Entering the Lion's Den: teaching in a Chilean classroom

The way the volunteer teaching program works is that you arrive at your school and observe classes for a week. Then, after this week of sitting in the back of classrooms in bewilderment, you go into teaching your own classes.  During my observation week I learned a few things.

1. Chilean school days are long. Like really long. Like start at 7:50 and end at 5:15 long.
2. That we get an hour and a half lunch. So suddenly, the time in school each day isn't as long.
3. And that most of our class hours are cut short by masses, celebrations, assemblies, or religious holidays. None of which I am complaining about.
4. But, the days are still long.
5. Its called a "classroom"for a reason.
6. That being surrounded by 1,000 girls from grades 1 to 12 is exhausting.
7. Yupp, thats right. They put the gringo kid from California in an all girls Catholic school.
8. That everything I did would be put under a microscope. Cuz lets face it, I'm three feet too tall, my hair is three shades too light, and I'm the wrong gender to do any sort of blending in.
9. And finally, that my days at Maria Auxiliadora would be filled with selflies and lovely notes like this one.

If only there were such a thing as lean-dough,

then I could eat as much bread as Chileans do, no problem. 

Let me tell you what, in Chile, the word "classroom" is much more accurate than in the states. The "classroom" is actually the class's room, not the teacher's place to teach a class. Here, the students rule the classroom and the teacher is merely entering their domain. The students do not switch classes at the ring of the bell, the teachers do. Entering a classroom that is owned by the students is like stepping on to an opposing team's home turf, under the bright Friday night lights, with the championship on the line, 5 times a day. Luckily for me, I have my own classroom, but this doesn't change the mindset of these bloodthirsty students. Oh, and did I mention that I work at an all girls Catholic school? Talk about claws…

Being 1 of 6 male teachers and the only foreigner at the school definitely comes with its own set of perks and challenges. 1st, the perks. My school is well endowed. Anything that I need, I need only ask for and it is as good as done. The staff is incredibly friendly and looks to include me and help me become a part of the school community. I have my own classroom that is rather spacious as far as a lot of volunteers' classrooms go. And for the most part, the girls listen to most of what I say. Which is a blessing and a curse all in its own. The challenges are a plenty as well. First and foremost, I've got big shoes to fill. The volunteer before me was just short of Mother Maria herself, judging by the praise of the faculty and students. And the only reason she left was to work for the organization that runs the volunteer program. Talk about having a big act to follow up. And, not to mention, I've never taught an actual class a day in my life. So there's that whole learning how to be a teacher in two weeks thing. But I mean hey, if Jack Black can fake it and make a killer rock band while he's at it, I think I'll do just fine.

I officially survived my first week of teaching in Chile. Just barely. My first week went by without any major hiccups. I gave my introductory lessons and in each of them was incorporated a small presentation about where I came from, so my students could know a little bit more about me. The top two questions I got each time after I presented were "Mister, how old are you?" and "Do you have a girlfriend?", to which I answered with, "I am 26 and have a serious novia back at home." So now, not only am I a pretend teacher, but I also have a fake age and a pretend girlfriend. Might as well call me an international man of mystery because by the time this is over, I won't even know what's real or not.

Through all that has been my 2 weeks as a teacher, I have learned a lot. Mainly that in order to keep these girls from talking you have to keep them entertained, otherwise they turn right around to their girlfriends and all of a sudden you don't even exist. In order to do that, my lesson plans will have to be intriguing, fun, and engineered better than a German car.

Well, here's to building that German car of a lesson and using it to safely drive myself out of this lion's den they call a classroom.