Sorry I have been gone so long. I guess I got occupied. I still love volunteering although my lessons still suck. I tell Renee that I am bad teacher but she says I may be bad, but I am good volunteer because I care. I feel like that is true. I really do love my kids and want to help them even though they frustrate me sometimes. Now that I have been volunteering for over a month and have had the same class I am really learning the dynamics of my students. My students are ALWAYS changing. One day you might have prepared a lesson more geared towards the interests of the class you had the day before. Then you show up to class and there is only one student that is the same. Either way, I have a student who is a really bad reader and writer. Everyday I stay after class with her and read. She really reminds me of why this foundation is pretty necessary in barrios like Oasis. I did notice she is super creative. We painted masks that we had made before and she really thought out the design. It ended up being simple but elegant.
One thing that really kills me is I see real potential in the kids I work with, but without the right resources, they wont be able to cultivate it. For example, I was helping the volunteers who organize the weekly talks for the women in the community keep the kids from interrupting. I was watching some of the boys pretty much pole vault with a stick they had found. I thought wow, if a track coach had ever seen what I just saw these kids do, they would snatch them up and put them on their team. Another one is, I have a kid who is very advanced in math and likes to mess with my cell phone (engineer?) but how is he every going to afford an education? I dont know how financial aid works here, but I doubt it would be free. And my nearly illiterate student, from the little I have seen, she is very thought out in her creative work. I could see her going in arts, design or something, but she just needs to know that money is out there for those who try to cultivate the things that they are good at. Another student I have, who usually is a disruption, but a happy one, smiles all the time, and has no fear to preform or anything like that. I see him as an actor or someone in tourism or something like that. I wish I could bring recruiters for those kinds of things to barrios like this one. I suppose everyone has some potential, but not everyone has the resources.
jueves, 21 de julio de 2011
More Mariposas, Cartagena and a failed bank
So here is my plan for my class in the foundation; Everyday a little bit of math and a little bit of english and then the last hour the subject of the day. The subjects for each day will (hopefully) like this, Monday extended math, Tuesday sciences, Wednesday history, Thursday languages spanish literature or english extended, Friday quiz and fun day.
I started this system last week and there seems to be one subject that the kids just don't want to do... History. History used be my best subject, but aparently I am a better student than teacher at this. Maybe it's because the subjects of history I want to teach them are more relevant to them (therefore, I don't know much). Friday's seem to be a success minus the banking system that was tried out the week before I got there. The girls who had my class between Natalia and me decided since they were learning how to do percentages that they should do a "bank" system of rewards with fake money. They decided that if you showed up for class you got $5, if you did something nice you got say $10, if you did something bad you got fined, etc. Well we decided to cash out with prizes and that was a disaster, especially since there was discrepancy between what they had in their envelopes and what the paper said. They started stealing, arguing we ended up staying at school an hour later than we were supposed to because of the bank fiasco. Thankfully the whole day wasn't a failure. That day I also had planned a creative activities to make our own ball in a cup game (coca). They were really good, shared, asked for materials when they needed it, all very nice. They enjoyed it above all and that made me proud of my day.
Also, this weekend I went to Cartagena. Unfortunately I am updating my blog too late and my computer has been rained on so there for any pictures of this must be viewed on facebook. Cartagena was beautiful. I went with my friend and housemate in the homestay, Renee. Renee and I caught an early door to door shuttle from Santa Marta to Cartagena after having gone out dancing until 4 am. That night we had actually met a pair of brothers who were heading there after their time in Santa Marta. We met up with them later. Renee and I went out every night that weekend in Cartagena. It was great. Although the first night we were traveling in a big group from the hostel we were staying in and it took a long time to get out, but finally we made it. We went to this salsa bar inside of the walled city. It was wonderful. Not many people were dancing on the floor that we were on but maybe that was because they were intimidated by the pair of professional salsa dancers that had taken the floor. One of the guys from the hostel decided to dance. He first danced with his Mexican friend, then I also danced with him. He also danced with the professional woman. I had a good time.
Renee and I had only a little bit of time to travel around Cartagena so we decided to take a tour in bus. The bus is called a Chiva and is painted colorfully and is really a party bus at night. They took us around, showed us the fortress, the walled city, explained things which was perfect. The next day we took a tour to the mud volcano. The mud volcano is exactly what it sounds like. It is way taller than I expected, about 25 meters high. Inside of the volcano is mud that you suppose is coming up from the ground. When we got to the top we thought that the people in there were standing but when we got inside of the mud we realized that it was just really easy to float. It was a small space so people were running into each and all of that. We got in a near by river to rinse off.
One night Renee and I followed our lonely planet and went to this upscale restaurant, that we didnt know was upscale. We came in our tennis shoes and our t shirts still sweaty from the day and ask for a table. They were reluctant to give us a table since we didnt have a reservation even though we had asked for one even before they opened. We ended up getting the "only table that wasn't reserved" in the "you make us look bad" corner of the restaurant. It was freaking delicious though. totally worth it.
Cartagena is beautiful and they do a lot of work to keep it that way. Very romantic, very recommended with a loved one. Good thing I had my surrogate boyfriend, Renee (who is female).
I started this system last week and there seems to be one subject that the kids just don't want to do... History. History used be my best subject, but aparently I am a better student than teacher at this. Maybe it's because the subjects of history I want to teach them are more relevant to them (therefore, I don't know much). Friday's seem to be a success minus the banking system that was tried out the week before I got there. The girls who had my class between Natalia and me decided since they were learning how to do percentages that they should do a "bank" system of rewards with fake money. They decided that if you showed up for class you got $5, if you did something nice you got say $10, if you did something bad you got fined, etc. Well we decided to cash out with prizes and that was a disaster, especially since there was discrepancy between what they had in their envelopes and what the paper said. They started stealing, arguing we ended up staying at school an hour later than we were supposed to because of the bank fiasco. Thankfully the whole day wasn't a failure. That day I also had planned a creative activities to make our own ball in a cup game (coca). They were really good, shared, asked for materials when they needed it, all very nice. They enjoyed it above all and that made me proud of my day.
Also, this weekend I went to Cartagena. Unfortunately I am updating my blog too late and my computer has been rained on so there for any pictures of this must be viewed on facebook. Cartagena was beautiful. I went with my friend and housemate in the homestay, Renee. Renee and I caught an early door to door shuttle from Santa Marta to Cartagena after having gone out dancing until 4 am. That night we had actually met a pair of brothers who were heading there after their time in Santa Marta. We met up with them later. Renee and I went out every night that weekend in Cartagena. It was great. Although the first night we were traveling in a big group from the hostel we were staying in and it took a long time to get out, but finally we made it. We went to this salsa bar inside of the walled city. It was wonderful. Not many people were dancing on the floor that we were on but maybe that was because they were intimidated by the pair of professional salsa dancers that had taken the floor. One of the guys from the hostel decided to dance. He first danced with his Mexican friend, then I also danced with him. He also danced with the professional woman. I had a good time.
Renee and I had only a little bit of time to travel around Cartagena so we decided to take a tour in bus. The bus is called a Chiva and is painted colorfully and is really a party bus at night. They took us around, showed us the fortress, the walled city, explained things which was perfect. The next day we took a tour to the mud volcano. The mud volcano is exactly what it sounds like. It is way taller than I expected, about 25 meters high. Inside of the volcano is mud that you suppose is coming up from the ground. When we got to the top we thought that the people in there were standing but when we got inside of the mud we realized that it was just really easy to float. It was a small space so people were running into each and all of that. We got in a near by river to rinse off. |
| Renee and I in this super fancy place |
Cartagena is beautiful and they do a lot of work to keep it that way. Very romantic, very recommended with a loved one. Good thing I had my surrogate boyfriend, Renee (who is female).
 |
| Spending a night out on a colonial wall |
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)