I cannot believe I have been here for over a week now! The academic year for most schools in Peru started last Monday, March 10. It was strange to start a new school year when we are almost done with one back in the US. It is unique that I get to experience both the start of a school year here and the end of one with my first graders when I return. Usually, student teachers get one or the other. I will start with what I have learned about the Peruvian education system in general, and then I will get into the details of my experiences so far in 6th grade.
The first thing I had to figure out was how grades were set up. The school I am at has what the United States would call Pre K through 12. However, it is set up a little differently here. There is “Inicio” for grouped by ages 3, 4 and 5. Next comes “primaria” 1-6, which includes grades 1-6 similar to the US. Then, students move on to “secundaria” 1-6, which would be 7-12 in the United States. It took me a second to pick up on the change and know that you can’t just say first or second grade, you have to specify primary or secondary as well. School hours for primaria are 8 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon. From 8 to 11, students are in their classroom for normal classes. These classes include ciencias y ambiente (science), personal social (social studies with some health at the beginning), matemáticas (pretty self-explanatory, math), comunicación (kind of like language arts), and religión (again pretty easy, religion). The schedule does not include all classes every day; rather, classes switch off to allow for longer activities. Recreo is at 11, which is the break for the day. It’s not technically a lunch break because lunch is typically eaten later in the afternoon, but most students bring snacks. Students typically go outside to play or just walk around. From 11:40 to 12:30, students are again in the room for normal classes. From 12:30 to 2, students have what the US would call specials. These classes include arte (art), educación física (gym, but with some classroom stuff too), Inglés (I like helping out with this one, English), and computadora (students use computers and were working on some basic coding when I observed).
On Monday, I got up around 5 am to leave on a bus for Ventanilla, which is where the school is located. My host father and coordinator of my placements also came for the welcome ceremony of the new year. I met many of people involved with the school, heard the national anthem of Peru, and tried to remember the words I had learned in Spanish class at my Catholic middle school when everyone prayed the Our Father and Hail Mary. We sat down for a short discussion with the director and everyone else who had come on the bus before going out for lunch. I eventually made it back home and rested after a long day to prepare for the week.
At first, there was some discussion of going to another school a few days a week due to the long commute to and from Ventanilla, but we eventually decided it would be best if I was in one school. Each day, I get up and ready to leave for 6:30/6:45. The actual distance from San Borja is not that long, but traffic makes the trip quite a long one. The commute there is a little more than an hour. The trip back is usually longer (especially on Fridays, as I found out during the 2-hour drive back this week). On Tuesday, I observed the English teacher for the first part of the day. She said she was going to teach 5th grade. When I walked in, I thought they looked a little old for 5th grade. I now get that it was 5th secondary, which is juniors in high school in the US. It has been very interesting to hear and read how English is taught in Spanish, especially how sounds relate to each other in the different languages. She then walked me to the sixth grade primary classroom. Just like the house I am living in, the classrooms are all pretty much open-air. Although it took some adjusting to the heat, I am really enjoying all of the fresh air after a cold winter cooped up inside at home. The students ALWAYS greet any adult who walks in the room with Buenos Días, Miss (or profesor if it’s a man) in unison (which means good morning). I was a little shocked at first, but I enjoy greeting the students every morning. Most lessons I have seen include some dictation of definitions or other important information that students write down in separate notebooks for each class very neatly. Now when I say very neatly, I mean I don’t think my notes have ever been that organized. They use a red pen for titles, capitalization, and periods and a blue pen for everything else. They use rulers when drawing graphic organizers. They very carefully cut out and glue in an extra practice sheets that the teacher provides. I have been very surprised by how well the 11 and 12-year-olds have been attending to these notes. It’s a different method of teaching that I am hoping to learn more about in these next eight weeks. The teacher I have been working with also does a lot of group work to create posters that are shared with the class. Students get large pieces of paper on which to complete a task. For example, we have used them for creating different types of writings in comunicación, in math to create the biggest and smallest possible numbers, and in personal social to address puberty and adolescence (yep, I’m already getting the full middle school experience). These posters are then hung on the front white board with tacky and a member of each group presents to the class. I would consider these presentations pretty informal since they occur on a daily basis and it’s a spur of the moment decision as to who gets up in front of class. But every student starts their presentation with “Buenos días Miss. Buenos días mis compañeros. Hoy, voy a presenter…” (which means Good morning Miss. Good morning classmates. Today I will be presenting…) and ends the presentation with “gracias” (or thank you). All of these procedures, like the greetings, note taking, and presentation etiquette are school wide and must have been taught starting at a very early age. Now I’m wondering if the procedures are specific to this school or if other schools in Peru are similar. Something I can ask next week I guess! The posters are then hung up around the classroom, which is something I helped out with this week. I think hanging student work up around the classroom is a good strategy for giving students resources and allowing students to feel ownership of the learning space.
I would like to share a few other stories that have made this first week at school memorable. During recreo on the first day I was in the classroom, some of my students found these large caterpillar-type bugs on the leaves outside. They stopped me as I was walking by, very excited to show me what they found. Every day we kept checking to see if they were still there. I really started to feel connected to the students at this time.
I am glad the students feel comfortable talking to me! I am slowly learning names, which is an adjustment for me. I am usually very good with picking up on and remembering names. But since I have never heard most of their names before and many go by multiple different names, it’s taking me a little longer. I have been answering a lot of questions about life in the US. A few examples that I have been asked more than once include questions about Disney World, if we have the same classes as they do, and how to say many words and phrases in English. During English class, the students were filling out “All about me” sheets. The English teacher guided students through the worksheet, but I helped answer questions about words during work time. I’m glad I get to share about my life and language and learn about life here and more Spanish in the process.
Overall, the director, staff, and students have been very welcoming and willing to help me meet the student-teaching requirements. Going into this next week, I find myself excited to get more involved in the classroom yet still nervous about using that much Spanish. I think the more I use the language, the easier it will be to keep using it and eventually teach full days in Spanish. Check back next week for updates on my weekend and more classroom experiences! ¡Ciao!
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