Tomorrow (my birthday!) will mark the seven month anniversary of me being in Miranda. So far everything has been alright but I feel I owe my blog an entry about the highs and the lows of the job that Ive been doing since September. One important thing to remember here is that the experiences of every one of the 1200 people doing this job right now are unique. My mood and feelings are affected not only by the position, but also by Miranda, being a small and unexciting city, and also by the school(s) that I´m working in.
I´ll start briefly at the beginning of the year. When Ariela and I showed up on our first day of work (September 15) we were greeted and given a little tour around the school and such. I had simply assumed that that day we would be starting the actual job, but we didn´t. Instead we didn´t actually start until the beginnng of October, which was no problem at all. Once we did finally receive a schedule, we found out that instead of just teaching all 12 hours at the high school (that we were assigned to) we would also be teaching at various elementary schools. At first I was a little annoyed that I hadn´t been told before, but then I realized that it would be a great opportunity to get more experience working with various ages (I´ve come to really love working with the kids, it´s like an escape from the high school).
The first trimester that we were in classes (October to Decemeber) was a little chaotic, since I wasn´t sure what the teachers wanted, one of the english teachers was on sick leave for a long time and there were various substitute teachers in for her, but I think we just tried to make it work the best we could.
The last day of classes before Christmas holidays was a Tuesday. Ariela and I don´t work Mondays at Montes and saw it as a little bit of a pain to stay in Miranda only for the Tuesday, when it was likely that we probably wouldn´t be doing anything in the classes. So, we asked well in advance if we could have that day free so that we could get a little extra traveling into the holidays. We were told ¨No problem!¨ and even that we didn´t need to give as much notice as we did, just a simple reminder a week or two before the date.
Come January after the holidays, the second term started, and our schedules were changed. In the first trimester I hadmany classes with grade 11 and 12. In the second trimester those were changed since those two grades need to focus on studying for their supposedly very difficult exams at the end of the year and have no time for fun. Instead I had classes with grade 7s, 8s, and 10s. The second term finished just before Semana Santa (Easter holidays) and went pretty well. Besides being a little lost for what type of activities to plan, or whether to plan anything at all, it was alright.
At the end of the 2nd term, just before easter holidays, the same situation happened as at Christmas. The last day of classes was a Wednesday, and Ariela and I don´t work Mondays.** We had been looking into the Morocco trip for a while, and noticed that it started on March 30 (the tuesday) and that the only way to make the trip would be to leave Miranda on the Monday to get to Sevilla. So, like at Christmas, we let the teachers know (this time just giving them the reminder they asked for at Christmas) that we weren´t going to be there on the last two days of school. Again, it was a-ok and they were excited to hear about the details of the trip. Come the second last day of the term we were given our new schedule for the third term that would start after Easter break.
**I want to comment here, I don´t understand why the holidays don´t just start on a Friday. Going to school for a Monday-Tuesday or Mon-Wed seems pointless. Just make it one week or two.
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