Category: Colombia

Things having to do with Colombia and my presence there.

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Parent-Teacher Conferences

This past Friday and Saturday were the first-quarter parent-teacher conferences.

I survived.

Truthfully, I think the parents at ECA must be vastly different from parents at most schools, because these conferences went fine; I didn’t experience any of the things you’re supposed to dread about conferences. I don’t think that’s how it is for most teachers, particularly first-year teachers. I surely appreciate working with parents who understand that I’m trying to do what’s best for their children; that we’re on the same team.

Because I’m the ninth-grade homeroom teacher, I was given the “privilege” of having a completely full schedule of conferences. Apparently, it was necessary for me to meet with the parents of just about every student, not just of the ones whose grades were less than satisfactory. When all was said and done, I had held approximately 25 conferences Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

And strangely, it’s now Monday again. It’s funny how the weekend passes by so quickly.

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Reduced Class Load

Last Tuesday was my last day teaching the honors section of Algebra II. I told my principal that I was running out of time to update my blog, so he agreed that the best thing to do was to find another teacher who could take the class.

OK, that’s not entirely true. The administration realized that I had an oversized load of classes, particularly since this is my first year teaching, so they found another teacher to take the class. I am certainly thankful that my academic load has been reduced by this five-days-a-week class. I enjoyed the challenge of teaching math, but I am glad to be able to concentrate on teaching computers now.

I also look forward to sleeping at night.

In other news, we had a fun fair at school yesterday to raise money for the building project. If you’d like to see the current progress of the new building, you can watch via a webcam the school has set up.

This week is the last of the first quarter and is followed by a week off for the students. We teachers have three in-service days that week to catch up on things and to prepare for next quarter.

Take care,
Mark

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Four-day Weekend!

This last weekend, we were scheduled to have a teacher retreat; something I was looking forward to, but something which I knew would also eat up a lot of time. However, thanks to a cold epidemic that knocked out many students and a third of the teachers at school, we got a four-day weekend and no teacher retreat instead.

All that to say, I had a profitable weekend. We were told to rest up, and I was diligent in that task.

On Thursday, I went to a tuba ensemble concert in downtown Bogotá with a friend. It was great. It was the concluding concert of a tuba festival that had been in town since September first, featuring Mel Culbertson as clinician. The first half of the concert was a new composition (I believe) for solo tuba (Mr. Culbertson) with piano, timpani, and brass ensemble. The second half consisted of a variety of pieces which included such varied repertoire as a setting of an “Ave Maria”, a couple of Sousa marches, a number from the Phantom of the Opera, the Beatles’ “Rock and Roll Music”, and a few pieces typical of various regions of Colombia.

Notice that tuba players’ Joie de vivre is universal (note the evidence of the following video). I think my favorite part is at 0:48.

You may notice that in most ensembles, the low brass section is significantly smaller than other sections. Now you know that this is to prevent any ensemble from having too much fun.

In other news, you can subscribe to my blog via RSS.

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In the Swing of Things

Well, I’m four weeks into school now, and I’m starting to feel like I have an idea of what I am should be doing.

I’ve realized a few things in teaching middle- and high-schoolers:

  1. They’re not adults yet.
  2. They’re not necessarily interested in the same things I am. They may even think there’s something more important than computers or math.
  3. There’s a fine balance between challenging your students and pushing them so hard that they want to give up. At least, I presume there’s a balance. I’ll let you know if I find it.

This week, we had open house. As it worked out, the one hour my students’ parents came to, I gave a test. I made sure I had enough copies for the parents to also take the test. Here’s a sample question:

Give the equation, in point-slope form, of the line that passes through (2,1) and is perpendicular to the graph of y = 3x + 31.

In other news, I’m learning the importance of balancing my personal life few hours of sleep with my school-work. I’ve had a few people remind me that I need to be realistic in the expectations I set for myself or I will get burned out here. They’re probably right.

Occasionally, I get a chance to do something that doesn’t involve grading or lesson-planning. One such occasion was last weekend, when a number of us teachers (and one non-teacher friend) went out to eat in honor of Suzette’s birthday. Here’s our happy bunch:

ECA Teachers eating out.

I hope you’re all doing well! Drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing. It’s always nice to hear about things back home, even if I’m not there.

God bless,
Mark

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Moved In!

I have finally moved in to my own room!

Picture of the Castro home

I moved into the Castro home a week ago last Tuesday, after staying with three other wonderful families (the first live across the highway from where I am now, the second family lives about a half hour north of the school, and the third family lives about a half hour south of where I live now, which is about 15 minutes south of school [with good traffic]).

My room was previously a laundry/storage room, so things had to be moved out, peeling paint had to be taken care of, and a new coat of paint had to be applied before I could move in. There was also the issue of getting a bed frame, and then of getting a mattress, which came Thursday evening.

I enjoyed having a chance to stay with so many different families already while here. It was neat to be able to get to know a number of warm, hospitable people. Nevertheless, it sure feels good to have a permanent space; to unpack my suitcases and call a place home for awhile.

The picture above is of the front of the house. It’s in a conjunto (basically, a gated community) called Marantá. As you might be able to see from the picture, it’s two stories, plus a loft. The loft, which was my room while my bedroom was being fixed up, sits over the dining room and living room and serves as the office.

My room (queue the following video) sits on the main floor, just off of the kitchen. It’s a little small, but the bed fits, and I fit on the bed (mostly). Additionally, it has four walls and a door. I even get my own bathroom, though I have to take my showers in the downstairs bathroom, since that one has hot water by means of an electric water-heating shower head. Yes, I’ve found that it’s wisest not to touch anything metal while taking a shower.

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Staying Alive

Well, the first full week of classes has passed, as has the weekend, and I am still alive.

It’s the littlest of things that can make your day go poorly—things like the network not working so that you can’t (a) print a syllabus or (b) have all your students go to Google maps at the same time. Then there’s standing up in front of class and realizing you forgot to prepare a lesson for them (OK, that one hasn’t exactly happened yet).

Everyone who says anything about the first year of teaching says that it’s difficult. I guess they’re right, so I’m trying to survive.

Of course, I’m hoping to do more than survive, since there are also many things to enjoy about teaching as well. Certainly the most enjoyable is that I get to work with people. It surely is a privilege to be able to interact with so many students, other faculty, and staff each day.

Another thing I enjoy about teaching is that I can help students realize that the world is much bigger than they may have thought (e.g. there’s more to the Internet than Facebook, email, and instant messenger).

I’m looking forward to pushing students to learn more about computers. I’m teaching the tenth graders some web things: HTML and eventually programming (PHP) and maybe even databases (MySQL). We’ll see how far we get. I’m also hoping to introduce some of the younger grades to programming, including Alice and logo programming.

I don’t have any pictures of myself teaching yet, but here’s one of me near the top of a mountain that borders Bogotá:

Me on Monserrate.

I’ll try to write more about that weekend when I get a chance. In the meantime, you can see some pictures from that trip over here.

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La Batalla de Boyocá

Tomorrow is El dia de la Batalla de Boyocá (The Battle of Boyocá Day) here in Colombia. It is also the first day of school for students at El Camino Academy. Just as the battle of Boyocá gained Colombia’s independence from imperial Spain 190 years ago, so will tomorrow mark the students’ independence from the oppression of summer break. I am sure you appreciate this parallelism as well as the students do.

Tomorrow is a half day, filled mostly with a picnic for students, parents, and staff. There will also be an hour’s worth of classes, meaning that I will see my Algebra II students for ten minutes.

I apologize for not updating recently; I’ve been quite busy preparing for classes to start, attending meetings, addressing people’s computer problems, attending meetings, practicing my Spanish, being ribbed for my Argentine accent, attending meetings, eating many new types of food (particularly fruit), drinking many kinds of juice, attending meetings, and living out of a suitcase in three different homes.

Also, I’ve had a few meetings.

I hope you are all doing well. I’ll try to post some pictures soon.

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In Bogotá

I made it!

I’ve been spending my time getting my bearings in town.

I’m staying at the home of the school’s director and her husband for a few days while we figure out more permanent housing.  A number of other teachers from the school also live in this neighborhood, which you can see in this picture from my bedroom for the next few days:View from my current bedroom

We went north of town to a couple of cities today, and I had my first Colombian hot chocolate:

Chocolate

I found out that Colombians often put cheese in their hot chocolate! It’s not as strange as it sounds: the tastes don’t mix into each other, and the cheese basically stays stuck to itself.  As you drink your hot chocolate, you scoop the melting cheese out with your spoon to eat it.

I got to take a tour of El Camino Academy today and was able to see the computer lab I’ll be teaching in.  It’s quite a nice setup.  Here’s a little tour of the lab:

I went to a mall this evening with a couple of other new teachers and the high school principal and his family. The mall is built in an old hacienda.  I didn’t get a picture of it (when was the last time you took a picture of a mall?), but I took a picture of the building across the street:

Skyscraper

I hope you are all doing well.

Mark