and that's a wrap!

Like those pretty packages under the Christmas tree, my time in Santiago is all wrapped up.  174 empanadas, visits at 12 different schools, countless bottles of red wine, a summative report and a final project later, I am done with my Fulbright in Chile.  And I'm so sad it's over.  It’s been a while since my last post as our last two weeks in Santiago were BUSY, in a good way.

First, our dear, awesome friends Eric and Emi came to visit.  We were eager to show them and they were enthusiastic to see all the city has to offer and I think they were charmed by Santiago’s eccentricities.  Towards the end of the trip we were reflecting on the week’s highlights and when we started listing, we realized we were mentioning all the fun things we did!  At the risk of sounding way cheesy, the very best part of all was talking about life, past, present and future with old friends.  It is hard to pick the best part, but of all the good times, I had two favorite days.  One was on Sunday, when we rode bikes on the the closed city streets across town to the beautiful Parque Bicentenario.  There we had a picnic, relaxed, and saw the flamingoes.  On the way back, at random, we stopped off at a gourmet food festival and had so much fun visiting the stands of local foods and crafts, drinking local artisanal beer and eating delicious choripan from a VW bus food stand.  Another high point was buying fresh clams and other ingredients at the big central markets and taking them on a metro and local bus journey into the mountains of Cajon del Maipo where we stayed in a cabin surrounded by walnut and almond trees.  We hung in hammocks and enjoyed the views and fresh air.  Then with team effort, made an amazing clam and linguine dinner.  It was buena, buena! The visit was a great way to have a last hurrah!

Parque Bicentenario

After a chorillana lunch in Valparaiso

Across the street from our cabin in Cajon del Maipo

Meanwhile, being in Santiago through late December was great but strange.  It was hot, very hot, especially when in the sun.  When I would see a Christmas decoration I would be puzzled and then realize, “Oh yeah, it’s December”.  Christmas is commercial in Chile too, but it hasn’t reached the mania there is in the US.  It was kind of refreshing but like I said, strange.  Almost like a year the Christmas season didn’t happen.  No holiday parties, no baking cookies, no card writing, no gift buying.  

After the visit, I had a few days where I worked like mad to finish my Fulbright assignments and say good bye to the city.  I had to do more of the former than the latter. But we also managed to celebrate Anton’s birthday at the Concha y Toro vineyard.

Although not earth shattering, all in all, I think I wound up with some powerful findings that will help me be a better educator.  There were a few themes that came up in my classroom observations, reading and university class that I culminated in a guide for teachers.  The guide is meant to serve as “how to” for increasing quality of classroom interactions to enhance academic language learning.  Establishing a viable sense of classroom community through a strong social emotional learning program is key for successful cooperation in the classroom.  Teaching students to give and receive specific feedback with the goal of increasing quality of work is a way to have student use targeted, content specific, academic language.  Finally, implementing project based learning is a way to encourage students to collaborate instead of cooperate.  That is to engage in discourse throughout each stage of the project instead of dividing the work to be done and completing it individually.  

Before departing for Santiago, I was asked what I was most looking forward to about my stay.  I said lots of things, like being in a new place to learn about its culture and reflect on my own,  getting a chance navigate life abroad and to leave amy regular life behind for a while, meeting new people, practicing my Spanish. . . check, check, check. 

Also before leaving, I told a good friend how I was nervous about pulling off my inquiry project.  She reminded me that I would learn many things along the way about education and life.  Perhaps most important, she advised, going to be able to be recharged and refreshed from a break from teaching while still developing professionally.  She was right.