After having my first two days of teaching English at a winter camp, I can not tell you how I excited I am to start working in the classroom. As far as the “winter camps” go-they are paid for entirely by the Chilean government so that students who excel in the English language have the chance to be fully immersed into the culture and language. Most of the winter camps are outside of big cities and the students travel to and from the camp every morning and evening. Two other volunteers and I are the lucky few who get to go to “sleepover” winter camp in Alto del Carmen. There is no exaggeration that I am in the MIDDLE of the desert up in the Andes. The closest town or even corner store is ½ hour away by bus.
The whole set up the camp is very interesting as well. There are about 60 Chilean students ranging from ages 14-18 and they come from a city called Copiapo or small rural towns on the outskirts. We have split the 60 students into three different groups and there is a volunteer and a monitor that run each group. Fortunately, I am working with a wonderful Chilean woman named Sandra that is an English teacher in the city of Copiapo. After working with Sandra it is easy to say that her English is not that strong. This is the case in a lot of the Chilean public schools throughout the country. English teachers teach “English” using their Spanish, which is why it is so important that we are here.
The theme of the winter camps this year is the fight against bullying. Today we introduced the topic and we had to do a lot of different activities to show how bullying is indirectly affecting everyone and to influence the children to come together in the fight against bullying in their specific schools. It was an extremely difficult topic to teach, however, I was so impressed and touched by the way the children responded to the activities. We had to do a certain activity where there was one kid in the center of a circle and the other 19 of us screamed and pointed and laughed at them for 15 seconds. This was so that the kids could feel what it is like to be bullied. The first few kids that were asked to be the victim laughed and did not take the activity seriously but after a few more times they started to feel the tension, nervousness, and intimidation by the other students. We concluded this with a very heavy conversation about bullying where each of the kids were asked to reflect on an experience where they knew someone or themselves had been bullied. This was the best English I had heard all day and I think the kids really learned from the activities we completed and I cannot begin to express how excited and motivated I was by this. I know that there will be bad and frustrating days of teaching-but this satisfaction is why I am here.
Tomorrow we are taking a field trip to a beach about an hour and a half away. FINALLY, I can get some shampoo and conditioner so I can hopefully take care of the nasty stench that has been following me around. We will have a talent show on Saturday (the last day of camp) and the English volunteers and monitors are singing Karaoke to “La Loba” by Shakira. We have a lot of practicing to do. After this I will have another overnight bus trip to Iquique! Finally!
Miss everyone!
PS. Pictures will be posted to facebook soon!
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