Huanchaco Staycation

     At Fleming College we have four quarters during the school year called bimesters. At the end of each bimester the students and teachers get a week off (except in July when we get three weeks off!) to recuperate and recharge our batteries for the next bimester. Today, I am at the end of my week break and I have had a great time. I had planned on leaving Huanchaco for the week, but all that changed and I decided to stay in town to hangout with friends and surf. And eat. And drink coffee. Also, I have been able to get settled into my new apartment, which has been nice. The only time I even left Huanchaco was to go to school for the afternoon on Wednesday to finish up some work.

     

     Here is what my days have been like for the most part this past week.

- Wake up at 7 or 8am

- Drink a lot of coffee and play on the internet

- Go surfing

- Come home and make something to eat

- Take a nap

- Go surfing again

- Come home and take a shower

- Go back to the beach and watch the sunset

- Come home and make something to eat

- Go see some friends

- Come back home and fall asleep while watching a movie

   As much as I have enjoyed myself this past week, I am happy to begin work tomorrow morning.

Feliz Dia de la Madre! 

The Catholic church that overlooks Huanchaco

Caballitos de Totoras
Reed fishing boats the local men use

Huanchaco on a Sunday afternoon

Movin' On Up!

Well, I have, finally, left hostel living behind and moved into a de-lux apartment on old Huanchaco. I am going to miss the McCallum family, but I am quite happy that I no longer need to walk three flights of stairs every morning just to make coffee.
One part of hostel living I will miss is having my room and bathroom cleaned every Sunday, but hey, you can't have everything. I suppose I could hire someone to clean my place, but for the time being I'll suffer through cleaning a two bedroom apartment.

Salt of the Earth
The McCallum family: left to right Stephanie, Patricia, Tania, Barbara, Manuel, Neil

Just so you know, I'm pretty sure my pad will end on MTV cribs, so check your local listings. I have a kitchen table, beds, a refrigerator, cable TV, and a moderately strong internet signal. All for the low price of 620soles or $235 a month.
Now that I have an apartment and an address of my very own everyone is more than welcome to send me things. Pictures and coffee are my favorites.
Jiron Simon Bolivar 230
Huanchaco, La Libertad, Peru

   

My street.
Jiron Simon Bolivar

My house.
I live on the bottom floor. 

Coming in the front door.

Kitchen.

My room.

The wash room behind my room.
Many people down here wash their own clothes.
There is a large porcelain sink with ribs to clean your clothes.
For right now, I'm going to stick with the lavanderia.

Carson's room.
But for now it will be my friend Emily's.
She works for Otra Cosa Network here in Huanchaco and needs a place to stay for a month or so.
Super happy to have her!

 I went to the post office in Huanchaco today to send a letter to my Momma and to tell the postal worker that I had moved into a new apartment. The place is one, tiny room and the lady who works there is so nice. She must be in her late 70's or early 80's, but she still delivers the mail to all of Huanchaco. We talked for 30mins and she told me all about how people from all over the world come to take her picture and give her things because of her age and the character of her office. This lady was so stoked on her job. I hope I'm like her when I get to be her age.

Huanchaco Post Office Lady (I forgot her name) making things happen

The sign on the door says the post office opens a 2pm, but it really opens at 3:30pm or whenever she wants to open.

End of the First Bimester

Blogging is a great way to reflect as a teacher. And, as other teachers know, reflection is an important part in developing as a professional. I guess reflection is important for all of us regardless of what we are doing. My problem with it is that I am, always, so tired when I get home from school that I have no desire to blog/reflect. I know it is something I need to be doing, but jeez! It's the last thing I want to do after being at work for ten hours. Though, today I don't have an excuse. Today is a "feriado" (public holiday), for what, I have no idea. So, today I can catch up on my reflecting/blogging.
My first bimester at Fleming College has been a tough one. It seems that everyday I am learning to do something that I was already supposed to know how to do. Everyday is a struggle with classroom management. I have, pretty much, thrown out the classroom management I have learned in the US. My university taught me classroom management for students in the US (which makes sense), not foreign students. I feel as though I am starting from scratch in this area; and it is, definitely, taking its toll on me.
 If you can't tell, I am very happy to have the first quarter of the year behind me. Now, I can go into the next quarter with more knowledge on how I want my weeks to be structured, grading, and projects. The classroom management aspect is still an enigma. How do you get twenty-four Peruvian sixth graders to stay in their seats, raise their hand, not talk when others are talking, and generally show respect for their teacher when all of the above are culturally acceptable? I have no idea, but I sure hope I figure it out soon.


Outside of school, things are going fine. I am still in the hostel, but I have a lead on an apartment that I will be checking out today. Walking down three flights of stairs every morning at 5am to make coffee is getting old. Plus, I feel bad when I come home and there are a bunch of people on vacation asking me twenty questions about my day when all I want to do is go to my room and be silent. Completely silent. Everyone I meet at the hostel is so nice, but it's difficult when you are on such a different wave length than they are. Next week I have a one week break from school, so I figuring out what I want to do. Should I stay in Haunchaco, take it easy, and surf? Should I take a week long surf trip up north? Or, should I go up into the Andes and do mountain stuff for three or four days? We'll see, but I am, definitely, leaning towards getting out of Huanchaco.
Also, I am preparing for the arrival of my parents in July and my cousin Carson in September. I have had great time Skyping with my parents and planning our trip to Machu Picchu. It will be infinitely better once they get down here for two weeks. Once my parents leave it will be no time before Carson gets down here. It will be great to see him and have a roommate for a while!

Another beautiful Pacific sunset. 

I went to another professional soccer match the other weekend.  Peruvians and their love and devotion to soccer never ceases to amaze me. These games are so much fun!

The Great Catch Up: Part 2

 I am too tired to write much of anything tonight, so here are some pictures I have taken over the past couple of weeks. 

Some of the staff from school and I took a Sunday day trip to Otuzco; a small mountain town about an hour and a half from Trujillo. It is a great place to go when you want a cooler climate. 

Your local, Otuzco fish merchant showing off the goods.

One of my 6th grade English classes perfecting their performances  of a scene from
Bug Muldoon and the Garden of Fear, the book we are currently reading.

Group work with my other 6th grade English class. 

Cave paintings.
In science we are studying all about what makes us human beings  and how we came to be from our Neanderthal  and Cro-Magnon ancestors.  

A normal view on the ride home from work.

My first pro football (soccer) match in Peru.
Cesar Vallejo of Trujillo vs. Lima Alianza
Cesar Vallejo took home a 2-0 win.

The Great Catch Up: Part 1

I haven't posted anything since February 24th and, boy, there is a lot to talk about. I am going to try to summarize the past month in three parts over the next three nights. If I feel as good Tuesday and Wednesday night as I do tonight I won't have any problems getting this done. If, for some strange reason, I am dog tired after work I hope you will forgive me if it takes a bit longer.

I began school on the 1st of March. I am teaching all of 6th grade English and science and, in total, I have 48 alumnos (students). I have been with them almost a month now and, all in all, everything is going well.   Most of the students speak and understand English well, but I still try to speak slowly and clearly just to make sure that very little is lost in translation. My biggest task with the students is controlling the extra side chatter. It is amazing how much the kids love to talk; and it is even more amazing how much they love to talk when I am talking! As of now, it is not where I want it to be, but I can, definitely, tell there has been an improvement. It seems to me that the constant chatter is a part of their culture and is accepted by many adults, so it will be difficult to curb. But, I guarantee that it will not continue with me. Luckily, I have a lot of support from administration and other, veteran, teachers at Fleming. It feels good to have other teachers give you their nod of approval, especially, when you are new to the profession and new to the school. I understand that being very strict is the best policy in the classroom, but I really don't like it and it gets very exhausting. Regardless, I can't stop now. If I do I will have a tough year ahead of me.

The others areas of my school day are going very well. I really enjoy the folks I work with. There is always a joke to be told (even if I don't really get it because it's in Spanish) and always someone willing to answer a question for me. 

In so many ways, Fleming is very much like any other school in the US. Students are always moving about, going to art, P.E., or the computer lab. Kids run in the hallways, wear hats indoors, and don't pick up their trash after lunch. Sometimes, everything around me feels so normal that I don't feel like I am in another country, at all. That, quickly, changes when another teacher comes up to me and tells me something in Spanish that I don't understand and walks away before I have a chance to conjure up a "si, gracias" or "ya, entinendo"(yes, thank you and ok, i understand). 

There are, also, many ways that it is different. I have never been to a school where students eat their lunch 9:45am during their 15min break and play during their 45min lunch. Students are encouraged to play basketball, soccer, volleyball, and just have fun during their lunch time. We have a cafeteria, but it is not, widely, used by the students. This is the total opposite end of the spectrum from public schools in NC where students sit, quietly, with their class in the lunchroom. I am sure they, both, have their pros and cons, but my students are much more docile when they return from lunch. Another way the school is different from what I am used to is the fact that I can leave for lunch, if I wish. There are five to ten restaurants with in walking distance of the school where I can get a delicious meal for 7soles($2.65), or less. 7soles is about what it costs for me to eat in a lunchroom in NC. If I were teaching in an elementary school in NC right now my day would be very different. I would not leave my students unless they went to specials (art, P.E., music). I would not change classes or get a chance to use the restroom. I don't, necessarily, believe Fleming does it better than anyone else; it is just different and that's one of the reasons I came down here. I wanted something different. 

Tune in next time and hear Mr. Jewell say, "No, no, no, no, no. We will not have any of that in this class."

Right after the end of the first day of school. The walls are not that bare now. I have done my best to fill them up with student work.

This is the view from my classroom. I really like the it, but it gets very loud out there where students are moving up and down the stairs and P.E. class is being held on the basketball court.

This is called "pancito con hamburgesa" and it is the closest thing I have found to a sausage biscuit in Peru. It is a small, crusty bun with a type of spicy hanmburger in it. Most mornings this is my breakfast, along with a big glass of fresh juice. Three pancitos and juice costs about 5soles ($1.88). 

This Past Week

Planning session in the library. Fleming College.

     As the first day of school nears my planning is intensifying.  This week I turned in my year plan, scope and sequence, and 1st nine weeks inquiry based learning units to my department heads for English and science. I still have weekly plans to due, but they can wait until Monday. I am quite thankful for all the time I spent lesson planning during my internship in Mrs. Thackston's 5th grade class; and for my exposure to inquiry based learning at UNCW. Both of these experiences have helped me, and will continue to help me, as the year progresses. 

     This year, Fleming has purchased SIMS (Student Information Management System) to keep track of everyone at school and I have been asked, along with a handful of other teachers, to learn the software and teach it to the rest of the faculty. Today we attended a tutorial on SIMS in the computer lab that was facilitated by one of their representatives in the UK via Skype. Although SIMS is widely used in the UK and US, Fleming is, only, the 3rd school in South America and the 1st in Peru to use the program. It will be a big adjustment for the school, but everyone in the meeting today got a good grasp of what it offers; and I believe it will be of great benefit in the long run.

     I have been a faculty member of Fleming College for almost a month now and, boy, has time flown.  It seems like yesterday that I was meeting my new co-workers and beginning my plans. Now, with the beginning of the school year less than a week away, I am getting excited/nervous/antsy because this will be my first year with classes of my very own. At the moment, I am planning for the first two days of classes (luckily the students start on a Thursday) and it is very overwhelming. I am constantly picking the brains of veteran teachers as to what I need to cover in terms of class changes, assigning lockers, and student breaks. I want to be sure that I get everything right, but I know there will be items that I miss. Another reassuring aspect that teachers have relayed to me is that many students will not show up for the first few days of class since many of them are traveling abroad. I guess if I do not get all the information covered the first few days I will have another chance to do it the following Monday. Regardless of how much support I have from fellow teachers, the first day jitters have already struck me and they will only increase. I plan on being as ready as I can be, but I am still worried that I will stand up in front of the class for the first time and draw a complete blank. Wow, I really hope that does not happen! Of course I will let you know how it goes.

     Last Sunday, some of the volunteers from Otra Cosa Network and I hiked up a mountain outside of Trujilllo called Cerro Campana (Bell Hill). It was more than a hill, with a summit around 2,000ft above sea level. We left Haunchaco at 9:30am so we could be walking before the day got too hot. We took a bus into Trujillo and another bus north up the Pan American Highway through the neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Light skinned people, such as myself, often get stared at by the locals because we are so different, but we really got gawked at as we walked through Buenos Aires asking people if they knew where the trailhead was. We received one of two responses from the locals when we told them what we wanted to do. The first was, "yeah, just walk over there (as they waved a hand north) and you will see it." And the other was, "why do you want to do that?" I had heard of people from Huanchaco hiking to the top of Cerro Campana, but it seemed as if the people who lived the closest to the mountain had never put a thought into climbing it. *I will write more about the residents of Buenos Aires later* After about twenty minutes of wandering down the Pan American Highway we found what we thought would be the road that would take us to the trailhead. We happened to be right, just as the day was really heating up. It was 11am. 

     The coastal desert in northern Peru looks to be a foreboding and unwelcoming place. The sun bakes you from all angles and what little vegetation there is barely reaches past your knee.  The flora is mostly cacti and pitiful looking grasses, and the fauna are various insects, snakes, and lizards. At first glance I wondered how anything could survive in such harsh condition, but I knew that there was a thriving ecosystem all around me. I just needed to look harder.

     It took most of the morning, and some of the afternoon, to get near the top and the hike became very steep and slippery with nothing but loose sand and rocks under our feet as we scrambled upwards. The best part about the hike up was stopping to take a breath and turing around to see all that was below us. The higher we walked the more of the desert and Pacific Ocean we could see. Ninety percent of the way up most of us stopped. The remaining four hundred feet or so became too steep for many of us, me included. I do not think getting up would have been too bad, but the down climb could have been treacherous. One wrong step or slight balancing foe pa would have resulted in a head over heal tumble down into a deep ravine a thousand feet below. If you did not already know, the city of Trujillo does not have that great of a mountain rescue team, or a sufficient EMS for that matter. Two guys in our group made it to the top and back down and said it was pretty impressive. As for myself and a few others, we had a nice rock outcropping that gave us an awesome view and a wonderful breeze. 

     By the time we walked down and back to the highway everyone was covered in dirt and had loads of sand in their shoes. We went over to a bodega to buy water and Sportade (Peruvian Gatorade?) and the locals looked like they did not know what to make of us. I am pretty sure that when we left they had a good laugh at how pitiful us gringos looked. 

     Since life in Huanchaco revolves around the ocean and beaches, most people never think about going up into the desert and finding things to do. I guess it goes to show you that if you go looking for something different and fun you have a good chance of finding it. It was great to see my home for the next couple of years from a different angle. In the future, I hope to see many different angles.

Heading up Cerro Campana.

The view from the top, almost. 

My morning view at the bus stop.
This can either get you totally stoked or completely bummed out.

*I wanted to write a bit more about the residents of Buenos Aires.

As I said before, it was quite evident that the people we spoke to had never thought about hiking up that mountain. It makes me think that recreational ventures, such as hiking up a mountain in your backyard, is left for those with disposable income, not for those who work seven days a week to scrape up enough money just to feed their families and put a thin tin roof over their heads. Maybe they do not think about such frivolous activities because they are too busy foraging for glass and plastic at the dump behind their house or lugging buckets of water home because they lack indoor plumbing and have to get water from the neighborhood water tank(which, I am told, frequently runs out). The more time I spend here the more I see how rich I really am. And I am not talking about the whole, 'I am rich with love' thing. I am talk about how much money I have. I think about this quite often and I am constantly trying to figure out how I feel about having so much here, as a foreigner, while others, Peruvians, have so little. My feelings, often, jump from one end of the spectrum to the other. Sometimes I feel ashamed for what I have and other times I feel thankful for what I have. I, honestly, am not sure how I feel about my situation, but I know I am going to have plenty of time to figure it out. 

Fact- 50% of all Peruvian citizens live in a house with a dirt floor. 

Getting Settled and Inquiry Based Learning

It's been over two weeks since I was last on here and a lot has been going on. Much of my time is spent at school preparing for the upcoming year, so I guess I can start there.

The faculty and staff at Sir Alexander Fleming College are in full swing getting ready for the students to return during the first week of March. My work day has, generally, been from 8am-4pm for the past couple of weeks and everything is going pretty well. The entire school is shifting its approach to education by utilizing the concept of Inquiry Based Learning. This is where the classroom teacher provides students with a central idea or theme for a unit and lets the student's questions about that idea drive their own learning. For example, one of our themes will be detectives, so, with my help, students will pose a question (hopefully a higher order thinking question) about detectives or investigators that they will then research for a matter of weeks and present to the class what they have learned. I will spend very little time lecturing to the class, yet I will spend a great deal of time guiding students in the right direction and helping them with their research. The part I like the best about IBL is that the students research can take them where ever their interest leads them just as long as they stay within the central theme for the unit. While at UNCW getting my education degree, I was introduced to the idea of Inquiry Based Learning, but I only utilized it on a small scale. At Fleming College I will be using it in both of my 6th grade English and science classes for every unit we cover. I really like this approach to learning and I am very excited to put it into practice in the classroom, but it is quite daunting right now as I plan for the entire school year. Luckily, for myself and the entire staff, the school brought in an IBL expert from England to guide us as we plan. We have been attending workshops and grade level planning sessions to help us with our units and to include as much cross curricular material as possible. Regardless of how much I like this approach and how well I think it will work, it does not work for all students. There will always be students who cannot handle this much independent research. In these situations I will have to find a balance between holding their hand and still encouraging them to seek out what interests them on the topic. It is going to be interesting to see how everything pans out, but I am encouraged by the fact that I have so much support from other teachers and staff who are in the same boat I am. We will all be learning together.

My room. The bed is made because it's so hot here at night that I don't need sheets.

Outside of school, everything is moving along at a nice pace. I have been keeping my eyes open for an apartment, but nothing has come available that I like. It is still the summer time here in northern Peru, so  apartments are scarce and expensive. When the busy season ends prices will drop and many places will open up, so I am told. I have no problem waiting to find the right place because I am quite content staying in my little room here at Hostel McCallum. As I have said before, this place is great and the folks who own it are so kind and have helped me out so much.
Life here in Huanchaco can be as exciting or as quite as you want it to be. February is the month for Carnaval (I don't think it has anything to do with Mardi Gras), so there is aways a parade, party, or band to go see. For the most part, I choose the quieter side of things. During the weekdays my bedtime is pretty early, so I try to fit in a surf after work and watch the sunset over the ocean. At the moment, I usually eat dinner out, but I will be happy to have my own kitchen one of these days. Even when food is so cheap here it can still get expensive.

The surf today is looking fun with semi-glassy chest to head high sets, but there is a surf competition going on this weekend and the contest zone takes up most of the beach, so I have to wait until this afternoon to surf again. I will, most likely, eat some lunch and hangout with some friends I have met then surf, eat dinner, watch a movie, and go to bed early so I can surf for most of the day tomorrow. Even though I have a full work week right now I know that once the school year is in swing I will be spending less time in the water and more time working, so I try to enjoy my free time as much as possible. 

One of the sunsets this past week.

Summer afternoon at Huanchaco Beach. This place gets busy.

Professional brick throwers
Each brick was thrown to the top by hand.
I didn't see them drop a single one.