Teacher Strike

The teachers in Chile have been on strike since last Monday, May 18, which means I have had the last week and a half free.  The teachers are striking because they haven’t been paid their annual bonuses in the past couple years and are fed up with empty promises from the government.  While pretty common here, strikes are also more complicated because the teachers aren’t part of a union and are instead led and protected by the teacher colleges in the regions.  Unlike in the U.S., where scabs are sent in to replace striking workers, all public education is currently at a standstill.  It’s frustrating to think that the students have spent the last week and a half sitting at home by themselves, and I’m definitely anxious to know how much of what I’ve taught them they’ll remember after such a long and unanticipated break.  There’s nothing I can do about it, though, except wait each day to hear whether or not the strike continues.

In the meantime, I’m taking full advantage of my free days.  Last week my fellow volunteers and I were able to travel to Southern Chile, where Patagonia technically begins, and visit some amazing cities.  We started the trip off in Valdivia, a German settlement town best known for its brewery (go figure!).  We visited the famous Kunstmann Brewery and had ourselves a few samples of some delicious beer.  For anyone interested, their beer goes by the name Patagonia in the states.  After Valdivia, fellow volunteer Hal’s wonderful family picked us up in their van and took us down to Chiloé, Chile’s largest island.  We went to all kinds of wonderful little towns rich with indigenous history and folklore, old Spanish forts, artesanías, or crafts, and wool everything.  Plus, the seafood was fantastic and cheap!  I had an amazing salmon dish for about six bucks in one town – not too shabby.  To top it off, we went to Chiloé expecting heavy rain every day, as is usual for the island at this time of year.  Instead, we were blessed with sunshine and rainbows!  The colors of the land, sea, and sky were breathtaking at times – here are some pictures: 

Chonchi, Chiloé

Castro, Chiloé

Parque Nacional Chiloé

The fun continues

I've been teaching my own class for about a month now, and things have been going relatively well.  Every week has its surprises, such as teacher strikes or schoolwide assemblies that take away from my class time, but I just go with the flow.  Almost all of my students can now tell me what their name is in a full sentence, so wahoo!  We have to remember to celebrate the little victories!  Last week’s slang of the day was “cool,” and I now have tons of students coming up to me and saying, “Miss Kelly is cool!”  What can I say?  They learn fast J

I’ve also had quite a few students concerned about the flu being in the U.S. and asking about my family’s health back home, which has been quite sweet.  My new co-teacher, who has been in Ohio for the past 5 weeks, returned to school today and many of the kids were afraid to go near her because they thought she may have brought the flu back with her.  I tried not to laugh as I assured them she was just fine.  On a side note, a good amount of students have asked me if I know Arnold Schwarzenegger, and when I tell them that he’s the governor of my home state they all gasp in awe.  I’ve seen the Terminator movies on tv here a fair amount, so I’m not surprised by the Arnold questions.

Last weekend I went up to Chillán to go to visit my friend Jake.  We went to a soccer game, and let me tell you, it was exactly how I pictured a Latin American fútbol game.  Songs were sung and drums were played the whole time the ball was in play, tons of toilet paper was thrown onto the field at the opposing team’s goalie before the game began, and at one point someone took out a huge flare and started twirling it around.  And from an educational standpoint, I learned all kinds of groserías, or swear words, from the fans around me.  It was a great!

Some of my crazy 8th grade boys

The kids saying, "Awesome!"

My Address!

In case anyone feels like sending some old-school mail internationally, here's my address in Chile:

Vicky Alarcón C.

Kelly Dwyer

Pasaje Huascar - 928

4440812 Los Angeles

Chile

If you find yourself sending anything larger than an envelope, be sure to also put my home phone number.  Somewhere on the box write "Avisar: (043)230316."

Curanipe

Thanks to the wonderfully Roman Catholic country that is Chile, Good Friday was a holiday!  My fellow WorldTeachers and I decided to take a little trip up North to a small fishing and surf town called Curanipe – our first South American adventure!  This town is so small that it’s not even on google maps, although if you want to look it up it’s just north of Pelluhue.  We took 3 different buses to get there, and on the third bus headed towards Curanipe we passed a wild horse and pig frolicking along the road together.  We knew we had made a good decision after seeing that!  We were definitely some of the only gringos in town since their summer tourist season is over, but all of the locals were extremely friendly and helpful.  We found the most amazing cabaña, or cabin, right on the beach about 2 miles away from Curanipe, and had a relaxing and great time.  Our cabin was up on a hill and a bit of a hike from town, but fortunately hitchhiking wasn’t a problem there.  We had employees at the cabins, honeymooners, vacationers, and friendly locals all offer to give us rides back and forth, and we jumped in our fair share of pickup beds as well!  The town was really beautiful, with black sand beaches on one side and hills of green on the other.  It was a great first adventure, and we’re definitely hoping to go back at some point!

Let the teaching begin!

So I officially started teaching my own classes a week ago, and while I tried to go in with little to no expectations, teaching here has definitely been a bigger challenge than I anticipated.  I see 4^th-6^th grade only once a week for 45 minutes, and I see 7^th and 8^th grade once on my own for 45 minutes and once in a co-teaching environment for an additional 45.  The students are all pretty much on the same speaking and listening level - a very beginning, basic level.  Last week we went over introductions and how to say “Hi, my name is ___, what’s your name?” and then we made nametags so I can try and learn all 450 names (yikes!).  Because the students are normally in classroms of 45-50 kids, a lot of the teachers don’t even know all of the kids’ names, which is sad for the kids and bad when it comes to discipline.  Not gonna happen in my class!  Most of my students are dying to know how to say their names in English, so I took all of their nametags home and wrote “American” names on the backs.  I had to get a bit creative when I had two or three Sebastians and Camilas in every class…

My classroom is a little storage room off of the cafeteria.  It’s a bit of a tight squeeze in there with all of us, and it gets a bit stuffy since we have to keep our window and door closed due to our shouting and games, but it works.  Teaching only 25 students is a lot easier than trying to get the attention of 45 – I honestly am not that surprised that my 8^th graders, who have had 3 years of English class already, are at such a low level.  It seems nearly impossible to try and accomplish anything in a language class that large.

Here are a couple pictures of my classroom:

Every week I’m planning on teaching my students a “slang” word – something fun that they’ll never see in their textbook.  Last week’s word was “Awesome,” which we used in phrases such as “Jonas Brothers are awesome!!” and “Soccer is awesome!”  This week we’re gonna try “What’s up?” instead of always saying “Hello.”  Feel free to pass along any fun slang words/ideas that you have!