Teacher School

So last night we went to the teachers school for the third time. I think this was a really good visit. At first I thought they were going to be just classes that we have to sit through which would be really draining because we do that all day in the little schools. But all these meetings at the teacher school have been very informative without just listening to a teacher lecture and someone translate. The class was split into three groups and we went into different classrooms and did different activities. I am not sure what exactly my other classmates did but I really liked the one I was in.

It was suppose to be a seminar on problems of social-anthropology in education. The teacher didn't lecture too much. It was more of a conversation between my classmates and those at the teacher school. It was really nice. They asked us questions, personal and professional. It was nice to tell them why we are here and what we think of their culture. It was also nice to talk about the differences in schools. The professor said that the differences is something they want to research more because teachers in Argentina are more affectionate with students and its not pushing the line (they don't have a boundary for this) unlike in America where being affectionate with students is looked down upon. I know it is different in elementary school but in high school you cannot be any sorts of affectionate to your current students. Sometimes you can get away with being affectionate to the same gender like girl students hugging female teachers but most affectionate is looked down upon. It all depends on the situation in America and there are laws that are in place which makes every situation a little blurry. We talked about how people in America have more of a personal bubble than those in Argentina and how we kind of wish we were more affectionate.

It was a really nice discussion where we just laid everything out of the table. There was so much I learned about the way they teacher and manage classrooms vesus what I have observed in America. Besides learning a lot about the school setting, it was nice to talk to people around our age about their culture. I mean I have had conversations with Nacho and his crew but seeing it from a teacher's perspective is very different. I just really liked the open atmosphere that we had about talking. As Bret, one of my classmates, put it, "there was some kind of spirit in the room that let it all out." For once it was open for both sides to be expressive and learn about the different cultures. I feel like everyone learned a lot from that discussion. I really appreciate the people who translated, Daniel and Paola, because without them this amazing conversation would have never happened.

first visit to a different school :)

So today (Thursday, Day 7) was my second day in my school placement. It was very interesting. I really liked today. We were only there for 2 blocks of classes but it was very interesting. I first sat in a math class for the 6th year (12th grade for us) where the teacher was the principal, Annalisa. One of the girls switched seats with a classmate so that she can translate for us but Annalisa told her not to. She basically said that in America we will have students who do not speak the language that the lesson is being taught in so we will have to learn how to deal and that math is a universal language so the should understand it anyways. Which I did so I felt so proud of myself. They were learning about functions. They were basically doing domain, image, constant, increasing, decreasing, is this graph a functions (vertical line test), etc. I could follow all of it which was very cool. It was weird because not all the students pay attentions so they are talking to their friends but the teacher does not really do a lot of classroom management. We stress classroom management so much in the states but it is not hugely present in Argentina classrooms. Some times teachers try but there were a few classes where the teacher just kept teaching over the talking students. The students talk softly and the teacher never raises their voice to talk but I still think there should be a little bit of classroom management. After each 80 minute block (two 40 minute classes) there is like a 10 minute recess. All of us observers would be completely surrounded by students. Almost all the students would be girls but some guys were there. The guys seemed to want to stare at a distance and look cool more than they wanted to talk to us. lol.

After the first block I went to a English language class. That class was really cool and I really liked it. They were learning present continuous grammar and the weather. They got to listen to a CD to hear some native speaker but the person had a British accent so I am thinking that its not really American English but English from England/Britain. The funny thing that happened in this class is that I got asked if I was born in America by the teacher when the students were working in their workbooks. She also asked me if I knew Spanish and if I was from the same city as Callie, the girls I was observing with. I feel a little insulted but not much. They just must think that I am from another country and moved to America. Sorry to disappoint but I was born and raised in America with a dad who was born and raised in America.

We got to leave around noon again but it was because at 1pm we had to meet up with our classmates going to other schools to go visit those schools. We had a quick lunch at the hotel and I went off to El Anglo with my roommate. She is in a 1st grade class and the kids are SOOOOO cute! There is this one Asian boy that was sitting right in front of my. I wondering if he realized we have the same heritage. Probably not because he doesn't see a lot of Asians in Alta Gracia. It probably didn't phase him. At El Anglo I felt like more of a rock star than I did at the other two schools. I was always crazy surrounded by students during recess. Most were really little kids asking me the same questions: "What is your name?" "How old ar you?" "What color is this (points to something)?" The kids were really adorable. Some spoke English and some didn't. I felt bad for the ones who didn't and kept asking me questions because I did not know how to respond. In the first class I sat through was basically an evaluation of the previous days math and just sitting around as the teacher graded their homework. During the first class the teacher showed us her planning binder. It was so intricate with each page decorated like a scrapbook. The second class was a gym class so basically watch little first graders run around like crazy. It was so sweet. The first graders were so cute. I am going to have to visit there again and sit through some different classes.

Day 7: First day of observations

Wednesday (Day 7) was the first day of our observations in our placement. Like I said I am placed at Misericordia at the high school level. It is a Catholic school so the students where uniforms. I think at most schools they have some sort of uniform. The first class I was in was a technology class. They were learning about alternate forms of energy. It was very interesting but the only reason I knew what we going on because one of the doctorate students was translating for me. I feel bad being dependent on the doc students but they said I didn't really need Spanish but you kind of do... Oh well. I am just going to have to try to learn Spanish. I understand more than I thought. I found that out when I was in the next class. It was a 2nd year of high school (so our 8th grade) math class. They were learning about fractions and I understood everything. Math really is a universal language. The only time we needed something translated is when the teacher was talking to us about other things than the lesson and at that point she had a student translate everything for us. I thanked her a lot for translating. I liked being in the math class because I learned some neat methods on how to teach adding fractions. If I ever teach a class at that level I could really used what I learned in Argentina, which is pretty cool. After that math class I went to a drama class and they were working on death scenes. First they act out the death scene from shakespeare as it was written then they were suppose to change the ending. It was very interesting and kind of funny. We got to leave after that class since we started at 7:45 and it was noon by the time the 3rd class ended.

In the schools it was really interesting because the students kept wanting to try speaking english to us so we got asked a lot of questions. Towards the end of the tech class, me and my classmates were surrounded by students getting ask questions about our lives. I felt like a celebrity.

We had a long free time after that. I was free from 12-8pm. It was a nice siesta. I took a 2-hour long nap. For dinner around 6:30, I went to get that chicken sandwich again from the cafe right by Misericordia, El Meson. It is a really good sandwich. I could probably eat it at least once a week.

We were a little late to the meeting with our professor because the waitress didn't get us our check when we asked for it. We asked like 5 times before getting it. You you are a rush in Argentina you can basically expect that you will be late. Its hard to be in a rush when eating at a restaurant.

After our meeting, we went back to the teacher school and sat in a class. They were talking about the laws for education in Argentina. It was very interesting. Then we got to get in groups and work on this mural together. The group I was in was too busy talking and taking pictures to really work on our little section of the mural but that's okay. I made some new friends. :) It was fun. After that we just took taxis back and I set up a facebook for one of my classmates. It was really funny. So I was up until like 1am and I knew I had to get up early the next day, not as early as today because they pushed our time back to start at the second block of classes. A lot of people couldn't sleep so we were all facebook chatting on our little study abroad group. ;)

Day 6: May 29

On this day we had a morning visit to Misericodia which is the school that I have been placed in for observations. It is a catholic school. It was very interesting. Not as many students speak english, I think. Or at least that is what I observed when we saw the kids at recess but when we met with part of the senior class we were told they took english for 2 years. So theoretically they should understand us if we speak slowly. Some of our answers still had to be translated. There are two students who speak English as their first language, one was an exchange student from Texas while the other lived in England for most of her life but moved back to Alta Gracia because that is where her mother lived.

After the Misericordia visit, my classmates split into groups based on which school we were placed. So we talked to the principal a bit before we went to lunch. For lunch we went to the cafe right down the street from Misericordia. It was a good cafe I got a chicken sandwich and it was really good. Then we had free time so I just chilled at the hotel reading a book and watching some tv.

At night we went to the technical college for teachers. So this is a night college that people who want to be teachers become teachers. We got to observe a science class that was having a guest astronomer come and show them some stars. We got to see the Alpha Centauri star(s). You can only see it in the Southern Hemisphere so I think that was pretty cool. It looks like one star but it is two really close together that you can see through a telescope. It apparently the closest star after the Sun and it is 4 light years away. They were celebrating the birthday of the school so there was a special show that we watch and afterwards we had bread/pastries and Mate.

So the teacher thing ended around 10pm and we took taxis from the hotel to the teacher school so we were taking taxis back to the hotel. But 6 of us took taxis to the Cafe De Los Viejos Tiempos. Last time I was there I got pizza and hot chocolate but I got completely different food this time. I got the Lomito sandwich and it was better at this cafe than it was at the other cafe. I also got a Torta e Chocolate or something with those words in the title. It was chocolate cake and it was so good. I shared both of those with a classmate since we had a lot of bread at the teacher school. Not much happened after that since I had to get up the next morning really early to start observations.

School Visit and Tango Lesson

On this day we were suppose to have two school visits, El Anglo and San Martin, but the principal of El Anglo was not here so we get the morning off which is very nice. After the general lunchtime we got to be presented to San Martin. That's an elementary school that some of my classmates are placed at. We were there when they had their big starting meeting for school and it was really cool. I felt so important. They really wanted to try to speak English with us and we wanted to try and speak some Spanish to them. We had a tour of the school to see all the classrooms. We went in the younger grades and let the kids ask us questions. Then the students had recess and we were like rockstars. Hordes of students were crowding us and it was so cute to see the little kids try to talk to us. I didn't talk to a lot of students but I took some nice pictures of my classmates talking to a bunch of people. One boy came up to me and asked me if I spoke English and I couldn't help but laugh and say yes. I guess he was expecting me to speak Chinese or Spanish or something. It was very interesting. Kids kept giving us candy and little gifts. These kids were great. All the guys in our group were a billion times more popular then us girls for the fact that many of these kids don't see male teachers.

After our school visit we went to a gym to have a Tango demonstration and lesson. It was very interesting. I like learned new dances and it was really fun. It was a bit awkward because we only have 3 guys in our group so I learned both the male and female parts. I feel like that happens a lot when I am learning a new style of dance. The Tango demonstration was the best part. I have videos so I will try to post them on facebook or here on the blog later. Probably when I get back because the internet here is kind of slow and might die if I try uploading a video.

After that we had the whole night off. We really didn't do much but sit in our rooms. A group of us had dinner at La Rosa which is a restaurant that is around the corner from the hotel. I had a steak. It was sooooo good. I felt like a pig because most of the people in my group got salads while one got pasta. I just really wanted a steak. I was really happy after eating this. There was a lot of fat but it was still really good once I cut out most of the fat.

Culture Differences...

The culture in Argentina and very different from the culture in America. It is a lot of getting use to but I do like parts of their culture. This might be a series of post as I keep learning about the culture but we will just have to wait and see. I'm just going to mention what I remember now as cultural differences.

Timing: Argentines have a very long day compared to Americans. They have breakfast and lunch around the same time as Americans but then they have siesta from around 1-4pm. Which is like the greatest thing ever. It's a scheduled nap time or rest time. So I either nap or just chill on my computer watching TV and such. Then they have a little pastry and coffee snack time around 5pm because dinner is really really late like around 9pm at the earliest. If it is a weekend, most of the younger people go out to a discoteca. Those normally open around 2am and close around 5-7am. Yes their clubs open at 2am which is the time they close in America on a college campus. It's just absurd. This is why siesta is so important. They also take forever at dinner. Like its just a social event where you spend hours eating and everything is a sit down and enjoy kind of meal. Unlike in America where we have fast food and eating is something we do because our bodies need nourishment like an inconvenience to people. Like in America if we could go without eating we probably could because we want to get back to whatever else we were doing. Unlike in Argentina when a meal is a time to enjoy your company so you can take your time at a restaurant talking and just chilling. Argentines are also not huge with time orientation. So they do set times for things but really they are all approximations.

Food: The food isn't too too different but the norms are not the same. Argentines' are in love with ham and cheese. You can get something with ham and cheese for every meal. I know I eat it for breakfast every day so far. lol. They also eat a lot of pizza but it does not have as much sauce and no matter what kind there is a green olive on every slice. Its great for people like me who love olives but not that many people love olives. There is a lot of pastries or carbs in general which is horrible for someone on a low-carb diet. So I kind of ditched the diet for this trip. They also eat a lot of steak or at least the steak is popular. Like the sandwich I had called Lomito and a breaded steak called Milinase. It is all really good. Restaurants are very different. The waiters are not all about turning over the tables as fast as possible like they are in America. In Argentina, its all about enjoying your meal so you have to flag down the waiter at the end to get a check. You can just take you time and enjoy your company and the meal. Restaurants are also different because you have to pay for water so it comes in bottles. Plus you have to order water without gas/carbonation. They love their carbonated water.

Greetings: Argentines' personal bubble is basically none existant. It is kind of difficult for me because I do have a personal bubble but I think I am getting use to it so I kind of like it. When you say hi to someone you just don't say hello and keep your distance. You say hola and kiss them on the cheek. I think it is suppose to be the right cheek because every time we have met someone new it has always been the right cheek. It could just be because everyone goes to the left and that is the norm of the world but I am not exactly sure. Apparently for guys saying hi to guys it is different they basically do a bro hug (grab each others hand like you are shaking it then you do that one armed hug). You also do that same thing when you are saying adios or ciao. That is something else I found weird... They say ciao (hello/bye) and prego (you're welcome). Which is Italian but they don't really use anything else that is Italian but whatever.

Social Gatherings: There are different types of social gatherings and I wish we could bring them back to America. Like I mentioned the other day about Mate and how they just sit around sharing Mate and eating little cookies. I think it is so cool just to chill with friends sharing Mate and talking. I also like the little coffee time they have at 5pm, that is also a time to meet up with a friend and catch up or something like that. There is just a different atmosphere of people being close compared to distant. Like people stand closer together when they talk. People are just more open with sharing and being a close compared to America where we are distant and there is a personal bubble.

Pictures!

As I promised here are some photos from my first 4 days. The majority of the photos will be put on facebook so look for an album later!

Airport in Cordoba

 Public Clock Tower in Alta Gracia

 Church in the center of the town.

 Lucas, the grandson of my professor. He thinks he is our tour guide.

 I think this is San Martin school walking in the Independence Day parade.

 Some random school that swung their arms like being in the military to look professional.

 Traditional dresses from Alta Gracia.

 An organization to save the abused, abandoned dogs.

 Aren't these kids cute? They are part of a dance group in Alta Gracia.

 Adorable!

 Traditional dress from a dance group.

 An other club in Alta Gracia. I think it is just a drumming group.

 Tae Kwon Do, anyone?

 Gymnastics.

 One of the many Soccer clubs.

 Motocross anyone?

 Police. Isn't it cool that police is backward so that people can read it in the review mirror cool?

 Firefighters

 Firefighters on ATVs.

 Firetruck. There were kids riding it in.

 At the end there were a lot of horses.

 Donkey!

 More horses.

 At night there was a little concert in the plaza with bands and traditional dancing.

 Hot Chocolate!

 Some drink my classmate got...

 Pizza! They eat a lot of them...

 Entrance to a park near our hotel.

 The alter with the Saint Mary shadow.

 The river where I had my first taste of Mate.

Class photo at the river!

 Group photo at the party!