Introduction
First, a little geography... Uruguay is split in 19 departments, similar to our 50 states, with political representation and a capital city in each. I previously lived in the city of Montevideo (in the Montevideo Department) and worked in the city of Durazno (in the Durazno department). I am now located in the Flores department, to the west of Durazno. The capital city is named Trinidad and has a population of 20,000. The "city" (tbh more like a town) is one of a kind in Uruguay, built in the shape of a square and with streets running in straight, perpendicular lines like NYC. I can't possibly get lost in this small city, which is great for my lack of directional awareness. Its main attractions are the park, two plazas, a movie theater, and most of all its people! There are two high schools and several primary schools, which I will talk about later. The rest of the Flores department is quite rural and has small (read: *very* small) towns scattered among the endless fields of cows. I've also noticed a lot of colza fields, which bloom gorgeous yellow flowers and are used to produce oil (like canola).
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Yoga
I went to a yoga class on a Saturday afternoon with my host. It was a special class with guest speakers who spoke about using yoga to help the health of body and mind, mostly in regards to aging (it was held at a retirement center). They reframed solitude and death in the perspective of personal growth and rebirth, and I got a lot of practice listening to Spanish. We did traditional yoga, breathing exercises, and finished off with meditation.
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Holidays
Fun fact, there's not only a mother's day and father's day here, but also grandparent's day, friend's day, and children's day. To celebrate children's day in a way accessible for all, the plaza was filled with cotton candy, live music, rock climbing, bounce houses, and carnival rides. Most schools also celebrate in some way and I'll post soon about activities at School 2 I'll be doing in a few days.
Update: I celebrated kid's day at one of the primary schools. All students (ages 3-12) gathered in the courtyard to play a game making the sounds of different animals. They were divided into groups and rotated in different stations. There were stations for dancing, bowling, potato sack races, face painting, and others. The schools cooks had been preparing a massive cake the day before, so we all sat outside and enjoyed chocolate milk and cake. A few students presented a dance routine and the rest of the students joined in too, turning into a big dance party!
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Constitution day was July 18, marking 189 years since their Constitution was signed. They celebrate with a national holiday and an event in the town plaza. The front of the plaza holds a statue of Artigas and lies in front of the church. The sides to the left and right are lined with placemarkers, one for every school in Trinidad. Behind the markers are teachers and students from each school. They hold flags that are used throughout the event. Directly across from the church and statue, the fourth side of the plaza holds officials/important members of Trinidad and the army. The event includes the National anthem, the Flores department anthem, presenting flowers to the Artigas statue, and a short speech about the Constitution and Uruguay. The event was over pretty quickly and we were left to enjoy the rest of the holiday.
August 25 is Independence Day in Uruguay, but they start the festivities early by celebrating Nostalgia Night on August 24th. Nostalgia night usually includes dancing to oldies or dressing up from other decades. Independence day is celebrated with a parade through the main streets.
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Housing
Another big change from Montevideo is my living situation. Having previously shared an apartment with another ETA, it was time to meet more Uruguayans! I live with Tatiana, who grew up in Durazno, and Federico, who grew up here in Trinidad. They are both English teachers at the local high school and the best Uruguayans I've met (not just saying that because they're reading my blog, obviously). I live about a ten minute walk to the center of the city, but haven't done too much exploring yet because winter is chilly and rainy.... Hopefully in a couple weeks the sun will be here to stay.
On one of my routes to a school, the bus driver doesn't ask for anyone's destination because he knows exactly where everyone gets off. I only had to tell him where I was going the first time and the following week, he knew - I'm basically a regular now :)
This is the definitely the kind of place where everyone knows everyone!
I ran into a girl I met at an English camp several months ago in the supermarket here. A lady's husband had been a student in my class at UTEC last semester. I was introduced to my mentor's coworkers, one of whom is the mother of my other mentor. I took a yoga class that happened to include: my host's aunt, my mentor's mother-in-law, and another teacher at the high school. Aaaaand don't forget I've only been here a month.
On one of my routes to a school, the bus driver doesn't ask for anyone's destination because he knows exactly where everyone gets off. I only had to tell him where I was going the first time and the following week, he knew - I'm basically a regular now :)
This is the definitely the kind of place where everyone knows everyone!
I ran into a girl I met at an English camp several months ago in the supermarket here. A lady's husband had been a student in my class at UTEC last semester. I was introduced to my mentor's coworkers, one of whom is the mother of my other mentor. I took a yoga class that happened to include: my host's aunt, my mentor's mother-in-law, and another teacher at the high school. Aaaaand don't forget I've only been here a month.
Teaching
Last semester I worked with UTEC students at the university in Durazno. Now, I work with essentially every other demographic. I have 3 mentors, Ximena (works at the American school in Trinidad as co-director), Maria Jose (English teacher at a primary school in Trinidad) and Soledad (coordinates between the rural schools in the small towns outside Trinidad).
Within Trinidad, I work at a primary school #2 with Maria Jose, the high school #1 that my hosts also teach in, and a teacher training institute for future educators. |
Trinidad | School 2
(did I ever mention schools are named with numbers like in NYC?)
The primary school has 150 students from ages 3-12 (until they move to high school) and there is one class with one teacher per grade. There's also an art teacher, PE teacher, and English teacher (Maria & I) for electives. I teach for about an hour per lesson, but with first and second grade combined into one class and third with fourth, so there are many students at once! From what I understand, there used to be a teacher specialized in working with students with special needs at the primary school, word spread, and now there are many students with special needs who attend the school (though the teacher has since left). Sixth grade has a student with downs syndrome, fourth grade a deaf student, and there's a host of learning disabilities throughout each class. Accommodating for these needs while using EL strategies and teaching in a second language is a challenge I'll certainly be working on. One rainy day working here, about half the students did not come and classes were "canceled". It was like a snow/power outage day in the US where we did activities but ceased lessons. In fact, the power does seem to frequently go out a some schools, though not more than a few minutes. It is common in the interior to have many students not attend in the rain because they usually walk/bike/motorcycle on unpaved dirt roads. A great part of School 2 that gives students autonomy to engage in their interests is workshop time every Friday afternoon. They've each signed up for another class such as cooking, dance, or sports. Any grade can choose any workshop, so there's a wide vareity of students in each activity. I join Maria Jose for a coding workshop where they learn Scratch. Younger students use Ceibal tablets and older students have laptops from Ceibal for the full application with more features. |
Trinidad | School 1
The high school has more students than I can count, but the interesting part is that students have a designated classroom and the teachers for each subject switch rooms every period. The science labs have specific rooms, but science teachers teach content in the students' regular rooms and only use the labs when necessary. This means teachers have limited ability to set up activities that need materials and there are not as many decorations, posters, or student work in the classes. Each class has about 25 students. High school classes are held in "shifts" throughout the day (this is true for the majority of Uruguay) so that some students attend in the morning, some in the afternoon, and some in the evening. This helps the school accommodate for so many students with limited space, and let adult students work during the day and still take classes at night.
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Trinidad | IFD
The teacher's institute (called IFD) class meets once a week in the evenings with 5 students. This English class is for students who are studying to be secondary school teachers besides English, so they come from law, math, philosophy, art, and biology. The class is centered on English reading comprehension only. One student has never taken English before in her life, and another student recently lived in New Jersey for 3 years, so their English levels vary greatly (this will be a theme for the following schools I mention). There is a balance to find between choosing relevant texts such as teaching pedagogy, but at a lower language level. The class is currently studying the effects of a recent plastic bag ban in Uruguay (joining some states in the US with these types of laws).
Ingles Sin Limites
Besides Trinidad, I also teach at several of the rural schools that are coordinated by my mentor Soledad. I believe there are about 27 rural schools throughout Flores and I work in 5 of them. They range from 5 to 45 minutes away from the city and I travel with a mix of rides, buses, and hitchhiking. All are primary schools from Kindergarten to 6th grade. These five particular schools are part of a program called Ingles sin Limites (roughly, English without boundaries) and seeks to reach students in these more isolated parts of Uruguay. There is a specific (and very detailed) curriculum to follow, which makes my life a whole lot easier when it comes to planning for all this fieldwork. The curriculum also includes links to songs and videos that were designed and recorded in collaboration with a previous Fulbrighter (not in the ETA Program) and is *very* recent. Hopefully I can give feedback while I work through these lessons for the program's first run - I love how I'm a part of such great movements in Uruguay.
Most interesting in ISL is that the teachers don't speak English - their role is to learn English along with the lessons in the book and then teach it, which brings an entirely different dynamic to my experience. The teachers are eager to work with me to learn themselves and ask as many questions about the US and English translations as the students do. They often make grammatical mistakes and incorrect pronunciations but remind me that they are happy to be corrected. I still find this a bit uncomfortable especially if they are in the process of teaching something incorrectly and I don't want to undermine them, but if I wait until after, then the students will likely remember the incorrect way. I'm still learning and adapting to this once-in-a-lifetime, completely unique role, which is what Fulbright is about.
Most interesting in ISL is that the teachers don't speak English - their role is to learn English along with the lessons in the book and then teach it, which brings an entirely different dynamic to my experience. The teachers are eager to work with me to learn themselves and ask as many questions about the US and English translations as the students do. They often make grammatical mistakes and incorrect pronunciations but remind me that they are happy to be corrected. I still find this a bit uncomfortable especially if they are in the process of teaching something incorrectly and I don't want to undermine them, but if I wait until after, then the students will likely remember the incorrect way. I'm still learning and adapting to this once-in-a-lifetime, completely unique role, which is what Fulbright is about.
Rural School 6
The students are all in one class with one teacher in one room. The school also has a bathroom, kitchen, dining room, and playground outside. This school has two employees - the teacher and the cook. There are seven students from ages 4 to 11 and they are all boys! The back area by the bathroom was in severe disrepair and looked like some DIY construction was being done. The teacher quickly explained that the school had been out of use for 5 years and they only recently re-opened, probably due to demand. I asked about substitutes and she said if she were sick, the coordinators would seek a substitute but it's not uncommon to be unable to find anyone, so school would be canceled in that case. She also mentioned that if the cook were sick, she would have to take over lunch duties in addition to teaching for the day!
Since I see them Monday mornings, this class is my Guinea pig for lessons. I learned very quickly that rural schools are unlike any other place I'd teach. I have to challenge the students that are about to move to high school next year, while simultaneously teaching the 4 year old who hasn't learned to read yet, the 7 year old with ADHD who is very behind grade level with his literacy, and the 9 year old who loves English and can pronounce written words on his first try. The greatest part (and this is true for every school I see) is just how incredibly motivated the students are. They really love being there and look forward to my visits to hear this strange beautiful language from a native speaker. |
Rural School 5
This school has 21 students (all in one class) spread across the same age range, about 4-12 years old. This school is different than my other rural schools because they live there Monday through Friday and go home on the weekends. There is a "feelings chart" that the students use when they come in every morning and the teacher said Fridays usually have students in the sad column because they will be leaving for the weekend and Mondays have a full happy column because they're glad to be back. As a said before, kids really like school :)
Rural School 7
This school is located in a small town with a recorded population of 260 people in 2011. It's a bit bigger now, but not by much! The town is just 4 blocks and is surrounded on all sides by several kilometers of..... You guessed it, cows! Glad you've been keeping up with the blog. I don't see most houses with cars because you can walk from one side of town to the other in five minutes. Motorcycles are the more common method of transportation in most rural parts of the country and children ride on the back from a very young age. The town has one school that functions as a high school in the mornings and a primary school in the afternoons. I haven't visited the school many times yet, but it looks like they have 3 separate classrooms. One for younger kids, one with combined grades 3/4 and another for grades 5/6. There are several teachers, a cook, and the director of the school is 27 years old!
Rural School 25
The school is located in an itsy bitsy town of 100 people (in 2011). When the bus dropped me off I had no idea where the school was. I walked ten seconds in a direction and saw the end of the town. I walked back and saw the other end of town. I then realized the bus had dropped me off right next to the school, so don't worry I didn't have to wander among the cows. There are two classes, each with a teacher: one for the little students and one for the older grades (4th-6th), so I have less of an age gap when teaching here.
Rural School 32
This school is in a town with a whopping population of 180 people that was founded just around the time I was born. Similarly, there are two rooms, one for younger and one for older grades. The teacher of the young grades doubles as the school's English teacher and the teacher for older grades is also the director (as we always wear so many hats, eh?) When it's time for English lessons for the older kids, they switch classes.
Lunch
For such a social-centered country, lunchtime is surprisingly quiet. In almost every school I go to, students are not allowed to talk during lunch. Teachers are also very involved with their eating, making sure that students finish all their food before they're allowed to leave for recess. Also unusually, the kids keep a toothbrush in the dining area and must brush their teeth after lunch.
So far, I've had fish fillets, pasta, stew, meatloaf, and rice/veggie/chicken for lunches. Dessert is usually fruit. |