 |
|
|
 Vallarta Living | June 2006 
Viviendo en México
 Korah Winn - PVNN
| | Judith and some of her students. | 
| | 
| |
The elementary schools in Guadalajara tend to go longer than the schools in the United States. My last day of teaching will be June 30th. You should have seen the looks on the faces of my students when I told them that the children the states were already starting their summer vacations.
The majority of schools here are open air and they do not have air conditioning. Mine is included on that list. Luckily, the elevation in Guadalajara is higher up so it is not as hot here as it is on the coast, but it is still warming up significantly. I cannot imagine how the teachers in Puerto Vallarta teach when their students are sweating in their seats.
I asked my supervisor about where the children play at recess during la estación de lluvias (the rainy season.) She said they are usually kept in the small classrooms. It is not an ideal situation but that is the best they can manage since there is no gymnasium accessible to them.
I finally got the chance to compare private schools in Mexico to public ones. I met a public school teacher named Judith when I first moved to Guadalajara in January. She knew that I was interested in seeing the schools where she taught, so she left an open invitation for me to call her and come over one day. My responsibilities kept me quite busy, but I finally found a time that worked for both of us.
Judith teaches at two different schools. Her first class begins in the morning and goes until noon. She said that she has cuarenta (forty) alumnos (pupils) during her morning session. There is then a two-hour break where she goes to a different school and teaches quince (fifteen) sixth graders from two until four. Her second class was the one I was able to visit.
I watched as her class stood up when she came in the room. This impressed me quite a bit. The room itself was very sparse. There were locks everywhere in the school because they have computer equipment in the rooms. Judith stored supplies in a little built-in closet in one rincón (corner) of the room, but other than that, there were very few personal items there.
I can only imagine that it would be difficult to make a room your own if you were only there from two until four and you had to carry in almost everything you wanted to use for the day.
The paredes (walls) were pretty much barren, but right at the front of the room was an incredible, interactive, white board. There was a projector overhead that was connected to the Internet. Judith could teach anything she needed to through the assistance of this technology.
Her students talked among themselves as they did their tarea (homework) but it was not to a distracting level. About halfway through class I needed to use the restroom so I asked her where it was located. She had a student guide me, but she handed me toilet paper and soap before I left. I did not realize it, but the school only provides the facilities not the lujos (luxuries.) I laughed to imagine American kids having to get used to bringing their own toilet paper to school.
When Judith introduced me to her students, she would mention whether or not some of them had connections to the United States. One boy had lived in Kentucky for several years and another girl had lived in California. Another boy had parientes (relatives) in Detroit. It floored me that in a class of only quince students there would be so many who were connected to the U.S.A. in some way. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us