Oy Vey!

First day of school. First day of insanity? Not quite, but Reyes Católicos, the elementary school in Santa Fé, is a bit... loco. Let's start with arrival at 10:30:

This can't be right. It's a jail. How do I get in? Wait and follow the man with the keys, good idea.

Oh shoot, it really is a jail. Where the heck is the grass. No wonder so many kids came in with scrapes on their knees, they have to play on a huge gravel patch.

I'm being overdramatic, but my first impression wasn't great. Luckily, once I passed through the doors I breathed a sigh of relief. Kids laughing and colorful posters, fewf! I met my bilingual coordinator, María José, who unfortunately is also new to the school. Right off the bat, María told me some great news: the kids are all troublemakers, the teachers (and children) hardly know English, and many of the children haven't bought the books- and won't buy them. Therefore, the class curriculum is all up in the air. Not that the books are that great to begin with. And they teach British "English"-- notice anything funny?:

After one day (or morning, rather- the kids only have school from 9am to 2pm) I learned that María José's pessimism with regards to the books, children and school was common among the other elementary teachers. I only worked with two teachers today, but I sensed an overwhelming sense of frustration. There were more gritos (shouts), rulers smacking against the chalkboard and disciplining than there was teaching.

However, the children seem to really like me as the "Americana." I can tell that their level of English is quite low- many would respond to a question such as, "can you say 'swimming'?" with "yes." Every response was "yes" or in Spanish (which I have to act like I don't understand- more tough than I realized). Even still, I saw that many of the children (it's true, not all) were eager to learn. I'm no teacher, but I know that I got a few children to say more than "yes" with a little positive reinforcement. While I probably just have to get used to this Spanish way of teaching, I seriously doubt that I can be as harsh on these kids as their maestras. Hey, I did get a few 'I love you''s today... What can I say, I'm a sucker.

Oh yeah, and I prepared a pretty cool interactive slide show about myself for the kids today- too bad there weren't any projectors! Fail. Even though I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have understood anything, they would've gotten a kick out of seeing Sunny in 3 feet of snow outside our old house.

PS- I'm teaching mainly 6 to 8 year-olds.

Goal for tomorrow: Annunciate EVEN MORE in class. Engage the children more & try to teach at least one thing about American culture. Teach a teacher something (the English teachers are very willing to learn). Engage the other teachers more in the break room (this was very intimidating today, but overall they seem friendly enough. One has the most annoyingly loud voice though- I don't think we'll be bff's).