So, Wednesdays here at the Thomas Jefferson School, are not like every other day. On Wednesday the students are released from school early and the teachers are in meatings all afternoon. The meettings are all in Spanish and we gringos are not required to attend. All that this really means is that we all get together after school and spend some time communicating in english. You wouldn´t think that this would be all that big a deal but it is really quite relaxing to hear English and carry on a full conversation.
The school day on wednesday is very fast and feels very rushed. For one the lessons are in Spanish so I really cannot just jump in and help all that much. The first two periods of the day are planning periods so I spent this time talking with one of the administrators, my professor, and the classroom teacher to make sure that it would be ok that I missed Thursday in order to go on a trip with my host family to Chiloe. Everyone agreed that this would be ok and would be a great experience. That was that, the trip was planned and Marshall and I were oked to miss school.
I am starting to get the hang of the schedule here. It is much different than anything that I have ever experienced in the States. Every class is 2 periods long and there is a recess between every class. This means that the students are in class for 1.5 hours and then they get a 15 minute break. Along with this the students do not have the same schedule from day to day. I would try to explain that part of the sechedule, but I still don´t get it myself. And then to make things even more confusing, on Wednesday, we have every class for only one period (I wrote down the schedule and I have it with me at all time, its the only way that I have any idea what class I am with). This means that each class that I have on Wednesday is only 45 minutes long, which is a huge differance from the 1.5 hour classes that I had just gotten used to.
Did I mention that I have a mounted smart board in my classroom. While I am nowhere near an expert on the smart board, I at least know how to turn it on and mess around with it a little bit, so my classroom teacher wants me to teach her as much as I can while I am here. This works out perfectly for my capstone topic which is technology in the classroom. I am beginning to get very excited about doing some lesson with the smart board. I also hope that I will be able to teach my classroom teacher a few things so that this awesome tool does not go to waste when I am gone.
As well as making sure that everything was ready to go at the shcool for this weekends big trip to Chiloe I also began to plan when and what I would be doing in the classroom. Right now we are waiting for the smart board to be installed, but as soon as that happens I hope that it is pretty much all I will use. I have a lot of planning to do because not only do I teach two different grades but the schedule makes it so that they are not on the same lesson on the same day. This means that I have to have 3 different lesson for each day that I am teaching. Now I will teach each lesson 3 different times just on different days (very confusing, I know).
The rest of the day was honestly a blur. The class periods were only 45 minutes long and the lessons were in Spanish so I really had no clue. So the next thing I knew it was time for lunch. This was actually very interesting today because somewhere along the line there was some kind of miscommunication with the lunchroom staff and they did not know if the Gringos were eating lunch at the school or not. They weren´t to happy about the confussion and we all ended up just eating lunch at the school instead of at the mall because it was already prepared. The worst part is that my Host Mother works in the cafeteria and is kind of in charge. After lunch 3 of us went to the mall and walked around for quite a while just to kill some time. We ended up sitting down at Friday´s and had some appetizers and just talked. Marshal is definately come with me to Chiloe, I really don´t think he knows what he is getting himself into. In fact I don´t think I know.
Lindsay´s Mom gave me a ride home and then it was time to get ready for the trip. We made our final arangements with Marshal and his host family, and it was off to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a very long day for driving and and all kinds of sight seeing. The fun bus leaves at 6, it is now 11 and I still have to pack.
I spoke with everyone at home one more time before the venture to the Island of Chiloe. They have told me that there is no Internet on the Island so I am leaving my computer at home. Aimee will be back in Columbus tomorrow and no longer with her family, I know that she will be feeling what I think I just got over. I feel very sorry for her because it was not fun at all. I know that she will be fine and it will get easier with I am able to talk to her again on Skype. I miss Aimee and home very much, but it is getting much easier.
