MoniqueHagel

One of things I was most interested to find out about when I got to Peru this summer was the differences in classrooms (setup, teacher organization, etc.) and the classroom management techniques. Last semester I was doing a clinical at Loyola-Fitzgerald in Mankato. This was my first clinical where I had zero access to a SmartBoard. You know what my "technology" was? A marker board, a TV with a VHS player, and an overhead projector. At first, I thought I was going to die. However, I was able to come up with different activities to do because the classroom was huge. I quickly learned that technology isn't "do or die." As long as you have space, almost anything is possible. Despite this new realization, I was still in for a reality shock when I got to ... read more

The month of July is THE month to have birthdays in the Berrospid family... Especially the beginning of the month. The last two days (the 2nd and 3rd) have been filled with nothing but birthday celebrations and huge lunches and dinners... and the occasional teaching of a class. Monday was Beatriz's birthday (Daniel's sister), and Tuesday was Daniel's and Samira's birthday (Daniel's neice). There is a constant battle between her and Daniel about who looks younger. (Personally, I think Bea does, but most people think Daniel does.) Beatriz is a couple years older than Daniel, but I'm not sure exactly how much older. Jaja. Oh well. The school day on Monday started off pretty normal. We didn't make it to our first class, but that's fine. It's become a routine now, so we're getting our schedules ... read more

June 23, 2012 We began our weekend with breakfast, some time at school, and then a trip to the catacombs beneath a curch. Nothing like starting the weekend out with a little death, right? ;) We toured the main part of the cathedral first, where we saw places where monks used to eat cleanse before worship. Then we went to the sanctuary. We saw where the monks used to sit during services. There was this really neat spinning "music stand" that could spin around. They would put three identical massive "hymnals" on here so that all the monks could see the words for the songs and participate in the services. (There was a room that resembled a library that stored many of these hymals. However, most of them were in another secure location to help with ... read more

June 21, 2012 Thursday morning... Once again, we missed our first morning class. Then the day just moved right along. I was with my favorite class today, Noe (Noah). They are in fifth grade and are so attentive and involved. It makes me so much more excited that I get to spend two hours a week with them! :D Anyways, so they were learning more vocabulary. Since the school doesn't have overhead projectors, SmartBoards, or anything like that, the only way they were going to see pictures of the new vocabulary was for me to draw examples on the board. The first question their teacher asked me was, "Can you draw?" I looked at her and said, "Nope. Not at all." (Maybe I should have tried harder in Intro to Art? Jajaja.) Oh well. Right away ... read more

June 19, 2012 The only thing really of note about the day here at B. Group was that all of us struggled to get through the day. All the students seemed to be acting up an just ancy. We couldn't figure it out... There aren't any breaks coming up. It's not close to the end of the trimester. It's not the end of the week. Hmm. Ah well... The ever-changing life of teaching, I guess! :) At the language school in the evening, I was assigned to the Intermediate 8 class that used to be with Iris but now is with Janina. The were good. They participate as much as they can. I taught part of the lesson, which was fun. I can kind of goof around with them a little bit, which is such a ... read more