teachers come from SNC! :) (He even said that 5 or 10 student teachers at a time would be great! I'm not sure if we could pull that off, but for any of you considering student teaching abroad, know that you're more than welcomed in Morelia, Mexico!!) Honestly, a student teacher that comes here wouldn't even have to know Spanish, since it's a bilingual school with classes in just English.

I did get a little more used to the grading system here. I think it's a challenging one, since there seems to be a quota for the number of quizzes and homework assignments that are entered into the gradebook each month. This week, I felt like we had a lot of quizzes just for the sake of having more grades to consider in the average. This made me wonder how authentic all of the assessments were. I think I will have to be careful in my teaching to make sure that I plan out quizzes in a way that they are quality assessments and not bunched up at the end of the month.

I'm still grappling with the fact that the worksheet curriculum doesn't allow room for the learning process. Because all of the students must do the exact same workbook pages at the exact same rates, there is very, very minimal room for differentiation. However, I've noticed a huge range of abilities in both classes. Somehow, I'm going to need to be creative with those worksheets and figure out how to integrate more differentiation so that I can meet all of the students' needs. I noticed from the gradebook, that some have consistently low or failing grades and averages. These grades are marked in red pen, and as I flipped through all the grades from the year, each page seemed to have at least a fourth of the page in red!! I think teaching in a way such that all students can reach proficiency will be likely my biggest challenge student teaching here.

This weekend, I'll be exploring Morelia a bit more. I met a girl here, Sonia, from Oregon, and I think we'll be wandering around the city together to see more of it.

P.S.  On the computer at CCL, I wasn't able to see the video on my blog.  Now, on my Mac, I can see my video.  Hmm....so, if some of you aren't able to see my video from the last blog, please let me know (in a comment), and I'll try to figure out what's up.  Thanks!

Relaxed Weekend, Crazy Week Ahead!

This last weekend was a long weekend, due to El Día de las Candelas. This is the day of the presentation of the Christ child, which is celebrated in the Catholic Church. It is 40 days after Christmas. This is the day that Mary brought the baby Jesus to the Church. Before this day, it is believed that Mary stayed at home with the baby to protect him from the cold. As a side note, my host parents told me that traditional Mexicans abide by this 40 day rule. After giving birth to her children, my host mom stayed at home with her babies the first 40 days. Anyway, for El Día de las Candelas, the 2nd of February, many schools and work places close. People go to churches for Masses and to bring candles as a way to celebrate the presentation. In a motion of veneration, some move toward the altar with their candles on their knees the entire way. Mexicans also bring Jesus dolls swadled in white cloth to stores or religious places to have them dressed up for the presentation.

The food used to celebrate this special day is ¨los tamales.¨ This food symbolizes the presentation of Christ, because it is a warm cake-like food wrapped up in a corn husk, just as the Christ child is wrapped up in a blanket like un tamal. (See attached photos.) You don't each the husk...just the inside. Tamales come in sweet or salty kinds, some with meat, fruit, raisins inside, and the sweet ones are often colored either red or green with dye. Whoever finds the plastic baby doll in their cake piece on El Día de los Santos Reyes (the 6th of Jan.) must make tamales for everyone for el día de las candelas. My host uncle found the baby doll, but he must not know how to cook. My host mom had a party for her family with tamales, atole (a drink kind of like chai tea but creamier), and pozole (a soup with pork and corn, to which you can add fresh radish, onion, lettuce, chile, and limón (lemon)). I helped make some of the tamales. In Mexico, the traditional way of cooking is mixing things by hand with a wooden spoon and sometimes even with your hand. My host mom labored over the tamales for hours, because she was stirring huge bowls of flour, sugar, butter, etc. all by hand. I tried it for a while, but my arms are noooot that strong. Her work was worth it, since the tamales were delicious, and we have enough to eat all week long!








This weekend, my family took me to Pátzcuaro, a city nearby to Morelia. It is known for ¨La Danza de los viejitos,¨ which is a dance of the Purépecha, the indigenous people of that region. I took a short video of this dance, which you can see above to the left! The buildings in this city are beautiful, colonial ones, all in red and white trim. The one to the left is part of El Palacio de las Once Patios. This used to be the home of El Rey Caltzontzen, a Purépecha king. Above, you can see me sitting in the bath tub (el baño) of this king. Many of the colonial buildings like this are now used to display and sell the crafts made by artesans. There are many, many more artesans here than in the States.

Although the weekend was rather long and relaxed, this week at Varmond is rather crazy. All of the teachers are stressed, because this is the week of open classes, when parents are invited to attend class. However, they´re not just coming to a normal class to see it. We are putting on special presentation-type classes for the parents, and moreover, we need to make gifts to give the parents. The theme is recycling and helping the environment, so we´re making the Varmond insignia out of egg cartons and stryofoam balls. I have a lot of painting to do tonight to prep materials. All these gifts need to be finished by the 6th grade open class this Thursday. To add to this, grades are due soon for January. Varmond´s AMCO curriculum has monthly issues. Since the English classes are a bit behind in the January book, we´re trying to squeeze the last of it into this week, and my cooperating teacher and I are doing lots of grading to finish up the month. This makes teaching hard, since the focus is mostly on just getting all the workbook pages done and graded instead of focusing on student learning. This will be a good lesson for me in curriculum time management.

My main goals for this week in the classroom are to help keep everything running as smoothly as possible and learn the ins and outs of the grading system. I am doing a little less teaching this week, since the majority of class time is getting ready for the open class and breezing through the workbook as fast as possible. In the meantime, I'm trying to brainstorm ways to integrate process into the curriculum, since most of the contents focus heavily on the answers and final products. From grading some of the students´ work, I can tell they need more guidance and direction in certain areas. Their compositions had many, many grammatical errors, spelling problems, and often needed organizational help. I think that it may help in the future to give them a rubric, so they know exactly what is expected of them. I would also like to introduce them to the idea of writing outlines and rough drafts even though the book only gives room for a final draft. I brought up the idea of putting up some grammar rules on the walls as reminders for the students, and my teacher seemed to like this. I might work on that this week if we have time. If not, then this weekend for sure.

Another challenge I forsee in the classroom is that my teaching and classroom management styles are quite different from the two 6th grade teachers. The students are accustomed to teachers who raise their voices to get their attention, point out their academic and behavioral mistakes, and teach via oral lecture the majority of the time. I don't naturally have a loud voice, so this simply won't work for me. I will probably introduce either some hand signals, songs, clapping, or some other form of getting the students' attention while I teach. I also prefer classroom management that is silent (eye contact with students, walking toward students who are talking, hands motioning toward work that needs to be done, etc.). While teaching, I prefer to have the students talking more than me, so that I´m more of a ¨guide on the side.¨ I think it may take a while for students to get accustomed to my teaching style, but I hope I can figure out how to integrate my style in an effective way. That´s a bigger goal I have for the duration of my student teaching.

And...well...if you haven´t had enough to read yet....

Here is some random cultural info to entertain you:

• If I ever miss the U.S., there is a Sears, Sam’s Club, McDonalds, Applebee’s, Burger King, Subway, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Domino Pizza here.
• My family took me to la Plaza Morelia Sunday night, which is essentially a mall. It is much like American malls, except all of the shops are smaller than ours, and there is live music (and sometimes dancers) there performing free of charge every Sunday night.
• Many of the trees here are painted in white on the bottom half of the trunks to protect them from diseases.
• It is also “winter” here. I get a kick out of seeing people bundled in scarves, hats, gloves, and winter coats when I leave for school in the morning.
• At the stoplights, the “walk” sign figure moves! First the figure is walking. When you’re running out of time to cross the street, the figure starts running, and a count down begins. When you’re out of time, a still, red figure displays.
• Breakfast is in the morning, “La Comida,” the biggest meal of the day, is between 2 and 4p.m. (3:30p.m. for me), and la cena, a light dinner is between 8 and 10p.m.
• There are rarely any stop signs here, so you have to just slow down at every corner if there isn’t a stoplight. A common way of slowing cars down when necessary is “los topes,” what we would call speed bumps. They’re everywhere!
• All toilet paper goes in the garbage can, since the sewage system can’t handle it.
• The most common greeting/farewell here is a handshake with a kiss on the cheek or a hug with a kiss on the cheek. (Sometimes, this just means touching cheeks and kissing the air. It depends on the person.)
• Only purified water is safe to drink here, so work places and homes have large jugs of water.
• Some of the music here is American music translated into Spanish, for example, Elvis songs.
• Here, it is customary to eat with your arms and elbows on or above the table and eat with your hands (things like a piece of steak or fish). I'm trying to get used to this so that I don't come across as a snobby American.

Wow, well this was long. Bless your heart if you read this all!!