If not the best, then among the best.

The first thing I saw as I walked into Montevideo

The last week has been spent at Montevideo primary school.  I’m actually writing this post from the school since I have a little downtime.  I’ve been placed in the grade six block here at MVPS.  The grade sixers are split into three sections A, B, and C.  The school is considered to be one of the more prestigious in the area since they offer after school sports and some other activities for the students.  The school is still however located in a fairly poor area and many of the students seem to have difficult home lives.  The class sizes at Montevideo are ideally arranged at a 40:1 ratio, though each of the classes I’ve seen are slightly over that.  The method of instruction seems to be primarily lecture-based, or centered around taking notes.

The school itself doesn’t look like any schools I’ve seen back home.  There are three buildings each with bars covering the windows.  The younger students (Grade R (kindergarten) through grade 3) are in the back building while the older students (grade 4 through grade 7) are in the front building.  The final building is for administration.  There is also a small shack where they have a meal assistance program set up for students who are truly destitute.  There is no gym and no cafeteria.  In the two fifteen minute breaks the students are given they are allowed to play outside even in the winter and the rain.  They also eat their lunches outside and play there after school.  The school has a soccer field and a basketball court, though both are overgrown and don’t provide the facilities needed by the more than 950 students that attend Montevideo Primary School.

The computer lab

These students are taking a math exam but many didn't even finish

Montevideo also has a computer lab, which is where I’ve spent a fair amount of time this week.  The school has 25 computers running Windows 95 operating system.  Five of those computers don’t work at all, meaning I can bring half of the class down to complete the computerized assessments at a time.  Today for example I brought all the girls down from 6C to do their final quiz from the last term.  We entered the lab at a bit past 9am, and it was well past 9:30 before all of the girls had settled into their computers, logged on and the webpage for the test had loaded.  I found it incredibly frustrating, but also humbling.  Knowing that back home if the students need to do something online I can use the lab or bring in a cart of ThinkPad’s or even iPads really drove home the reality of education here.  In the classrooms the teachers are using chalkboards or strictly reading from texts.  The students aren’t allowed to take home the textbooks, so much of their time is spent writing notes or copying directly from the text in order to study.  In one classroom, the math classroom the teacher uses an overhead projector.  She even had a new projector, which she was so excited about since the old one was blurry and the students couldn’t read off it very well.  About five minutes after turning the new projector on it died however.  It was apparently defective and won’t run for more than 4-5 minutes consistently. 

Many of the students here don’t seem to eat lunch, or not much of one at least and the teachers aren’t too concerned with that fact.  I don’t know if the students choose not to eat or if they don’t have the resources available to eat a healthy lunch every day.  Most often I see them with a fishpaste sandwich wrapped in foil or a bag of chips, or sometimes a piece of fruit.  Some students have a lunch provided by the school and they gather in a corner of the courtyard to scarf their food before running to play.  Maybe it has more to do with the incredibly short breaks they’re given..  See, the students don’t really have a lunch break.  They have two fifteen-minute intervals when they are encouraged to play outside in the courtyard or the sports field regardless of temperature or weather.  The students then decide to eat what they’ve brought at either the 10am interval or the 12:20pm interval. 

A student's description of his holiday

I just don’t know.

Many students seem to walk to school, some coming from far away each morning.  They stay until school is over (2:00-2:30pm depending on the day) and then usually students can be seen playing in the school’s open spaces for hours after classes have ended before walking home.  I see children who appear to be siblings waiting for their brothers and sisters to finish classes or the school’s popular extracurricular activities before walking home together.  Usually the Grade R students are picked up by parents walking to the school and then home again, though some wait around on the school grounds until their siblings finish with their classes.

            Today I gave a lesson on primary and secondary energy sources, which went better than I anticipated at least.  The students had a different version of the book than the one I was given, so I’m glad that I gathered my own questions and information from the Internet.  Overall the students seemed to understand the differences, though I felt that my contributions were fairly pointless.  I kept a discussion-based model of teaching since that’s what I believe in and it went quite well.  The students were a bit confused I think because they were not used to this model of learning, but they adapted quite well I think.  It was difficult to get everyone involved in learning due to the class size, but at least everyone was paying attention.  Possibly only to hear my accent, but I’ll take that and call it a victory if I have to.

            The week we’ve spent here has been trying and stressful, but also so rewarding and a true benefit to my future as an educator.  I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunities I’ve had in my life.  The students I’ve spoken to have such high hopes for their futures, as all students that age do.  I really want to believe that they can achieve everything they dream about whether it’s being a soccer star or a doctor or a globetrotting journalist.  I really want those things for them.