Despedida de Pochy

Pochy, my good friend, colleague, and neighbor, is leaving tomorrow for a month-long trip to the States. I bought her an "helado de despedida" (goodbye ice cream) at DiMango's to thank her for all her kindness. I also presented her with our Salem State Education Department t-shirt, which she loved. I know she'll wear it when she takes her daily walk along the Pacific in the morning. I'm happy that a little part of SSC will be with her in Arica!

Libros para Ninos de Eve Bunting

I was so happy with today's class for my undergrads. Our next topic for writing and discussion is social issues in the U.S. and Chile. I had shipped some of Eve Bunting's books for children and used them to introduce the topics to my students. I used A DAY'S WORK (immigration/unemployment); FLY AWAY HOME (homelessness); and SMOKY NIGHT (riots/violence). The students loved the books, especially the illustrations. In the photos you can see that they were so involved in reading the books aloud that they didn't even notice I was taking pictures!

Dia de la Tierra

Chile does quite a bit for Earth Day, and I attended a great photo exhibit on April 22 as part of the festivities. Cristian Jammett's collection is called "Detalles de la Naturaleza" (Details of Nature), and it is all very close-up shots of some really phenomenal natural happenings: bees pollinating, flowers opening, an infant crab stretching, etc. All the photos were taken in the region of Arica. The photos were on display, and there was also a PowerPoint presentation with "What a Wonderful World" playing in the background. It was really moving - a great way to make people stop and appreciate what's around them.

Apples to Apples

This was such a fun evening! Gladys invited me to her undergrad class (sophomore level) to teach them how to play Apples to Apples, which is great for learning vocabulary. I had the game shipped from the U.S. The students LOVED it, and some of the vocabulary learned was a riot. I learned that Mr. Potato Head in Spanish is "Senor Cara de Papa," which translates as "Mr. Potato Face." I find that hilarious, for some reason. I also learned that there are no chipmunks in Chile, and that the word they use here for "flip-flops" is "condoritas," since the flip-flop kind of resembles the condor, their national bird. (Then I had a musical flashback to Simon & Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa!") Fascinating stuff! Oh, and the students learned some good English vocab, too, like squishy, chubby, and slimy. The word "inchworm" was new for them, and I found myself having to convert the inchworm to the metric system!

Profesores de Ingles

These photos were taken during a class session I led for in-service teachers at UTA. They are working toward "licenciatura" as EFL teachers but are already in positions in the schools. They are practicing what's called an "Information Gap" activity, which I showed them how to set up for their students. The idea is that one student has information that another is missing, so they are forced to speak to each other (in the target language) to complete the task. This brought back memories for me because I remember distinctly learning this technique when I was preparing to be a French teacher. I used it quite a bit with my high school foreign language students.

Mis Pregrados

My undergrads! Here they are! Claudia, Jocelyn, Aldo, Jocelyn 2, Leticia, Cristian, May-Ling, Franco, Fernanda, Valeria, and Pilar. Don't they look happy? (That's because class was over!) :) I am having a ball with them. They're the level of our juniors and seniors, and I have them for a course called "Discurso Escrito" (Written Discourse). Their first writing topic is education reform (since they're pre-service teachers of English), and we watched a YouTube clip Mary-Lou, my associate dean, sent me of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan discussing community schools and accountability. This led us to lots of discussion about educational issues in the U.S. and in Chile. We discussed merit pay for teachers, which many of them chose as the topic for their first essay, a perusasive letter to either Arne Duncan or Monica Jimenez, Chile's Ministra de Educacion. She was in the news recently because an 8th-grader threw a glass of water on her when she wouldn't answer a question - things are a little stirred up here! Anyway, my students have very strong opinions, which I love. They are also teaching me things like Spanish "text speak" - for example, they write "tb" for "tambien"(also), the way we write "ur" for "your," and so forth. How fun is that?!

El American Corner de Arica

Tonight I was part of a panel on Fulbright grants at the Universidad. I'm pictured above with my friend Pochy and Gonzolo Alvaros, who runs the "American Corner" in Arica. The U.S. Embassy in Chile has this great program where they set up "American Corners" in libraries in different parts of Chile. The one in Arica is at the university library. It's a special room with shelves of great resources and books in English, and tables where they hold English conversation hours and different kinds of events. We had a huge turnout for this event, and I connected with a student who is interested in applying for a Fulbright to do his master's in teaching ESL in the U.S., so I'm helping him look at our program at Salem State!