"Hola Profe!"

Happy Leap Year and Happy Hump Day fellow readers and boy has it been a long day already. Big news has happened at school. Emilie and I got one class taken away which means I am only teaching 27 hours instead of 30 per week. I guess now would be a good time to explain my schedule. 

I (now) have five classes that are fully my responsibility because I see them five hours a week and I am their only English teacher. Then I have five additional classes in 9^th grade that I only meet with once a week for “workshops.”  In these hour long classes I focus on listening and speaking skills aka more fun and less grammar! 

So this week I got to take away one class (906) so I only see them for workshops and I gained an additional workshop (901) which is a class of girls that did not have an English teacher up until a week ago due to scheduling issues. Yesterday, I broke the news to 906 that they were getting a new teacher and they were not happy. This class of 40 boys is usually one of my most difficult, and I asked to give them up reluctantly. It was harder than I thought to tell them, especially since when I walked into class a boy was playing his guitar and a few of them were singing Coldplay’s “The Scientist” for me because I played “Fix You” in class last week. My heart melted. There are some really sweet boys that really want to learn English in that class. Unfortunately there are 25 other boys that never shut up. I will still see these boys once a week and invited the smarties to come to the English Club I am trying to start. 

So many students from other grades and classes have asked me to teach them English and ask me why I am in 9^th and 10^th grade, not 11^th or 8^th or anywhere else. I have even had parents find me and beg me to speak with their students after school. We are not allowed to give private lessons to students (which is for our benefit because we would be bombarded with people). So I hope to create an English club to give an additional space at school for highly motivated students. I will keep you posted on how that turns out.

Colombian students are unusually generous with their teachers and each other. I bet even the only children in Colombia are good sharers. I usually get jealous because Emilie in primary school receives tons of stickers and chocolates every day. But my students have slowly caught on that I like free things and so far I have gotten a few goodies. Today may have been the best gift so far when I received a small container of caramel/chocolate tea that will “help with my stress” from an 11^th grader that I don’t even have in class! That certainly beats the old apple for teacher’s pet!

And another thing that is pretty adorable. Teachers here are called "Profe" short for profesora. Most teachers are called profe instead of by their names, and when students do use names it is usually the first name. So I am either Kate, Miss Bailey, Teacher (mostly) or profe. Even though my students aren't supposed to speak Spanish. Profe is the one word I let slide.