Katherine

These two weeks have been full of responsibility for me. The 5th through the 9th, my cooperating teacher was traveling in the Galapagos with her family so I was left to manage the classes on my own. This was fine, however, the teachers didn’t realize that, though my cooperating teacher was gone, I would still be teaching some of the lessons. So, of the four I had planned for, I only taught two. This just shows the importance of communication. The lessons that I did get to teach went ok. I am finding I have issues with timing. This is definitely something to improve upon, especially here because the students don’t have the discipline to behave. Most students can see when a teacher is faltering and they take advantage of it, but the students here take ten times that advantage. Thankfully, these two lessons weren’t so bad as far as timing but the ones I was responsible for the following week definitely could use some improvements.
The four day weekend was a lot of fun. Katherine and I went to Baños de Ambato which is known for its thermal baths. The bus ride was long, eight hours there and back. Charter buses are nice, but not that nice. We visited some of the local tourist shops and participated in some of the activities that one of the agencies had to provide. One of the more interesting sights was the people standing in the doorways of little shops pulling taffy. It comes in various forms and flavors and is quite good. Upon returning to Cuenca, Katherine and I were very sore and suffering from bad sunburns (so if your travels take you to Baños, be warned and put on your sun block) but thankfully had enough time to unpack and relax before going back to school.
The three day week was a good time for me to start my full time teaching. I didn’t feel as overwhelmed to make sure I had enough planned for an entire week. Throughout the week, I have 20 classes to prepare for, these classes being half hour periods of time. Some of these classes are combined so that it ends up being only 14 different classes.  So one can see how this can be a bit overwhelming. I teach science to grades Kindergarten to fifth, math and art to Kindergarten, and library to second grade. Keeping the different themes across grade levels in addition to making sure that every student is able to participate is proving to be a great challenge. It would be one thing if I was only teaching science to each grade level, but also incorporating the other subjects is what I believe makes it a bit more difficult. Also, trying to come up with ideas with limited resources is difficult. Where in the states, one can readily print and make copies of information, the people at CEDEI need a minimum of a day advance to make the copies. Even then, it is better to have a few days.  This also proves a problem because of the inconsistencies in scheduling and it is hard to plan so far in advance. The best a teacher here can do is plan ahead and hope that things work out for the best.
I have seven more days of full time teaching ahead of me. It will be an interesting experience and one to really test me as a teacher. Hopefully things work out for the best and I am made a better teacher because of this experience. One can only hope.
Traci

Like many other countries of the world, the celebration of this Teacher’s Day in Ecuador includes participation by thousands of schools where students demonstrate their appreciation of their teachers in the form of dances, comical skits, song renditions, dramatizations, monologues and other forms of entertainment. Many schools in Cuenca have even canceled classes today. At CEDEI this morning the administration brought a cake to share with all of the teachers.

Don Bosco  was an Italian priest who dedicated his life to improving the lives and education of children.  His teaching methods were based on love instead of   punishment.  He was the founder of what has come to be known as the “Salesian Society” which attempted through works of charity, to care for the young and poor children of the industrial revolution.  The society grew rapidly and within ten years had chapters in several countries around the world. Today the society continues to operate worldwide; in 2000, it counted more than 20,000 members in 2,711 houses. It is the third largest missionary organization in the world. A little more than 40 years after his death, Pope Pius XI canonized Don Bosco.

Apparently what I saw Saturday was part of what I am calling the “Don Bosco World Tour.” His remains are being taken throughout Latin America where loyal followers are being given a chance to pay their respects. Saturday morning was just part of a several day “visit” to Cuenca. There was a large crowd gathered that included a band and several hundred followers carrying signs and banners.  It caused me to wonder if there would have been similar turnouts in the States. My “gut” tells me that there would not. I guess it is just another difference in our cultures.

Yesterday was “Good Friday” and there were two events that I attended. The first was a procession that left the Santo Domingo church @10:00 AM and wound around much of the central city. The procession focused on the twelve stations of the cross. Each of the “stations” was represented by very large statues that were carried on platforms by anywhere from 10-15 people. I think that each of the “stations” was carried by members of a different church and it was followed by members of the parish. The procession was led by a small drum corp that set the pace by beating out a very slow funeral dirge. I can’t imagine what it would be like to carry the platforms for many blocks at a slow pace on what was a very warm day, and wondered if there were “relief teams” who stepped in to give the people a break. It was quite impressive.
Last night several of us went to a dramatic reenactment of Holy Week up through Christ’s ascension. The “play” was held outdoors in front of one of the churches, and was scheduled to start at 8:00 PM. We arrived at 7:30 to find the cast and crew busy setting up the scenery. Chairs were not brought out until shortly before 8:00. In true Ecuadorian fashion, the performance did not start on time–in fact it was late even by their standards. Finally, the performance started at 8:45 and lasted another 2.5 hours. The actors/actress put their hearts and souls into the performance. It certainly wasn’t their fault that the sound system did not always work. Occasionally they would break out into song (Mary Magdalene had a beautiful voice!) or dance ( a combination of ballet and what I would call “modern dance”). The gentleman who was playing the part of Jesus had extensive lines and was very passionate in their delivery.

The play culminated with Christ’s ascension. Upon his death, the cast had carried him into the church (The front doors had been  made to look like a rock wall to simulate a cave.). After a short time the doors reopened and out came Christ standing on a fork lift. Once the forklift had exited the building he signaled the driver, and he was “raised from the dead.” After a bit he offered another signal and he “came back to earth.” It was difficult to not laugh at the “hokeyness” of the whole thing. At least the “gringos” weren’t the only ones laughing!

One thing I did notice was that a majority of the businesses were closed on Good Friday. Everything seems to be open today, and the city is quite lively. I’m told that the same (many of the restaurants/businesses being open) will be true for tomorrow: Easter Sunday. I know there is a performance of the Passion Play scheduled for Parque Calderon tomorrow afternoon. After last night, I may have all of the “culture” that I can take for one weekend.

During the four years I have been  coming to Cuenca, I don’t believe that I have yet to find a  chair that would be comfortable for an extended period of time. “Kitchen” chairs have very straight backs and offer little, or no, support. What we would call a “living room” chair is not much better. The depth of the seats is uncomfortable, and the backs are either very short or overly padded. I find that my back gets stiff after only short periods of sitting in these chairs.

It is a pretty sad statement when you find yourself lingering in the banos because that is the most comfortable seat in the house!

It has been two weeks since our last blog and it has been an interesting two weeks for Traci and me.  Last week, we only had two days with the students.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were spent as “in-service” days.  Wednesday we had a whole staff meeting, which started out as a “the international is not doing what they are supposed to” from the national team, and the international team replying “no it is the national team who is not doing what they are supposed to.”  After we got through that, the rest of the meeting was good.  We talked about the different learning styles in Spanish, and then in English.  Traci and I ended up passing notes to each other in Spanish during this time.  It is not that it is not good information; it is that the different learning styles along with Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences have been drilled into us since day one at Ambrose.  We did try to help out when they started doing it in English because many of the international teachers are not certified teachers, so this was new to them.

After the big meeting, the international team went and talked with the therapists that work at the school.  The one therapist is the special education person, and coming into this meeting we all thought that we were giving her our lessons and she would help us modify it or give us goals for the students she works with.  This is not what happened.  Instead, all of the international teachers were told that they are not teaching correctly because they are not spending all of their time with the students who need help.  The international teachers tried to say that you cannot teach only one student when there are 19 other students in the classroom.  We decided that the reason for this argument was because the therapist focuses on one-to-one education, and the teachers are whole class.  Traci and I were so upset because it seemed that no one was listening to the other, so we got up and left for five minutes to cool down.  When we got back to the meeting, not much had changed, but the therapist was reasonable about one student.  The biggest problem with the second meeting is that the school either has “normal” students or severe and profound students.  There are not any in between students to adapt lessons for.  The severe and profound students need to have an aid with them at all times because they do not need to learn how to speak, read, and write in English.  Many of them need to learn life skills.  It is difficult as a teacher to adapt a lesson for a student who needs to be doing other things.  I have a boy who is completely blind.  He does not need to learn English; he needs to focus on reading and writing in Braille.

This week we only had the students for three days because it is Holy Week.  My cooperating teacher was not here at all this week.  It was not bad, except that she did not remind me that she was going to be gone.  I also did not know what was going on because the week before we received a load of “practicantes” which are practicum students.  In my class room there are two of them, which means less time for me with the students.  The practicantes took over all of the classes done in Spanish and I took over an English class and a math class.  In essence, I taught my students twice this week because of the fact that other teachers also have my students.

Practicantes: why would you put two practicantes in a class that already has a student teacher?  The practicantes are good because they serve as aids for the two students I have who do not need to learn English.  The worst part about the practicantes is that they rank higher on the respect level than the international teachers.  The national teachers treat them better than they do their coworkers, which is ridiculous.  It also means that I have just been pushed further down the line.  It is already hard enough to get the students to respect you and then to add all of this on top of it.  The practicantes in my class room are nice and the students seem to like them, but I have started to see that the students are more disrespectful of me now that the practicantes have come.

Katherine

Katherine has a bit of a different experience than I do. I understand the perspective of the one ‘special education’ teacher since I am myself a special education teacher. However, she was coming at it from the viewpoint that the teachers need to be making more accommodations for the students who need it. This is all well and good except there are times when there aren’t enough helping hands in the room to deal with the students who need the extra attention. As Katherine mentioned, the students at this school are either ‘normal’ or have disabilities that would characterize them as severe and profound. These disabilities include cerebral palsy, blindness or extreme vision problems, a muscular degenerative problem, Down Syndrome, and a few who have extreme behavior/attention difficulties. Not only do the international teachers have to deal with accommodating these students, which, when given somewhat of a guideline of how these students should be taught, is not all that difficult, they have to deal with the language barrier. All international teachers teach the students in English. This is not their primary language and can prove difficult even for the ‘normal’ students. I am willing to offer my suggestions to the other teachers as far as how to work with these exceptional students and plan to incorporate them to the best of my ability with what resources I have during the time I am taking over the class.
As far as the practicantes are concerned, I don’t have much interaction with them. The only time I have really worked with them in the room is when I am teaching Primero de Basica, which is the equivalent to Kindergarten in the States. During the time I am teaching, the two ladies that are in the room help by focusing their attention on the two boys who have severe visual impairments. They also assist when it is time to clean up. In my point of view, in this class, they are serving much like aides would in the states for students with disabilities who are included in the normal classroom.
Although, I can see where this type of situation with the practicantes would be difficult, especially with upper grade levels. The students in the upper grade levels often have an English class. These practicantes don’t speak in English with the students as do the international teachers. Therefore, standards that the international teachers follow to help improve their students’ English are lost because the students have the opportunity to seek help from one of the practicantes who will speak to them in Spanish rather than in English. It would be different if the practicantes knew enough English to speak it to the students when the class calls for English. However, I do not believe that this is the case.
This coming week, my cooperating teacher will be gone and I will be teaching one class a day. The way that my teaching is going to work out is basically co-teaching. Since I do not know most of the names of the students, my cooperating teacher will work on the classroom management part and I get to plan and actually teach the lessons in the classroom. My cooperating teacher is also there to help assist with the students who do need the extra attention in the class. It will be an interesting week, especially leading into when I take over full time.

Traci

Dr. R.

Katherine and I have been at the school participating and observing for two weeks now. What we have seen is interesting, and really makes a person think about how things work in a school. There is no right or wrong way to run a school, but in our opinion, this school could definitely function more efficiently. There are two teams of teachers. The National team, who are people born in Ecuador and speak exclusively in Spanish with the students. Many of these teachers have been at the school for several years. The International teachers change every year for the most part, and they speak English with the students. The National teachers are in charge of their own classroom and the International teachers come and go with their different subjects. On average, the students spend more time with an English speaking teacher than with a native Spanish speaking teacher. This would be all well and good except it is our belief that the students aren’t getting the quality of information and education they could be getting if true co-teaching was going on where both teachers are in the room at all times reinforcing the other teacher in the other language. Two years ago when we were down at this school, there was one International and National teacher per classroom. This co-teaching was happening. Not perfectly, but the students seemed to be more comfortable with their learning and were actually learning. I believe now that the students are sent through so much confusion with changing schedules and inconsistencies that the information that teachers are trying to present them is lost in translation.  Katherine works with a third grade group. Two years ago, we visited a third grade classroom and we could easily sit down and have a conversation in English with these students and everything would be understood. Now in her classroom, this isn’t possible with most of the students.
The set-up of this situation is completely different than in the States. The States has more of a consistent schedule that is more disciplined and structured. That is lacking here in Ecuador. There is a ‘Principal’ at the school but half the time she isn’t in her office and no one knows where she can be located. She also doesn’t seem to help bring the two teams together. I realize that changing the International teachers annually is hard, but there doesn’t seem to be any effort made to help bring the teachers together. Everything is done separately. From our experiences in the schools in the States, the principals are everywhere in the school and are available to help out with a discipline problem. If they aren’t in their office, someone knows where they are and it won’t be long before they return to help sort out the problem.
Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoy being at the school and the students are great. The lack of structure is taking some getting used to. It does make you realize how nice organization is. This school is one that will definitely help me with management: Management of classrooms, management of materials, and managing the students.
Traci E.

Traci makes some very valid points.  This school is not like any of the schools I have been in the States or any of the typical schools in Ecuador, which tend to be more like parochial schools in the States.   This school was specifically set up as a loose structure facility.  When you look into a classroom, you see what seems to be chaos, but when looking closer, you will see that the students are doing what they are supposed to be doing.  In the class that I am teaching (3rd grade) is an example of this theory.  It is not a perfect theory, the theory of method to the madness.  One of its flaws is that the teacher has to pay extra attention to what the students are doing because it may seem that they are working when they are actually playing around and not staying on task.
One of the things that I have noticed is that the teachers do not have extensions or a plan ‘B’ for when the students are finished with their work.  The students instead, get out games and play, rough house, or play soccer inside the classroom.  This can be very distracting to the students who are still working.  Most teachers in the States would never start a class with only one thing to do that day, they are taught to over plan for the lesson because you will always have the students who finish early, and sometimes the students surprise you and are able to finish the activity quickly.
I am in an interesting situation.  Like Traci said, I am in a classroom, and if you also noticed, only the National teachers have a classroom, so that means that I am working with a National teacher.  I am not sure if I am part of the National team or part of the International team.  I feel some alliance with my National teacher, but I relate to the International teachers because we have similar backgrounds.  The fact that I feel that I have to choose between the alliances of the teams is a problem in and of itself.  I do not believe that I should have to choose which team to work with; I believe that I should feel free to be with both teams.
Another part of my situation that most student teachers do not have to deal with is language.  My teacher is a native Spanish speaker and I am a native English speaker.  She knows enough English to get by and I know enough Spanish to get by.  We end up speaking in three languages to each other, Spanish, English, and Spanglish.  Most of the time, if I start talking to her in Spanish, she will answer me in English and if I speak in English, she answers in Spanish.
I also have the ability to speak to the students in both Spanish and English.  Usually people that are native English speakers are only to speak in English to the students.  Since I am with a National teacher, I feel that I have more freedom and can speak to the students in Spanish to help them understand the concept.  Traci has a different situation because she works with all grade levels and she is with an International teacher, which means that she can only speak English.  Which is good for the students, but the younger students (kindergarten) do not understand any English yet and so they are not learning the subject material they need because they cannot understand what is being asked of them.
This theory of this school is a good theory, but it needs to be implemented in a different way.  I am okay with students having more freedom to move around to do work, and being flexible, but at some point it hinders the students’ ability to learn.
Katherine S.

NOTE: What we have observed is only from a two-week period. We learn that nothing is perfect and every situation has its flaws. This is a learning experience for the both of us; learning what to do and what not to do in a classroom.

1.    Students will be required to take a minimum for five credits of Spanish while studying in Cuenca. This means that they will have to take Spanish the entire semester. Our feeling is that if you are going to be living in a Spanish-speaking nation, then you need to become more comfortable with the language.
2.    Another requirement for SAU students would be to take a course we are tentatively calling “The Ecuador Experience”. During their stay in Ecuador, the students travel extensively throughout the country and visit a number of historic sites and museums. We are proposing that they go beyond simply visiting these places and reflect on what they are seeing, and doing.  This would be a three credit class that would transfer into SAU as a Humanities gen. ed.
3.    One of the more exciting proposals is the creation of an “Outdoor Pursuits” option for students. This would be a two credit Kinesiology (P.E.) course where the students would overnight camp in Cajas National Park (currently the students spend a day hiking in this magnificent mountain park), spend a day “canyoning” (exploring local canyons in wet suits wading in the mountain streams and climbing waterfalls), another day rock climbing on the cliffs near Paute, and a day of horseback riding. Several of our current students have expressed a keen interest in taking a course like this, and if I were younger, this is one I’d jump on!
4.    Currently CEDEI offers a “Latin American Art” class that transfer into SAU as an Art History course. Unfortunately what many of our students need is a creative arts class. Since a local artist teaches the current class, we are suggesting the addition of a painting class to meet that need.
5.    Other courses under consideration include: Race & Culture, Theology, Philosophy, Catholic Studies, and Physical Geography. The key to the addition of these courses will be that CEDEI can locate qualified instructors.

Our “rebranding” is going beyond simply adding courses to the curriculum. Also under consideration is the reintroducing of a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Four years ago, when I first came to Cuenca, this was our “spring break” trip. However increasing costs caused CEDEI to change to the jungle trip that is now a feature of the semester. What is being “bandied about” is moving the jungle trip to the start of the semester and putting the Galapagos back into its previous slot during the mid-term break. While this would be an exciting change, it would mean an increased cost to the students. The people at CEDEI and Apullacta (the travel agency that organizes the trips) are currently assessing how much this change would cost the students. Our feeling is that even though the semester cost would increase, students would find this change very appealing.

When Ryan left on Friday to fly back to the QCA, we were very excited about what has been mapped out. Now all that has to happen is that we “jump a couple of hurdles”, and we can begin to “market” what has been a very good program for many years as something that will appeal to a larger audience. It is Ryan’s hope that we can host meetings with students in early May.

Typical of older cities, people drive their cars right into their homes/businesses. This means that you will be walking along and suddenly they will have cut out a section of the sidewalk so that a car can be driven from the street into a building. This cut out is in the form of a 45-degree ramp, and there are no warnings that it is there. If you aren’t paying attention, it is very easy to step into one and twist an ankle—or worse, you could fall into the street! After walking the streets for a time, what happens is that you develop what I call “sea legs”. You get so that you can step into one of these, you foot lands at an angle instead of flat, your body automatically adjusts and you just go on. I seem to have found my “sea legs” quite quickly this year. “Knock on wood”, but I haven’t stumbled once.  I probably just “jinxed” myself.

The surface of the sidewalks is another difference. While you occasionally will find a concrete walk, it is not very often.  Usually they are made of cobblestone blocks. This results in a very uneven surface that creates more trip hazards. Newer walks are often made of a ceramic tile that is fit closely together. While these create a very smooth surface, they are a hazard in their own right. It they are the least bit wet, it can be somewhat like walking on a sheet of ice. Considering that it rains regularly and people just pour wash water on the sidewalk to dispose of it, wet walks are not uncommon. Perhaps the worst that I have is Parque Calderon in the center of town. This is a large, beautiful, park that is laced with these ceramic walks. I enjoy visiting Calderon to people watch. However, if these tiles are the least bit wet, simply crossing the park can be an adventure. They are slipperier than greased owl…. (Well, you get the idea).