Though I would tell you about my placement at the school as I generally seem to focus mostly on the weekends.
Typical day goes a little something like this. Up at 6.30am and on the bus by 7.10. We (being Lucy and I, who are working together) have to catch 2 different buses to get to the school (Escuela de William Tell - William Tell School) which is pretty much on the edge of the city. Catching the bus is never a boring event. The second bus we catch is not at a bus stop, so we have to hail it from the side of the road. More often than not it doesnt completely stop, just slows down a bit so we have to jump on pretty quickly. The buses get really packed as well (I´ve seen a bus licensed to hold 100 people - 43 sitting and 57 standing!) so we don´t get a seat for at least 20 mins, and sometimes we end up standing on the steps of the bus, holding on for dear life, because it´s near impossible to get any further up!
We get to the school by 8.30, which is in a very poor area surrounded by dull, concrete houses. We have six half-hour classes each day - years 3, 2, 4, 5, recess, then 1 and kindy. Year 1 and kindy are very difficult as they can barely read or write in Spanish let alone English, but we had a bit of a victory with memory the other day (year 1 were actually reasonably quiet for the first time in 2 weeks!) so we might just be playing versions of that for the next 4 weeks. This placement is going so quickly! I can´t believe we have been here for 7 weeks already!
Year 4 and 5 are good as they can understand a fair bit. Have been teaching a few of the classes about clothing in English the last few days and yesterday we took in a pile of clothes and got them to find certain pieces and dress up in them (which was unbelievably hilarious when the boys had to put on the skirt!) That was great fun, we did this with 3 classes and they loved it and the year 4 teacher actually told us we had done really well! Which pretty much made my day. Our last class finishes at 12, and after a long bus ride I get home about 1.30pm, making for a pretty long day. We usually crash on the couch until after lunch because we are so tired!
Certain things at the school make me laugh. Two or three days a week, the year 1 teacher comes out into the playground with a bucket of water and a tube of toothpaste. The kids trail behind her, all holding a cup and a toothbrush. They proceed to fill their cups up from the bucket, get a squirt of toothpaste and then head to a corner of the yard where they all brush their teeth. Provides opportunity for water fights and the endless amusement of poking the new English teachers in the back and then running away. The kids are too cute to be angry at though!
That´s about all the news for now. Hopefully it keeps going ok!
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