Cultural experiences in the Peruvian educational system

Well, thanks to God and His amazing grace, school started with all the windows intact and the classrooms done enough to house kids, though the plaster on the walls is still slightly damp and fourth grade has no door and third grade's door doesn't close properly. But all of those things are minor details which will get ironed out over the next few weeks (Lord willing). The last few weeks have been a series of cultural experiences and a tremendous growth spurt of my learning curve. So let me back up about three weeks and start from there. (Translation: this will be a long post!)
The 10 teachers and staff in the school started teacher meetings on February 18, meeting from 9-1 every day. In addition, there are two helpers who work in preschool and kindergarten. This picture shows most of the teachers. We were discussing and figuring out all the details of how to hand in grades and lesson plans and unit plans and everything and what we were going to teach when and all the practical details of running a school. My learning curve began its tremendous growth spurt during that week, as I had never really learned this in English, let alone Spanish. It was an experience that tended to breed some insecurity in me, since I had a million and one questions, trying to make sure I was doing everything correctly.
Last week we were working mostly on getting things ready for our rooms. That in itself was a cultural experience. Let me just say that I will never again take for granted a school supply catalog, in more than one way. We at PROMESA have been blessed in many ways by those who have sent down everything from bulletin board borders to stickers to Ziplock bags to books to sticky notes to index cards to construction paper. Some things are available here, but it's not like the States. I do believe that we have more resources than most schools here, but...well...things are different. I really began to see that when we started working on making decorations for our rooms. Yes, you read that correctly. Everything in the classrooms, except for bulletin board border, is handmade. Sometime in years past, from some unknown source, PROMESA got some pages from a school supply catalog. These served as the inspiration for many projects over the course of the week. Carrie and Damaris chose a zoo theme for their preschool/kindergarten class, so all week, Carrie was painting hippos and giraffes and lions and things, making attendance charts, behavior charts, welcome signs, and room decorations. The first day we were making things, Gwendy sat down and made 5 bugs for classroom decorations, just by looking at a miniscule picture on one of the pages of said school supply catalog. I was very impressed. Luz and I made a quote for our walls in English and in Spanish by printing out all the letters on the computer, cutting them out, and gluing them to heavy paper. That went for pretty much any words we made. Nancy had made a lot of decorations for her other classroom out of Corospun, which is a more durable cousin of those thin little foam sheets you can get in the States. She cut out all the pieces, assembled them, and painted them. Honestly, I had to ask her if she'd made them. I wasn't sure. They are amazing. Nancy and I also made a calendar and I spent several hours one night coloring in the names of the months in English and Spanish, which we printed out on the computer.
And then there's Vinifan, Contact Paper, which is the closest thing we have to lamination. I think I'm addicted to the stuff. Hm...do I want this to last beyond the end of the year? Might this be something that I want to reuse? Do I want to make this stronger? Do I want to be able to write on it and erase it? Cover it with Vinifan! It takes longer and is significantly more frustrating than sticking things in a laminating machine, but it works. I spent a long time cutting things out of Vinifan.
I also spent many hours printing things out on the computer for people. I began to feel as though I were quite computer literate (at least in Microsoft Word), as I kept hearing "Betania, puedes pasarme esto a la computadora, por favor?" (Betania, can you please type this up on the computer and print it out for me?). Apparently, someone sometime somehow got the idea that I was the computer girl. Go figure. I'm glad I've had lots of practice with Word in English, which makes it much easier to learn it in Spanish.
I must say, I am amazed and impressed by the creativity of Peruvian teachers. It seems to be boundless. People here are generally more creative and artistic, I think (maybe it comes from having nothing and needing to make things. I don't know). My artistic skills are sadly lacking. I really like Google Image Search, personally. :) I wish I had the ability to look at something and make it, but God hasn't blessed me with that one yet, unfortunately.
The hours passed rapidly, the table and floor littered with multi-colored scraps of papers: cartulina, cartulina plastificada, Corospun, vinifan, Canson - all of which I was introduced to that week (that was another part of my learning curve). All too soon it was time to actually put things in our rooms (2 days before the beginning of school). No such thing as putting staples in the wall here. I'm not quite sure why, to be honest. But nope. Cinta masking (masking tape) to the rescue. I think I'm addicted to that stuff too. Thanks to my junior block cooperating teacher, who taught me to always use more masking tape than I think I'll need. Maybe we should invest in stock... That was the day when the windows still were not in the third grade room and the walls were still damp, so masking tape didn't stick. Chinches (thumb tacks) to the rescue. Yes, our classroom decorations are currently held together with masking tape, thumb tacks, and a little bit of sticky tack and hot glue (which, interestingly enough, is the same word in Spanish as caulk, causing some mental distress for me too as I tried to figure out how and why we were going to caulk things to the walls).
But when we left that day, there were at least some things on some walls and we felt somewhat ready for the arrival of Monday and bouncy, lively little bodies full of energy and enthusiasm. Monday morning at 5 AM came very quickly and finally it was D-Day. I got to school early to put a quote up on the third grade room wall so the room wasn't totally bare, since the windows didn't get in till after I'd left on Saturday and I couldn't get in to put things on the walls on Sunday after church. All too soon, it felt like, the kids came and there was then no more time to do anything.
I have a total of 31 students in third and fourth grades. The third grade class is very talkative, but I am beginning to know how to work with them and teach them. Fourth grade, though they're talkative to an extent, is much more mature. I enjoy both classes in their own way, though they can both be frustrating as well. It's been weird because I've just, within the last 2 weeks, reached the point of speaking Spanish as my default language and now I'm supposed to be teaching English and speaking English as much as possible. I definitely mix the two, probably more than I should. Sometimes I feel like I'm speaking sign language too because I try to do a lot with my hands to help them understand what I'm saying when I speak English. Normally, it works pretty well. I have kids in both classes who I'm beginning to realize are my trusty translators.
The biggest cultural experience for me this week is the Peruvian style of teaching. Normally, in Peruvian schools, kids don't have textbooks, so their notebooks become the next best thing and are really works of art. The first page is their caratula (which really has no translation and basically is like a title page where they put their name, course, school, teacher, grade, etc and decorate it). Much Peruvian education is in the form of dictation, so the kids get really good at hearing things and writing them down. The teachers also draw a lot on the board (I tell you, they're really artistic!) and the kids are expected to copy it all down, exactly as it's written or drawn. If they don't, or if they make a mistake, they either have to erase it with a pen eraser or use white out. The teachers are really sticklers for all of this and it really takes forever and is not really a good use of time. Plus the fact that they use both red and blue pens. The red pen is for capital letters and punctuation (don't ask me why) and the blue pen is pretty much for everything else. It's interesting to hear a teacher dictating and to hear all the blue pens hit the desks when she says "comma", then to hear the red pens hit the desks after the comma is written. They are expected to do everything perfectly in their notebooks.
And along comes Miss Bethany, who figured that notebooks would be a good idea, so they could write things down and have everything in one place. I didn't count on the fact that these kids are so ingrained in the Peruvian way of doing things that they have no concept of just writing something down on a notebook page. I can't tell you how much time I spent yesterday (the first day I used notebooks) answering questions like "Should I write this in cursive or in print? Should I put it here or here? Should I do it in blue pen or red? Should I draw this? Where should I put this drawing?". I started out the day saying "I don't really care" (wondering, what does it really matter?), but finally decided that for the mental well-being of both students and teacher, it might behoove me to begin to care, or at least to pretend I care. So today I became a little more Peruvian and told them how to do it. That worked better. And it took forever. I'm learning...slowly but surely.
But through it all, despite notebooks and trying to figure out how to teach in another culture and short nights and talkative students, it's so rewarding to see my fourth graders' hands shoot up when I ask for a volunteer to put a bead on our quipu (it's an Incan way of keeping track of numbers and I decided to make my own to keep track of how many days we've been in school). And it was rewarding when the third graders wanted me to be a part of their circle time during Christian Education this morning. Or when Andre comes up and gives me a kiss on the cheek and greets me. Or when Mabelin's hand shoots up because she knows the answer to a question. Or when Ibet figures out what I'm saying and translates it correctly. Or when Noemi is excited to learn English. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, I get frustrated. Yeah, I've been tired. No, I don't like waking up at 5 AM. Yeah, I'm glad it's the weekend and I have some more time to sleep and to get ready for next week. But it's so good too. And teaching is so rewarding. I'm glad I'm here.