Working in High Schools

After 4 months of observing classes and drinking tereré (yerba mate) with Directoras (principals) of the schools, i finally was able to make a plan to give my charlas (lessons, activities) on lifeskills in one of the schools. The plan consisted of giving two charlas in the morning with two different classes and one in the afternoon. I would start with the topic of good comunication skills, then to self esteem, values, employment skills, etc all the way to sexuality and AIDS education. The Directora seemed very excited to work with me, the students seemed relieved they would be doing something in class other than listening to lecture and copying things from the board and the teachers were probably appreciative they could sit back, chill out and tereré for awhile while I did my thing (even though I would be thrilled if they helped and got involved with what I was doing) I laid out a 9 week plan to get through all the topics, decided on Tuesdays and Thursdays and picked the classes I would work with. I was thrilled to finally be starting work with teens. Since being in site, i have done a lot of work with little kids and while singing songs, having a reading club, making arts and crafts was a blast, I was now ready to take on the challenge of reaching those human beings that are in their most awkward phase of life!

I showed up at 8:20am on the dot to discover the Directora´s office was closed and I could not find anyone to talk to or show me to the classroom. I waited patiently, surrounded by little kids (because this school is an elementary school and high school) answering their questions about where i was from, what language they speak in my country, how old I was, did i have kids of my own, what was I doing here, etc. Finally a teacher approached me and in Spanish of course asked me "are you here to give a charla?" I said "yes, I am, do you knmow where the directora is?" She said what paraguayans always say " oh she´ll be here in a second" which means anywhere from 5 min to 2 hours. She then pointed to a huge auditorium size room and said "they are waiting for you in there". I thought "that´s weird, why would they be in there and not waiting for me in their classroom?" Then as i got closer I could hear the rumbling noise of what sounded like the moments just before a school assembly in the U.S before someone took a microfone and told everyone to shut up and be quiet. I also saw kids piling in the room and I could feel my heart stop and my face turn white. I planted my feet in the ground the way I did when I was a stubborn toddler refusing to take a step further. I looked at the teacher and said "who is they......the senior class right?" Yes" she said...."and the junior and sophmore class too" I told her my charla was not designed for this many people and she assured me there were not many. I don´t know why I half believed her but any hope i had of having the ideal group size of 15-20 diminshed the moment I stepped into the room and saw that 50 or so faces staring back at me. When I turned around, the teacher was gone and so I took a deep breath and tried to look as confident as possible as I walked to the front of the room.

As I stood at the front of the room, it dawned on me that to Paraguayans to give a charla, or lesson means someone is going to stand up and lecture for an hour. There is no concept of what I had planned to do with the students that day. My charla actually consisted of breaking into small groups first for an ice breaker activity. I had made a model structure using matchboxes, two pieces of tape and a paper clip. Each group then gets the same materials and one member from the group is allowed 30 seconds to look at the model. They then return to the group and are not allowed to touch the materials, they have to verbally explain to their members how to build it. I only had enough materials for 3 groups and I did divide them into 3 groups, 3 HUGE groups and somehow the activity worked fairly well, except for the discussion part afterward. Nobody wanted to speak up and talk about what was difficult about it, was it easier for the person giving instructions or for the people building, etc....I ended up answering my own questions and was stared at my a bunch of blank faces.

After that activity we moved on to the topic of what good comunication is in general and with who you comunicate on a daily basis, etc. The main activity required every student to write their own instructions on how to make a PB & J sandwhich (they don´t make those here so I did jelly and butter) After everyone writes their instructions, they are folded put into a hat and two volunteers have to make the sandwhich according to the instructions. So, if they say put the butter on the bread and forget the part about taking the knife......the volunteer has to use his finger. After they get the idea as a class you write instructions that are more specific together and talk about how while everyone knows how to make a sandwhich, if it was something like flying a plane or opertating a computer, you would need to be very detailed.

As the students were doing the matchbox activity, i realized they did not have their backpacks with them, so nobody had pencils or paper. I sent a student to get me some and he came back with one piece of paper and one pencil. I said "we need more" and he said "how much more, like 3?" and I said "no, for everybody" so he came back with like 5 and I had each of the huge groups write 2 instructions.

Two female students volunteered and made the sandwhich and I realized Paraguayans don´t make sandwhiches with butter and jelly any more than they do with peanut butter and jelly so i should have picked something more common in their culture.

Overall the charla went well, they were respectful and one kid even came up to me afterwards and said "we had a really good time" and that made it worth it to me. I did find the Directora afterwards and told her I only wanted ONE class at a time from now on and she made me a promise. I went back in the afternoon and did the same charla with another class and it went really well. The teacher even stayed in the room and watched, instead of considering it her one hour break to go chat it up with other teachers.

I went to the school today for my second day and was told that the classes I am working with took a field trip to the Expo (which is kind of like our state fairs) I smiled and said that was fine, i would come back in the afternoon. Why nobody told me on Tuesday that there would be a field trip on Thursday and I didnt need to come I will never understand. It is just typical of paraguayan culture and I´m getting really good at letting things slide of my back and go with the flow. I smiled because I knew I could now use that time to come write a blog about all of this and that tomorrow I am going to go to the Expo and see what a Paraguayan State Fair is like :)