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!!

Three Fiestas, Two Cultures, One Great Week

Above is a photo of the city from above. I couldn´t fit it all in one photo, but you can tell it´s large!

Here, I live between two cultures. I live with my host family in La Colonia Centro, the oldest colony, which is in the center of Morelia. It is primarily a working, middle class area. The buildings and homes here are all packed together, and there is limited green space. Most people park on the streets, since few have garages, and no one has a yard. When I walk outside of my door, there is a narrow sidewalk, and then a road. My neighborhood has many shops near by in walking distance. All day and night, there are people all over on the streets talking. In the mornings, at least on the weekends, I awake to the sound of ¨las campanas,¨the bells, which are the sounds of the trash man. He comes by every day all morning long beginning at 7:30a.m. Fortunately, I wake up before this during the week. There is also the sounds of two musical trucks every morning, which sell natural gas tanks to use in the homes.

I am student teaching at Varmond School in La Colonia Tres Marias, one of the newest, wealthiest colonies on the outskirts of the city. All of the houses are large, have yards, and are spaced out very much. There are two private gated entrances to my school, and every vehicle of the families and teachers looks relatively new. In the morning, the teachers who don´t have a class during the first hour of the day go outside to open the car doors for the students when their parents drop them off at school. It is a private school, where students dress in uniform. Since the parents pay a lot for tuition and books, my cooperating teacher told me that their more like clients than parents. If there´s something they´re not happy about, the school has to adapt to meet their wishes. For instance, this is why we need to finish all of the workbook pages each month.

I am teaching in the 6th grade, and the students, teachers, and staff at the school are all very nice. This week, there were three fiestas during recess breaks. One was for a student´s b-day, and then each of the two sections of my grade, 6a and 6b, threw me surprise parties (thankfully on two different days!) They brought tons of food including ice cream, cake, chips, fruit with chile, ham with chile, drinks. (Everything with here has chile on it!) Random fact: Apple flavored soda is popular here!

My main teaching goal was to get to know students, the school, and curriculum this week. I think I did pretty well building rapport with students. I have most of their names down. I got to know their abilities a bit by circulating around the class to help them out. I shared a photo book about me at the start of the week, which they enjoyed. I also began a ¨mailbox¨in which the students can ¨send¨me messages, and I´ll write back to them. So far, one student wrote to me. I also played volleyball a few times at recess. My math lessons went well, and I wrote and gave my first math quiz this Friday. From the first set I graded, they did well. I have to thank Dr. Poss for teaching me how to use scrap paper. I encouraged my students to do so, and I think it´s really helping them. The focus in the math part of their book is very much on the answer. There isn´t even enough room to work out a solution. I´m trying to move the emphasis more to the process of math, since that´s where the critical thinking and understanding is.

I have to head out now, but enjoy the weekend. I have a 3 day weekend for El Día de la Candelas. More about that on Tuesday!

Al principio...mis adventuras

Hola from Mexico!! I am here, safe, and quite happy. This adventure began when my host parents (Fernando and Carmen) picked me up from the airport and pointed out that my bottle of laundry detergent broke and poured itself aaaaaall over my suitcase. Cleaning everything out made for quite the ice breaker! My host mom kept saying, ¨Qué triste,¨ (How sad), but I had to find it kind of funny. Fortunately, the few items of clothes I had in this smaller suitcase soaked up most of the soap, and only a few books and papers, most of which were wrapped in saran wrap, got soap around their edges. At least my shoes are nice and clean now..haha!
At my house, I live with my parents, and host siblings Aldo, Abraham, and Nadxelli. All are older than me. In Mexico, it is traditional to live with your parents until you marry, so my siblings range in age from 25 to 30. They are all very kind, and very patient with my imperfect Spanish. They are good about correcting my mistakes, which is incredibly helpful!
Over the weekend, I went to a birthday party with my host parents for one of their uncles. They sure know how to have fun! There was a lot of food, karaoke, and dancing. The tiny bit of salsa I know from SNC classes helped a lot. I still think I looked a bit foolish, but ah well. It was fun. Some of their songs here are American ones that have been translated into Spanish! On Sunday I went to the independent market, where my host mom has a cheese shop. Think farmers market but SUPER SIZE! There was tons of shops and markets packed together with fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, toys, restaurants, clothing, shoes, etc....anything you´d ever think of buying. The most memorable was the meat shops where raw meat covered the entire counter, lay out in the open, and dripped blood down onto the cement pavement below. One man was cutting meat to sell, and I swear I saw it flying out toward the customers passing by. Yikes! I walked quickly!! Sunday night, I went to my first Spanish mass. It was so strange to see people walking in and out of the church throughout the entire mass, and only one third of the church receiving communion. My host father explained to me that here, it is more important just to go to the church, and it doesn´t matter when you arrive or leave. Also, many abide by the rule of going to confession before receiving communion.
At the school, Varmond School, I began teaching math today. I will tell more about all of this later, since I need to wrap this blog up. Until Friday...

Hasta Luego

Photo courtesy of U.S. CIA

I leave for Mexico in just over a week!  I'm excited to meet my host family and begin student teaching there.  If you'd like to learn a little more about where I'm going and what I'm doing, I thought I'd give you a couple interesting links.  I've also included a map above so that you can see where Morelia is. 

Morelia is a beautiful Colonial city in Mexico.  If you would like to see photos of the city, click here.  Then click on the map of the city.  A larger version will show up, and if you scroll over the maroon circles, you'll see some incredible photos.  The architecture of Morelia's buildings is gorgeous.

Varmond School, a bilingual school where I'll be student teaching uses the AMCO curriculum. I think they have an interesting curriculum approach, since the textbooks are updated monthly.  This allows the company to include the most current information, unlike most U.S. textbooks, which update every year or so but are often only updated in schools every several years.  If you'd like to learn more about the AMCO curriculum that I'll be using, click here.  If you go the instructional guides, "Metodo 2" are the guides used in the English classes, which I will be teaching.  These were invaluable for me when I did some preliminary instructional planning.  Since Varmond's workbooks include the entire curriculum that the teachers need to cover for the month, most of my instructional plans for now are ideas for short activities and games that I can integrate into part of my lessons. 

That's all I have for now.  Thanks for checking my blog.  I'll miss all of you in the States!  Take care and keep in touch!