Summer School!
Now we’re in charge of that, now we’re the ones taking that initiative for education during vacation time.
Now we’re in charge of that, now we’re the ones taking that initiative for education during vacation time.
What is Vacaciones Utiles?
Vacaciones Utiles is a project mostly led by “Youth Development” Peace Corps Volunteers where classes are offered during vacation time, that is during our normal Winter Break in the US.
Any volunteer is able to organize Vacaciones Utiles with the classes and time the volunteer is able to offer. Some communities already have summer schools, so sometimes volunteers are mostly asked to teach English. Most Peruvians also do not work, therefore we don’t have anyone to work with on our goal projects, thus giving us the opportunity to be a teacher for 2 months.
Vacaciones Utiles is a project mostly led by “Youth Development” Peace Corps Volunteers where classes are offered during vacation time, that is during our normal Winter Break in the US.
Any volunteer is able to organize Vacaciones Utiles with the classes and time the volunteer is able to offer. Some communities already have summer schools, so sometimes volunteers are mostly asked to teach English. Most Peruvians also do not work, therefore we don’t have anyone to work with on our goal projects, thus giving us the opportunity to be a teacher for 2 months.
The process is a
bit long. In our case, we already had a Youth Volunteer with an initiative on
paperwork before we (a Water and Sanitation Volunteer and me) arrived to our
site, Santiago de Chuco. It consists of writing many “solicituds” (an official paper letter asking for a favor stamped by
them and us) and presenting a written project with an included budget. In our
case, the budget was being asked to the Municipality. Solicituds were made for Municipality transportation to our nearby
National Sanctuary and National Reserve, for a school to work in, for the
auditorium with a sound system (which was crappy) for closing ceremony, among
other things. The first solicitud was
turned in 3-4 months before we started, and we still had timing and space
issues. The process here in Peru is very tedious, and you have to constantly
remind of events and favors asked or they will most likely forget.
A few things we
prepared on consisted in a few trips to our regional capital, Trujillo. There was
about 200 flyers made to post around town, I designed a big ol’ banner to have
on pictures and to advertise Vacaciones
Utiles, I helped design the t-shirt logo, we got tons of balls for sports
(where most were stolen or flattened by the end), and a few classroom
materials.
Let’s start with
the content of Vacaciones Utiles. Our
target limit of students was 100, but we reached 130 (80-90 which came daily
after the first week). I wanted more, but we were short on teachers. There were
3 teachers hired too for: language, math, and…math. None of us 3 volunteers
wanted to teach that. Eh. We offered classes in: Mathematics,
Communication(language), Leadership, Volunteerism, Sports, Art, English, Dance,
Environmental Science, and weekly trips to the local river/lake/park. Out of
those, I had my fun with: Sports, Art, Dance, and Environmental Science.
Teaching Sports:
THAT was hell sometimes. Mostly because the classes were huge, I had either all of Primaria (elementary) students or all of Secundaria (Middle/High School) students. We had 6 weeks, they consisted of 2 weeks of soccer, 2 weeks of volleyball, 1 week of basketball, and 1 week of “capture the flag”. During soccer none of the girls wanted to play, smh. It is so segregated by sexism traditions here. AND during volleyball week not many boys wanted to play, sigh. Nonetheless, after much persuasion with what I could control, there were many students playing both sports. For the secundaria side, it was pretty cool coaching them, BUT THE PRIMARIA side was a nightmare sometimes. Seriously, kids running around all of the school, with sometimes me running behind them. Most younger kids I just didn’t bother with, they were also intimidated by the size of the rest. It was funny for me and for secundaria kids (whenever they ran out of class and watched) to see the little kids play the most innocent soccer game, or volleyball game where they couldn’t event hit the ball over the net; but I did what I could with coaching. There were times were I owned a few of them in basketball during breaks, my height was a big advantage. Didn’t play too much of the other sports with them, during soccer I goalied their penalty shots for practice. It was cool, they had fun.
THAT was hell sometimes. Mostly because the classes were huge, I had either all of Primaria (elementary) students or all of Secundaria (Middle/High School) students. We had 6 weeks, they consisted of 2 weeks of soccer, 2 weeks of volleyball, 1 week of basketball, and 1 week of “capture the flag”. During soccer none of the girls wanted to play, smh. It is so segregated by sexism traditions here. AND during volleyball week not many boys wanted to play, sigh. Nonetheless, after much persuasion with what I could control, there were many students playing both sports. For the secundaria side, it was pretty cool coaching them, BUT THE PRIMARIA side was a nightmare sometimes. Seriously, kids running around all of the school, with sometimes me running behind them. Most younger kids I just didn’t bother with, they were also intimidated by the size of the rest. It was funny for me and for secundaria kids (whenever they ran out of class and watched) to see the little kids play the most innocent soccer game, or volleyball game where they couldn’t event hit the ball over the net; but I did what I could with coaching. There were times were I owned a few of them in basketball during breaks, my height was a big advantage. Didn’t play too much of the other sports with them, during soccer I goalied their penalty shots for practice. It was cool, they had fun.
Teaching art:
At first, I had planned 3 weeks of drawing and 3 weeks of painting. I have experience with art, won competitions and taken a university painting class. Well, this was very different from art enthusiasts. First of all, my classes consisted of the higher grades in secundaria. During drawing, we started out with the basics, then I printed “cool” pictures for them to draw, and at the end it was free drawing. There was a few kids that had the outlines well done, but needed to work on the shading, so that’s as good as it got. NOW the painting stage, damn that did not work well. I tried introducing them to black and white, but that was a bit hard for them; combining colors and such. Then I introduced colors, that was another obstacle only few could achieve. Then I ended with painting yourself from a picture I took of them, and that turned out like elephants trying to paint flowers. Well, too mean, but to give you an idea. It was a fun class though, I always had music going on, I gave them the liberty to sit and move the chair wherever. It’s fun being an art teacher.
At first, I had planned 3 weeks of drawing and 3 weeks of painting. I have experience with art, won competitions and taken a university painting class. Well, this was very different from art enthusiasts. First of all, my classes consisted of the higher grades in secundaria. During drawing, we started out with the basics, then I printed “cool” pictures for them to draw, and at the end it was free drawing. There was a few kids that had the outlines well done, but needed to work on the shading, so that’s as good as it got. NOW the painting stage, damn that did not work well. I tried introducing them to black and white, but that was a bit hard for them; combining colors and such. Then I introduced colors, that was another obstacle only few could achieve. Then I ended with painting yourself from a picture I took of them, and that turned out like elephants trying to paint flowers. Well, too mean, but to give you an idea. It was a fun class though, I always had music going on, I gave them the liberty to sit and move the chair wherever. It’s fun being an art teacher.
Teaching
Environmental Science:
Ok, so I have a big passion for Earth science (I have a minor in it) I decided to give it a week to different kinds of sciences: Ecology, outdoor skills, biology, oceanography, geology, and caring for earth. I tried being as visual as possible by having borrowed a projector from the hospital and showing a documentary for half of the class. There were many kids that didn’t attend my class, but did attend my sports class. My goal for the class was to “show them the world” in terms of visual sciences. I enjoyed it, but I hope they learned a little more than general science from their schools. No, I didn’t test them, I figured Vacaciones Utiles was just to support and add on to what they already know. I should next time though, I learned that I should teach more to the level of a normal teacher like what they’re used to.
Ok, so I have a big passion for Earth science (I have a minor in it) I decided to give it a week to different kinds of sciences: Ecology, outdoor skills, biology, oceanography, geology, and caring for earth. I tried being as visual as possible by having borrowed a projector from the hospital and showing a documentary for half of the class. There were many kids that didn’t attend my class, but did attend my sports class. My goal for the class was to “show them the world” in terms of visual sciences. I enjoyed it, but I hope they learned a little more than general science from their schools. No, I didn’t test them, I figured Vacaciones Utiles was just to support and add on to what they already know. I should next time though, I learned that I should teach more to the level of a normal teacher like what they’re used to.
Teaching Dance:
Well here comes one of my slowly developing hobbies. At first I wanted a side time to interested dancers, but the Youth Volunteer (Brittany) made it into a complete class for everyone. At the end, I got what I wanted though. :D The dancing style was freestyle or modern dance. Brittany started out with moving too much hip and chest, like NOT a guy’s thing. So I had to separate and get all of the boys to follow me on my moves on the back of the court. To start off, I was in a breakdancing/freestyle club for my last two years in college (but wasn’t consistent). The method is getting into a circle, and EXPRESSING YOURSELF THROUGH THE MUSIC. Yeah, that’s what pretty much movies me. Enjoy the music with your body, with movements that flow with it. But knowing that it actually looks good too, not just crazy arms going everywhere. I told them about battles, and I also showed them videos of professionals. Yeah, that made me look bad because I’m not that good yet. Weeks passed, and the group of interested boys got smaller; big plus for me, I only wanted a small group of interested ones. At the end for the closing ceremony, I got a group of 8 boys to choreograph a dance of 5 minutes. Well, it was 3 dances that we put together. I was very proud of them. Even if their moves weren’t sharp, for their first time, that was great. I felt happy for my first organized dance group. J
Well here comes one of my slowly developing hobbies. At first I wanted a side time to interested dancers, but the Youth Volunteer (Brittany) made it into a complete class for everyone. At the end, I got what I wanted though. :D The dancing style was freestyle or modern dance. Brittany started out with moving too much hip and chest, like NOT a guy’s thing. So I had to separate and get all of the boys to follow me on my moves on the back of the court. To start off, I was in a breakdancing/freestyle club for my last two years in college (but wasn’t consistent). The method is getting into a circle, and EXPRESSING YOURSELF THROUGH THE MUSIC. Yeah, that’s what pretty much movies me. Enjoy the music with your body, with movements that flow with it. But knowing that it actually looks good too, not just crazy arms going everywhere. I told them about battles, and I also showed them videos of professionals. Yeah, that made me look bad because I’m not that good yet. Weeks passed, and the group of interested boys got smaller; big plus for me, I only wanted a small group of interested ones. At the end for the closing ceremony, I got a group of 8 boys to choreograph a dance of 5 minutes. Well, it was 3 dances that we put together. I was very proud of them. Even if their moves weren’t sharp, for their first time, that was great. I felt happy for my first organized dance group. J
At the bottom you will see a Vacaciones Utiles video I made for advertising purposes. I had shown and given out to the students a longer video I had made. Hope you enjoy my video at least, if my style of writing isn’t that eloquent.
