I went to school for the first time today, working. I ended up organizing all of the 9th graders into turmas (classes) of 50 students, first by age, then by alphabetical order by first name. I dictated each name in order, to another Biology teacher, and she and I proceeded to then reorder each group. All 382 students. It was busy work, but necessary, and helped me with my pronunciation.
After the five hours this took, I proceeded to gorge myself at home.
So there are 4 Biology teachers for 8th, 9th and 10th grades. One of them is essentially the vice principal, who won't teach as many classes as the rest of us. Every student takes every subject herre, so there are approximately 1200 students taking Bio, meaning I'm responsible for at least 300 of them.
I remember in high school, there were 350 TOTAL students (in the school). You only took Bio for two of the four years, and there were at least a couple Bio teachers. It's as if there were only one teacher, and all the students had to take Bio every year and there were no "honors" or "AP" classes - just separated by age.
Now that things are starting to have a realistic perspective, I'm beginning to see why teaching here is difficult aside from the lack of teaching experience or language barrier.
Speaking of language, everyone at school is being patient with me, especially the English teachers, because they know that language takes a while.
I'm convinced every day that I need to relearn French sometime soon (and there is a French teacher at school) because it slips into my Portuguese every once in a while, and it will really help me separate the two languages in my head and hear romance languages better. I'm already speaking in very "Latin" English, meaning that I'll use Latin-based synonyms of male (???) grammar choices that are understandable to English speakers, but awkward.
I'm still trying to get used to the pace of life, though I intellectually know what to expect. I waited an hour this morning at school, but I knew that was going to happen, so I brought a book to study. Still, I get frustrated rather easily (or easier than I'd like) and I had a pretty short fuse today with some of the guys who regularly come over. Granted, they were pretty hyper, but it was an "alone" day. I just needed some time to myself which is not easy to find around here...just yet.
I'm looking forward to lesson planning. Why this is, I'm not sure, but it has something to do with doing the job I have been trained to do. Similarly, I'd like to get the theater group and the Ultimate (Frisbee) league going soon - as those are going to be just as rewarding, or so I hope.
I still miss people a ton, but that's starting to slip away little by little. I think it varies every day, and depends on how close I feel with people here and how long it's been since I communicated with people back home. What makes things feel better is knowing I've already made it over 4 months. It still seems like yesterday that I left, but that day's getting very long and tiring. I think that once big changes start happening, the time will start to feel like weeks and months. But my life has done a 180 degree turn, while others are steering pretty much the same course. As concerned as I am about them changing while I'm gone, I guess I should be worried about changing so much myself.
Peace
John
