Wednesday morning, at the wretched hour of 6:15, I was up and at 'em. I'm a night shower kinda girl in Mexico, so all I had to do was get dressed (super easy because I had to wear my Inglés en Primaria shirt), get pretty (not so easy at the baggy-eyed hour of pre-7), and make sure I had everything for school (Ziplock bags, tape, markers). As I was getting ready, my senses weren't quite awake yet, but I thought I heard something funny. I figured since I was usually still asleep at this hour, I was hearing the birds moving around in the tree outside my window. They chirp (a LOT) around 6 (after the rooster at 4), but then they get quiet again. I was guessing I was now hearing their quiet hops back and forth on the tree.
Guess again. I got closer to my window and saw what I was afraid I was hearing. Rain. I wanted my sleeping senses to be mistaken, but they weren't.
I was ready to go at 6:45. When I got downstairs, my orange juice was bottled up for me, and Mamá Alma was still there. She has mass at 7, so it's rare that I see her before I leave. Sometimes on late days, I see her coming home as I'm leaving. At any rate, she mentioned that it was raining and offered me an umbrella. An unfortunate detail I left at Mabel's house.
I had grabbed a hooded sweatshirt to attempt to protect my hair. I did double duty with the umbrella and sweatshirt. At this hour of the morning, and with the rain, I wasn't sweating in a sweatshirt!
I made my (wet) way to my (very wet) bus. As I changed buses (I have to walk a very long block and a half), the rain calmed down to a sprinkle.
I was the second person to arrive at school. The custodian is supposed to be the first. We have a new one and I will dedicate a complete entry to her soon.
She's somehow not as good as Hernán was. The principal had gotten there before me and opened up the computer room already. I got in there and got to work. As I was walking there, I noticed that 4 letters from our "Welcome" sign had fallen down. Oh well was my thought because I thought decoration for decoration's sake was pointless anyway!
I got to work in the first grade classroom of hanging up the signs for body parts with the English word written underneath (decoration with a purpose). My tape came in handy. Then I put all the shape body parts into Ziplock bags organized by body part so my students could help me build a body during class. By a little after 8, Maribel was there.
There wasn't much left to do, so we just sat and waited. The crew had said they would be there at 9 at the latest. Ana Luisa (Maribel's boss at the office) was also on the agenda to come.
This was not quite as big a deal apparently, as the Consul's visit. Maribel took phone calls for the next fifteen minutes. After she talked to Ana Luisa, she said, "Cross your fingers that they don't cancel!" And my response was, "I'm crossing my fingers that they do!"
Maribel had told me that the newspapers had printed some ugly stuff about Rocio, the big boss of the whole English program, and to get some positive press, she wanted to highlight the English Program on this children's trivia show. She chose my school because it's the school where she started teaching English as well as being in her neighborhood.
Since it was still raining, and now, in fact, raining harder, the school was getting really dirty and gross looking. Thankfully, this meant I wouldn't have to teach my fifth graders outside!
At 9, Ana Luisa showed up and was followed shortly by the television crew. I was still a little confused as to what was going down, but I knew my role of teacher and was sticking to it.
There were three men with the camera crew. I'm sure they all told me their names, but I hardly ever get names on the first round here. I'm great with names in the US, but here I'm never quite ready for it.
We discussed the plan, which included an interview with my principal (see picture above), with Ana Luisa, with a parent, and possibly with a student if there was time.
Thankfully it had stopped raining, so when we walked to 1st grade, it was only slippery and windy instead of raining. The wind unfortunately knocked some of the Ziplock bags off my pile into puddles, but Maribel came to the rescue and dried them off on her pant leg!
We got into the room, and Maribel emphasized the importance to the kids of not looking into the camera and acting like it were any normal day. Ha! First graders?! I must admit, I love this class for a reason. They were champs! I guess being threatened that you won't be on tv when you're so excited about it is enough motivation (not to mention a killer teaching who holds your attention- yeah you know better).
We sang "Head, Arms, Legs and Feet" (my variation on "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to accommodate the vocabulary) and then I read them 2 books that they're familiar with. They were pros at responding in the right places and answering questions. After I started the second book, the camera man said, "Okay, that's enough," as if I could just walk out in the middle of a book. I looked at him like he was crazy as he walked out, finished the book, and by then he came back in for my next activity. I had a labeled puzzle and the kids helped me put it together by naming the body parts. This got them up out of their seats, so that was good. By then, it really was time to end, even though I had yet another activity for them.
I told them goodbye and that I was proud of them.
The next step was to teach in 5th grade. I needed to run to the computer room and trade my first grade materials for my fifth grade materials. As I was headed that way (sweating by now, by the way, due to the rain and an active class of singing and dancing), Giovani (apparently the host of this show) stopped me and asked me where I was from because my accent (I'm not sure if he was going to say my Spanish accent of English accent because I hadn't spoken any Spanish in class and not much outside of class, but I interrupted him before he could finish). I explained the whole story that is now almost a part of my introduction: "Laura, nice to meet you. I'm from the US. Tennessee. It's on the Eastern side from here. I'm here on an exchange. I teach Spanish there in an elementary school. There's a teacher from here that's there. No, I don't miss anything because I know I'll be back in July."
He had lots of questions about the exchange and its effects on teaching and learning. He asked me if he could interview me, too. Awesome. Nothing like an interview in your second language! We headed back into the first grade classroom (where it was so much hotter than the breezy outdoors) to have the body parts bulletin board as the background! Thank goodness I had done that in the morning. As the camera guy was setting up, Giovani told me all the questions he was going to ask me. Of course, once he got interviewing, the questions changed some depending on my answers. I made a GAZILLION errors, but I answered all the questions and I think I was probably at least understood.
Maribel had again threatened the first graders that they had to stay silent and they listened. They probably were in awe of the camera and hearing me speak so much Spanish. Again they were pros. It made me love them again. I always love them, but some days I love them to the point of wanting to pull my hair out. This day, I was proud.
After the interview, we made our way to 5th grade and they were impressive linguistically, but I'm not sure how camera-pretty it was. After what seemed like less than 5 minutes in there, we were finished. At this point, we were looking for a place that they could interview Maribel (because Ana Luisa bolted early, not wanting to be interviewed!), the principal, and the parent. Guille, the 6th grade teacher, wasn't there on Wednesday, so her kids were in the computer room all day with Sandra. We needed the computer room, so Maribel went to clear out the kids while the camera man set up. I stayed with the director (I guess) and Giovani and we discussed more about the program and what I missed. We talked about the dollar and how I got paid. We talked about language, and the director told me that there is a place where they actually speak faster than they do here. He is from Sonora, the state just north of Sinaloa (where I am), and he says there it's even worse.
We headed to the computer room and Maribel was interviewed. It was hilarious. She was SO NERVOUS. At one point, she stopped, backed away from the camera and was laughing. They regrouped what he was going to ask her and picked back up where they left off.
After Giovani interviewed Maribel and the principal, the recreo bell rang and that was pretty much the end of that. The kids swarmed, and they tried one last interview with the parent.
At that point, it was evident nothing else would be accomplished. All in all, it was a good day. We said our goodbyes (and got a picture for my blog of course!), and then were fed "breakfast" by the school. The lady that runs the stand made breakfast for us. I ran to get some Coca Lights for Maribel and me. We ate, had a popsicle, and then she went on her way. I had a test to give to 5th grade, so I did that and then was on my way home. Famous. The show will air in about three weeks, and I was promised a copy of it. I'm not sure I'll show anyone, but maybe.
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