first week of school

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First week of school is done and over with. What an experience. It's nice to finally get back into a routine again, even if it is still a little uncertain. I'm teaching eight different classes at the Liceo Comercial Diego Portales. It's a public high school just outside "downtown" Rancagua. I say "downtown" because Rancagua is a very small city, and the downtown area reminds me of an older Mercer Island, just in layout, not in content. It's a wonderful place, and I'm obviously still getting to know it, but I think that six months here is going to be awesome.

So I'm teaching eight classes, four ninth grade, three tenth grade, and one eleventh grade. Per the rule of the Ministry of Education I also have to teach two workshops a week, so I have one for ninth and tenth graders, and then I am helping train eleventh and twelfth graders for the National Debate Competition. I'm really excited about it. My ninth graders are my favorites. They are all super excited that I'm there, and they have this intense desire to get better and to answer my questions. They impress me every day. Yesterday, Friday, my co-teacher, Cristian, was out sick, so they asked me if I could come in anyways and teach his classes. I obviously said yes, so I had the unique experience of trying to control classrooms of 48 Chilean ninth graders. Let me just tell you, it's not so easy. Every time I asked them to be quiet, it worked for about 15 seconds then they were off and running again. Chile is very weird in that the teachers have very little control over the students. Their authority is constantly challenged and questioned. The students don't remain in their seats, they are always talking, cell phones go off and sometimes students answer them. Magazines and newspapers are common, and they always have headphones in their ears. In my classroom we are going to work on this.

On Monday I start teaching on my own, but just with half of the students. My classes won't be over 24. I am going to lay out my ground rules on the first day, and hopefully they will be followed. Even though I've only been doing it for a week, I already feel like teaching is going to be a really fun.

My friend Cami works just down the street at another school, so we have met up a few times and wandered around the center. We are about a five minute walk from the center which is nice. My house is way out in the suburbs, which is a little annoying because I'm pretty far away from everyone else, but my host family more than makes up for it.

Today we had an asado at my house, a Chilean barbeque, for all the teachers at my school. It was to mark the end of the three week strike that ended on Monday, so they all came over around 1 and we ate and drank for hours. These teachers can put it away. They could drink any college student I know under the table. It's pretty impressive. I have another asado tonight...I'm not sure how I'm going to eat anything else though. Our regional coordinator is having the six volunteer's over to his house for food and drinks, so it should be a good time.

Last night my host mom took me to a dance show at one of the local schools. It was the Ballet Foclorico of Chile, and every two years they come to Rancagua and have a show. It was pretty incredible. The costumes were awesome and the dancing was really fun to watch.

It's so weird to think that just a month ago I was about to graduate from college, and now I'm teaching and in Chile! Sometimes it takes me a minute to remember that. I think thats a good thing though, especially now that I'm settling in and into a routine, it would be easy to get homesick and think about everything that I am missing, but the students make it all worth it. Thats why I came here, and thats what I keep in mind.

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