Not surprisingly, the leaves don’t change color here in
Colombia. However, there are plenty of things to recommend October, like Semana
Uribe, which is basically a week off from school. Though we won’t be
“celebrating” it this year, we will be next year. Also, October marks the
beginning of the end of training. We’re Swearing In so soon…
- Sunday – As usual, our family met for Mass and then we
went out. This time, we went for Chinese food and then for ice cream, which
were both wonderful (vegetable rice with sweet and sour sauce and Nutella ice
cream later – yum!). I also cooked French toast for my family in the evening
and they all seemed to enjoy that.
- Monday – Now, we’re really getting into grammar in Spanish
and we learned about subjunctive today, which was definitely challenging, but
helpful. In technical training, we learned about teaching listening and Colombian
educational standards, which for us, are recorded in our Guía 22.
- Tuesday – Subjunctive in Spanish again today. Thankfully,
it’s slowly getting easier. We also practiced making phone calls, which was
really helpful, especially since I got a scenario about a broken computer,
which is a problem I’m actually having right now. In the afternoon, we learned
about curriculum design and how to make rubrics. After training, we went to
Crepes and Waffles for Spanish club, which is a Peace Corps Trainee conversation
group in Spanish that we started that mixes people at different levels, so we
can all improve our language skills. I definitely learned a lot just talking to
people and I had a wonderful dinner, as well.
- Wednesday – Happy October! This morning, we went to the
schools for practicum, though at my school, much of the day was taken up by a
traditional music concert, which I certainly didn’t mind. The group had truly
wonderful percussionists, especially for high school, and I enjoyed listening
to their music. Though the concert took most of the morning, my teaching
partner and I still had time to teach our lesson on our states’ cultures, which
was made even better by the students’ already having significant information on
each of our states. As a final bonus to the day, I got my 1st letter
from home – mail is so exciting!
- Thursday – It’s Thursday, so we were at the office. We
learned about facilitating teacher trainings, drug and alcohol policies, and bystander
intervention. I also had my first truly delicious lunch, which was some kind of
peppery tofu and wouldn’t have been that great in the United States, but I was
so excited to have something with serious flavor that I was thrilled. As usual,
we had soccer after training and I enjoyed talking with several other
volunteers while we watched the game.
- Friday – This morning, I gave a presentation on my trip to
Tiputini in Ecuador during Spanish class, which was mostly exciting because
another volunteer in my class had also been to Tiputini, so we were able to
share memories. We also learned about superstitions, which provided an
interesting conversation topic. In technical training, we learned about Colombian
teachers’ perspectives on having us (native English speakers who may or may not
have significant experience teaching) in their classrooms and a bit about
teaching English grammar.
- Saturday – I spent most of today doing homework and
looking up camp songs in Spanish because I get random bursts of excitement
about Camp GLOW, which is a girls’ empowerment camp the volunteers hold in
Minca once or twice a year. This evening, I went to English conversation club
at Mazzino’s, where I made new Colombian friends and we played card games, like
Taboo.
- Even foods you didn’t particularly like in the United
States become delicious because they remind you of home. I don’t really like
Doritos, but for some reason, they taste amazing! And macaroni and cheese
shouldn’t be nearly as exciting as it was when I saw the back of the Kraft box
that said, “Imported from your childhood.”
- Sweet and sour sauce translates almost directly as salsa agridulce.
- “Santo, santo, santo
es el Señor, El cielo y la tierra llenas de su amor, Bendito el que viene en el
nombre del Señor.”
- Colombian educational standards are written in Guía 22, which will apparently become
one of your best resources for lesson planning. Even if standards bother you in
the United States, try to use the guide because curriculums aren’t so common
here and even though standards seem silly some days back home, here they are
even more important simply because they help align what students learn and they
aren’t widely used.
- Last Thursday, I helped someone who hurt her ankle in
soccer and this week, she gave me a card to say, “Thank you.” That may be one
of the highlights of my week because I didn’t really think much of what I was
doing at the time (other than about how I could help), but I guess it was
special to her. Moral of the story: Keep doing nice things – they mean more
than you think. J
- Teleoperadora is
a short film about a guy trying to get a custom service agent to tell him the
phone number of a friend of his girlfriend, so he can get back in touch with
her, since she is about to leave the country and head to New York. It’s really
an adorable film if you have the opportunity to watch it (with or without
English subtitles).
- Fun dinámica: On
pieces of paper, create equally sized groups and give each group an animal
name. Give every person a piece of paper with one of the animals written on it
and tell them to spread out before they look at the paper. Everyone should look
at the paper and then close their eyes and stop talking. To find their group-mates,
they make the sound of the animal they are and, keeping their eyes closed, move
around to find their friends.
- There are few things more wonderful than receiving mail
when you are far from home. If you are far from home, ask people to send you
letters. If you are “home,” please send letters!
- Taboo is a great card game for learning
English and can be great for teaching vocabulary and circumlocution (how to
talk around a word you don’t know). Be sure to scaffold the game for whatever
level you are teaching.
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