Day 4: May 25th

Today, we started of the morning fairly early, 6:30am. We had a breakfast of Honey Nut Cheerios, fruit: watermelon and papyus, and bread with jam. While Honey Nut Cheerios is a familiar cereal the way we ate it was much different. The night before, Melanie and I had told the family that we had never had warm milk before. The family was shocked because their grandmother had a cow and they use to milk the cow and drink the warm milk. So this morning, we had our cereal with warm milk. I can’t say that I was too fond of the taste because it reminded me a lot of oatmeal, which I am not a big fan of.

After a rushed breakfast, we scuffled out the door for our first day at the school. We were one of the last groups to arrive at the school. When you walk in, it is a large open area and the classes are in places all around the main area. When we got there, the ESL teacher was introducing all of us K-State students. When entering each classroom, the students would stand up and in unison repeat a phrase. I believe that the teacher was asking, “How are you?” and the students would respond in the same manner and then ask the same question back. I wasn’t sure of the direct translation, but I think that was the main jest of what was being said. We went into all of the classrooms and we also saw the recess area.

When our grand tour was finished, we waited for our professor to arrive so we could find out what classes we would be in. As we were waiting, we met a few people from the school. Byanca is the ESL teacher and Jessica is the principla. We were told that we would split up into two’s and work in one classroom for the two weeks. Melanie and I were sitting next to one another and everyone else paired up and choose a grade so we were kind of put with third grade, which I was perfectly fine with, especially considering I am student teaching in third grade. We broke off into our respective classrooms. The third graders were really excited to see us, as were all the kids in the school. Students brought us chairs and we sat and observed the students working. At the time we went into the room, the students were working on a sewing project. The teacher, Senorita Vicki, made a very beautiful and intricate design through sewing that looked similar to cross-stitch. The students were working hard, some much faster than others.

I was finally getting tired of sitting, so I walking around the class to see how the students were progressing. I was not able to communicate a whole lot with the students, but I exchanged names with many of them. There were a few students that stood out a lot this first day. Christian sat in the front row and he was definitely the trouble maker of the class. He would threaten to poke people with the needle, poke his own skin with the needle and just get off task easily. There were some students that were way ahead of the rest of the class. Hector sat in the back corner, but he was the farthest along out of anyone. After about twenty minutes of working a bell rang and the students left the room. Many of the students had sandwiches so I wasn’t sure if it was lunch or snack time, but it was only 9:30. I really enjoyed this time because many of the students came up to me and the other group members and were just so interested in us. Many would just come and hug us. They were adorable!

Once the second bell rang the students went back into their classrooms. Our students continued working on their projects. It seemed like they worked on the project for a good portion of the day. By eleven it was time for another break and all the students worked on was the sewing. For this recess, Melanie and I went to play basketball with the kids. It was such a blast. We really didn’t know how we were playing and some students like Christian were being ball hogs and not sharing. There was one instance where a boy was hit with the ball. He started crying and all the students gathered around him. Not knowing much Spanish I shooed them away so the boy could get some air. All I could communicate with him was water and he nodded his head in acceptance of water. We walked away to get some water and he was fine after that. It was just so hard not being able to tell him it was going to be okay because I couldn’t speak his language. Another incident happened a few minutes later when Christian was being rowdy with one of the other boys. They almost got into a fight, but then Christian ran away and the other boy sulked by the wall. I went over to him and he tried to explain the situation, but again I wasn’t able to understand. I just hugged him and told him “Estoy bien.” I even tried to do a little dance to make him feel better. He soon shrugged it off and was back to playing ball.

Those two instances were in way a bit different than recess in the United States because with as many teachers as there are in the school, none of them were in the basketball area. It is off a ways from the main area, but where we were there were a ton of kids playing. Normally there are teachers looking out to make sure that everyone is playing safe, but that was definitely not the case with this school. Before we got back to the classroom, I had a conversation with a few kids. They have all been fasicanted with my Spanish book and the kids were looking through it. One of the things I pointed out was soccer, futbol. We ‘talked’ about the different types of sports. One page talked about tennis and the students didn’t understand what that was. I tried to describe it to them using my limited vocabulary and actions. The seemed to understand the different sports and were satisfied with my response.

Again the bell chimed and the kids hustled back to their classroom. At this time, a new teacher was in the room. She disrupted a test about the student’s family, one similar that she had just given to the second graders. The students had to write down the title name of members in their nuclear and extended family and then draw a picture. Before the test was handed out, the teacher asked the students to move their desks. Some students moved their desks outside of the classroom, while others shifted their desks in the classroom. The rest of the time we were in the classroom, the students were taking the test. From what I saw, most of the students did well on the test and knew the vocabulary words, but of course I don’t have the numbers from the assessment to know exactly how well they did.

Melanie and I were later picked up by our host mother. We drove a little farther than I thought the house was and we actually ended up at our host father’s place of work. We had learned the night before that Luis worked in a pharmacy. There was a room in the back filled with medicine that could be sold. Right next store to the shop was Luis’ grandmother. She was such a sweet lady. She was so tiny too, but she was absolutely adorable. We then ventured out with Dorita in search of tortillas. We were told that we would be making them soon, but today we were going to buy them. We walked past a few vendors that were selling all kinds of foods. Inside the tortilla shop, three women were making tortillas very fast. They were very skilled and the only thing I regret is that I didn’t have my camera with me to document the process. We got our tortillas and were ready to go back to the house.

One thing that I have noticed and been pretty nervous about is the traffic. I feel like if I were to get hurt in any way on this trip, which I sure don’t wish for, I think it would be in a car accident. People cut each other off, there is absolutely no room between passing cars and it just seems like a free for all. On top of that, my host mom also drives an automatic which seems like it would be a lot more difficult in that kind of traffic.

Once we returned we had a meal with Doria and Luisa. It was tortillas, guacamole, salsa, and some kind of meat. I was so delicious. I ate a ton of tortillas and guacamole. It was probably the best guacamole that I had ever had. The conversation at this meal was a lot better than the night before. The mother was talking more and using more hand signals. I felt like I could understand more of what she was saying, but when neither Melanie nor I could we would look to Luisa for support. It was a good meal and I felt a lot better after being able to speak with the mother a bit more. After lunch, we went to pick up Mafer from the private school she attended. Through much weaving in and out of traffic, we got to the school. We walked out with the mother and went to the door. At the entrance a women stood with a microphone. She would call each student as their parent arrived. Much different than anything I had ever seen before. Overall, I am more confident today than I was yesterday. I think yesterday was a combination of being tired and just overwhelmed with everything. I hope that by the end I will not only be able to communicate more with the family, but with the students as well.

We actually just got back from a karate class!! We went with our host sister, Mafar. It was super hard. I was not dressed in the proper clothes really for an intense workout, but it didn't matter. We had a wonderful instructor who made sure that we knew everything they were doing. While he mostly spoke in Spanish, it was easy to know what he was saying because he acted it out as he was saying it. Melanie and I had a lot of fun, but we are exhausted. The rest of the evening we plan on having dinner and then watch a movie en espanol later! :)