A well-manicured lawn spreads out green and even between buildings. Parents drive into the front circle to drop their children off at school. Children play soccer and gather inside teachers' classrooms. Then a bell rings, and children flood out into walkways and head to their respective classrooms. It is not until Spanish words and phrases begin filling the air and one notices the smoking volcano in the background that one begins to realize that they are not in any United States school, but, instead, we are at D'Amicis School in Puebla, Mexico.
The school itself is different in both its physical and pedagogical design. It is surrounded by a brick fence with a security guard at the front. There is a full-sized soccer field, and several basketball courts with the backboards at different heights for different-aged students. The kindergartners have a rabbit cage and garden section, as well as a sandbox and playground. The upper elementary wing of the building (5th and 6th grade) have a full-sized science laboratory with steel lab tables, an anatomy skeleton, and walls of shelving full of science equipment. Also, each class spends half the day in Spanish instruction and the other in English, ensuring all students become familiar with and at the very least conversational in English.
My first few days at school have been very interesting. I am working in the English section of the 6th grade, and have approximately 60 students between the two classes. The similarities between this classroom and my 6th grade classroom in Watauga county are amazing. The class gets rambunctious at times. Students have specific personalities which make some of them more readily identifiable than others: shy Paty, talkative Yamil, hyper Viktor.
My teacher Nelly has been very receptive to me. Within 10 minutes of entering her class, I was reading a part of the textbook aloud to the students and helping to lead a discussion on personalities and self-esteem. She has also included me in a lab exercise in which every student and she used lemon juice in an experiment to determine if the individuals were introverts or extroverts. Nelly made sure that my name and results were also on the list.
The differences are immediately apparent also. The students call all the instructors "Teacher." They have to be reminded to speak in English when in that part of their day. Also, everyone (adults especially) greets one another with a kiss on the cheek. It surprised me when several of my students greeted me in this manner by the second day.
As for our out-of-school activities, we have visited Cholula, an ancient Mayan site with a pyramid and other ruins. At Cholula we found local vendors selling fried grasshoppers, which I discovered taste surprisingly like wood. We have also visited a local zocalo, or central park, and a flea market. Also, we have discovered sweet bread at the local grocery stores, and have made a quick run to the local Walmart-equivalent store. The Ruiz family we are staying with have gone out of their way to make us feel welcome, and I am sure they will make our stay in Puebla as comfortable as they can.
