Pasco Visit...

Visiting Pasco High School

I think that being in Pasco High school has been one of the most meaningful activity that I've been involved here in the United States. I want to say that being in Pasco itself was a good experience. I have to say that people there were really warm with us, that made the experience even more great.

I believe that doing this "Teaching Shadowing job" was a similar experience that I had in Chile. In my second year at the University I had to do something alike, but I had to spend a whole semester with a group of students. That helped me to see the differences clearly and notice which are the critical points of the Educational systems.

In my first shadowing job, I was with a Russian Math Teacher. She was a really nice woman. However, her lesson was very boring and only a couple of students were paying attention of what she was saying. I felt really dissapointed about it, because I was expecting something totally different from what I saw. Owing that bad experience, the Principal, decided that I should be with other teacher. So the next day I was with an American Math teacher.

During her class she made feel very well, since she asked me to introduce myself to the class and talk about my country. That was interesting for the students, they asked me several questions about me, and about my course of studies.

I noticed that the teacher gave the same lesson to every class, the same questions, the same explanation, even the same jokes!...I believe that she does it in that way to keep the students in the same level. Other important feature was that she had good skills in terms of classroom management on the grounds that she kept the students engaged through the whole class.

I really liked the experience of being in the classroom, however, I have to mention that I didn't like the idea of being in a math class, since it has nothing to do with the subject that I'll be teaching in a couple of years. I recall that one student asked me: "If you're going to become English teacher, why are you here?" I answered her: "Well, I already know English, now I have to know how a real class works". I guess that it was the best answer that i could give, since I was thinking the same as her. I could had said something like "I don't know!"

I also want to talk about the Pasco High School staff. People were so kind and nice with us, that made us feel as if we were important people, instead of making us feel like just students. I said this, because in Chile when you do your intership, teacher and people who work in the school look at you just as a student.

I think that I have pointed out the differences to myself. Now, it's time to see what happens when you are teaching a lesson, that will definitely make the real and important diffrence.