April 16, 2013
Hola Amigos!!!
So today was the first day of student teaching at ASF! This school is unlike any other that I have seen before. You know how in movies they always make schools seem awesome and like one big party, with attractive rich kids hanging around outside and music is blasting..but then you get to high school and you're like wow this sucks!..It's not like this at all? Well my friends I'm here to tell you that they do exist! They are right here in good ol' Mexico City!!!
Seriously the school is the most gorgeous school I have ever seen! First of all, it's HUGE like as big as a college campus. All of the buildings are inside/outside classrooms. There are different buildings for each school..for example, there's the ECC (Early Childhood Center...this is where I'm teaching), the Lower School (Elementary), Middle School, Upper School (High). Each building is so big, beautiful, and covered with art work from thousands of the students. They have multiple gyms (with the most recent work out equipment), multiple courts for many different sports (both inside and outside), multiple computer rooms, the cafeteria is outside in a huge beautiful garden courtyard, 4 libraries, multiple resource room, and the swimming pool and art rooms are ridiculous. Literally the list goes on and on. Anything you can think of, they have it!
The school is completely centered around the students. In the US, students would receive detention if they were caught walking around socializing on school grounds. Here in Mexico, the students are encouraged to be very social. There are tons of hang out areas with TVs, computers, couches, tables chairs all over the campus. Literally the school is covered and emerged in art, music, culture, and different languages. Art and gardens with different flowers, plants, and trees cover the entire school. You should see how many courtyards they have!
Here learning is completely hands on and is inquiry based, meaning that the students ask questions and kind of choose what they want to learn about. They are given the chance to explore! This is the way education should be! Another awesome thing about the school is that they don't go by room numbers but rather by houses. For example, Harry Potter fans, you know how there is Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, etc...here it's like this!!! SO COOL!!!
Another thing that I just absolutely love about this school is how the ECC is set up. Here their grades go K1, K2, K3, Pre 1st, then 1st! This is so amazing because it really allows the kids to become fully prepared for an actually classroom setting. The kids education here is so much better than most that I have seen. I am placed in Kindergarten and my kiddos can read, write, recognize and recall things that you would have never thought that they could do. Oh did I mention that almost all of them are fluent in 3 to 4 different languages!!!..YEP KINDERGARTNERS!!! It's so amazing here. The ECC is also set up separately too and just like the rest of the campus it's outside learning, AWESOME! They also have like 6 playgrounds for them! Parents and family are also very involved in the school. For example, every Thursday parents come to just read to the kids! How nice is this!? By the way, my kiddos are the cutest little pumpkins ever! In this culture, everyone kisses and hugs when you meet and every time they see you. It's absolutely adorable when my kids greet and say bye to me...I love the closeness and affection that you can have with the students, their families, and your co workers. In the US, it's frowned upon but here it's considered rude to not display affection. When teaching younger kids, they need that love and affection and I believe you need and should be allowed to give it to them...oh and I absolutely love my co op and aides..everyone is so awesome here!...basically what I'm trying to say is I never want to come back to the US. Haha
Because this school is a VERY wealthy school and the majority of the students who go here are ambassadors kids or kids of parents that work at the embassy, security is VERY high here. I'm not even exaggerating to you when I say that hundreds of HUGE security guards in big blacked our SUVs drop off and pick up the kids everyday. Literally the school is surrounded by the kids personal security guards and the police. Traffic here is insane but the school here even has people that are paid to just stand in the streets to let us cross. Literally as soon as you or anyone related to the school is in sight all traffic is stopped immediately for those to cross..it's like nothing I have ever seen before! The school even has a secret underground garage where the buses go to drop off the students and staff!!
Ok so I literally can not go on enough about how amazing the school is but seriously moving on now! Ok home life...today the roomies and our host momma went grocery shopping...obviously we some how managed to become separated from our host mom..cool.
Today was a very fun, interesting, and tiring day..I can't wait for more tomorrow!
Adios!
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