COLOMBIA TGC Journey

 Dear readers,

I am excited to be representing my country as a teacher ambassador to the great nation state of Colombia. I have prepared extensively for this opportunity, and I just cannot wait to sip the freshest coffee in the world

Now, as I begin to prepare, I realize that I do not have an appropriate suitcase for a 15 day stay--so I have started checking all the thrift stores to find a great deal.

I am looking forward to seeing the Colombian team of teachers because we will have the trip of a lifetime.

MH



July 15th (Day One)

Dear readers,

Part 1
After a hectic day of preparing my suitcases for travel for the rather disparate climates of Bogota and Cartegena, I was ready for the day if travel. My wife kept warning me to not procrastinate, but I failed to listen. If she had not prepared my suitcases, I would have been doomed. The flight to Houston from Charlotte provided an excellent repast for some reading and napping. I always cringe at the puddle jumper jets, but at least I had the window seat. Flying above the clouds reminds me what amazing feats man has accomplished, and, to a greater extend, I am humbled.The shadows of the clouds on green land that resembled lakes, the immensity of the Atlantic, and the mighty python that is the Mississippi River filled me once again with wonder for God's creation. I landed safely in Houston.

Part 2:  Technical Gremlins

I had fully intended to complete a Powerpoint for my future Cartagena students, but, alas, the universe had other intentions. I tried to upload photos from my iPad, but, apparently, I failed to download a software update. So, I ordered Internet access and began downloading--a three hour estimated process; unfortunately, after about an hour,  My MacBook Pro had apparently used all its battery power. And, my iPad was completely dead as well, so I struck out to find a charging station--but neither the MacBook nor the iPad would charge. I tried plugging in my smart phone, and I bent the connector--so the phone was out of commission as well. Needless to say, I was completely tech free for most of my airport stay--so I read instead.


Part 3: Currency Travails

After a non-eventful customs check, we met Nicolas and Jill, our Bogota consultants, and headed to the Hilton, located in the Business District. I had dinner with four of my colleagues, but I was aghast at paying $21.000 for the cheapest item on the menu--spaghetti. Later, my Spanish speaking colleague, Jessica, explained that in Spanish the period is the decimal and, of course, the menu used pesos. $11 for a meal in such a wonderful ambiance was certainly not exorbitant. Lesson learned.

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July 16th--Day Two

Part One: Briefings

TGC's in-country consultant, Nick, delivered a two-hour Powerpoint that covered everything from the pre-Colombian history of the region to the present day, including the country's public-private system. The poor attend public schools, while families of even the most modest means scrape and work double shifts to send children to private schools. Nick also presented us with another side of the terrorist organization, The FARQ, which does fill a protective role in the jungle regions that the city-focused national government does not. There are always two sides to every story.

However, after visiting the US Embassy, where we received a safety debriefing that can be summed up in this one cause/effect sentence: "If you hail a taxi, presume that you will be kidnapped." The head of embassy security had absolutely nothing but harsh words for the FARQ, an organization that seems intent on disrupting American interests and killing American embassy agents. 

Part Two: Monserrate

The trip up this grand mountain, which climbs into the sky at 10, 300 feet, defies all attempts at explanation. The mountain is most definitely a sacred place--a place where you can touch the clouds and look out into all of the city and view humanity in all its beauty and ugliness. The whole scene reminded me of a crowded Lego landscape with carefully crafted skyscrapers and countless hastily shewn shacks, as if the city planner just lost interest in the details. The church took my breath away, literally, because one must climb the last 300 feet in steps to reach it. I prayed for a few moments in the sanctuary, lost in the splendor of artistry of the early Spanish monks.

Part Three: Dinner

We had dinner at the lovely Club Colombia, where I ate a lovely  dish that consisted of rice, coconut milk, and camerones (shrimp). Special thanks to Nick who helped explain the menu selections. We all shared a variety of typical Colombian desserts. I devoured most of my Helado de champús, which consisted of an ice cream comprised of a native bitter sweet fruit and coconut cream.

A perfect dinner full of camaraderie and delicious food, not to mention the ambiance of a crackling fire and excellent service.

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July 17th-Day Three

Part One: Poor School

Wake up call at 4:30 AM to arrive at the Institutio Educational Distital Fanny Mickey, a mega school built onto the hillside field that once was used by gangs to sell drugs. North of the school is one gang; south another--and, as explained by the school's principal, the mayor of Colombia suggested placing a school in disputed territory because it would be difficult for a child to kill a classmate. Climbing the five flights of stairs exhausted me because the altitude sickness seemed to attack me, but I persevered.  Our group of 9 asked pointed questions about the Colombian education system, and we learned that each year, all students have a say in developing the school rules, which must then be compiled and sent to a committee pf parents and community members. I thought this an excellent strategy to build some sense of autonomy as well as accountability when the rules are student created. The principal also serves on a committee that consists of educators, parents, and gang leaders; the committee meets when trouble begins to brew in the community. The principal takes the position that it is better to involve the gangs because they are present and are members of the community-at-large.

My colleagues and I observed the secondary classroom of Professor Tatiana, where students sang for us. I specifically requested they sing the National Anthem--and the verve which these marginalized and poor students sang the love of country truly amazed me.

Part One (b): Abandoned and Alone

I cannot speak Spanish. I should have prepared more to familiarize myself with the basics. At some point, I became separated from the group-at-large because an elementary student asked for my autograph. Within seconds, a swarm of nearly a hundred students started pushing toward me for an autograph as if I were some kind of celebrity. Kids were shoving, elbowing, and pushing forward. I do not remember feeling so absolutely at a total loss. I could not understand their words, I signed my name as quickly as possible, and tried to calm the crowd. FINALLY, Sra. Tatiana found me--and whisked me away to observe a classroom. The mob scene, however, had disturbed me. Surely, these students had met a white man like me before, but not many "Gringos" step foot in this area of the city. I was told that these students had never even been to Monserrat, and that traveling a few kilometers away was referred to as leaving Bogota.

Part One (c): Q/A with representative students and faculty

The students asked us questions, such as our place of origin. Sra. Tatiana asked us to describe how we would use our experiences, but the highlight of the session came when a teacher uttered these words:

"Thank you for visiting our wonderful students, who are ignored by our politicians and the mayor because they are not deemed worth their time. You have showed our students respect by your presence and they will understand that there is a world beyond theirs."

The meeting was held in a library---without books. :(

Note that coffee is a staple for a school start of 6AM.

Part 2: Politicians Collide
 
The TGC fellows met with the Manager of the National Exams Board, the ex-direcor of SENA (tech college), and the ex director of Oxford University Press, Colombia, as well as a member of the US Embassy who spearheads bi-lingual programs. The debates among these four leaders in response to our various questions represented epitome of intense. I am thankful their battles commenced with words and not machetes. The Ex-Director of SENA felt that technical education reigned supreme and should be supported unconditionally and railed against the current teacher education programs, while the two others toed the party line.

Colombia faces the same issues we face in the US. Do we permit our government to control standards? Or, do we recognize that different areas require different skills sets?





Today was a most exhausting day.

Next, I visited an English  teacher's classroom. He was trying to prepare students for the required English proficiency exam, yet the

“This blog is not an official U.S. Department of State blog. The views and information presented are the grantee’s own and do not represent the Teachers for Global Classrooms Program, IREX, or the U.S. Department of State.”

Daily Minutes Block II

Minutes for Thursday March 5, 2009
Objectives: relate author’s bias to fiction and nonfiction texts and discuss censorship in the world today and its affect on society
Agenda:
• We began class with a free write of our choice in our journals which took about 10 minutes. I think free writing gives us a good chance to write down our thoughts, which is very healthy for our minds and is a great way to relieve stress.
• Next, Ms. Chamberlain noticed that in our journals most of us expressed how stressed we were, so she reviewed a favorite exercise of hers to get rid of all the stress.
• After we were stress free, Zandria presented the minutes and read a poem titled “Do not go gentle into that good night.” The minutes were accepted by the class. This took about 5 minutes.
• Next, Ms. Chamberlain picked up our final copies of the close reading essay on Olaudah Equino, and informed us that if we did not have them ready for her today, then we could turn them in later with points being deducted.
• After that, we discussed and took notes on Fahrenheit 451, which we all should have finished reading. In this discussion we talked about:
1. How censorship relates to the coda of Fahrenheit 451
2. We related knowledge and ignorance. For example, Montag reads books but his job is to destroy them.
3. We defined paradox as two opposite forces trying to be combined into the same body. For example, a person cannot love books and hate them; one emotion has to take over.
4. We reviewed what the phoenix is, which symbolizes being reborn from its ashes. We related the phoenix to the city burning down and being built back up again.
• Last, we got into pairs and reviewed ads from magazines. Ms. Chamberlain assigned us to fill out the Analyzing Advertisements side of the worksheet she handed out using the ads.
Homework: complete the promises, promises side of the worksheet by Monday

Submitted by Jessie Fields

Daily Minutes Block III

Minutes 1-23-09

English Standards
3 2.1-evaluate thesis within a text
English 2 2.3-evaluate text for authors bias

Agenda
A. free write
B. class minutes
Connotation vs. denotation
C. excerpts from obama’s speech
D. 1491

• We took 15-20 minutes to have a free write or you could work on your essay. I thought that was beneficial to everyone and you could get help if you needed it.
• We took about 20-30 minutes to discuss the minutes thing we’re doing. We also learned Cornell’s note taking procedure
• Our lecture lasted for about 30-45 minutes and here’s what we learned
o Connotation is an emotion tactic or over tone of a particular word
o And we used context clues to help us figure that out.
o Denotation is the dictionary meaning of a word.
o Ex. Jay is wearing a green shirt.
o In this example green means color


• We used context clues to find out the connotation of the word green

• For about 10-15 minutes, we discussed an excerpt on Obama’s speech. I w was nice to see other people’s views. “Judge you on what you could build not what you destroy” and “We will extend a hand if you unclench your fist” are some quotes the class thought were important.

• We discussed tone, the voice and attitude towards the topic.

• During the last 5 minutes, Mr. Henthorne told us what we’ll be doing tomorrow

• I learned a lot from our open classroom discussion, and I enjoyed being able to speak freely on how I feel.

• Remember “Education is power”



Respectfully submitted,



Keira Barber




















Friday’s 1-24 Minutes
Standards:
E3 2.1 Evaluate theses within and across informational texts
E3 2.3 Evaluate informational texts for indicators of author’s bias
Agenda:
• We started class off with a journal on having the whole class quarantine for Tuberculosis. We did this for about ten minutes, Then Kiera and Tamira shared their journals. Miss chamberlain took up papers and essays after that.

• Kiera read us the minutes from Thursday and they were approved, and next she shared her poem “phenomenal woman” by Maya Angelou. That took almost ten minutes.

• Mr. Henthorn then went over the discipline policy with us, where he and Miss Chamberlain shared gruesome stories with us about students throwing gummy bears and things, and poking peoples eyes out. That took about thirty minutes

• Next we had a discussion with Miss chamberlain on the model for analysis and then Miss Chamberlain and Mr. Henthorn gave us an example on how it goes. That took about twenty minutes.

• Mr. Henthorn and Miss Chamberlain then gave us partners, so we could do the model for analysis on Monday in class. Mr. Henthorn then assigned homework to read the whole article of 1491 by monday.

















1-27 Minutes
The Standards of January 27th were:
E3 2.1: Evaluate theses within and across informational texts
E3 2.3: Evaluate informational texts for indicators of author’s bias
The Objective of January 27th was:
Student will identify point of view and its intended effect

The Proceedings of the Class of January 27th went as follows:
We did a Journal entry on our reflection of 1491 for 15 minutes, and then corrected a grammatically-incorrect sentence with Ms. Chamberlain for about 5 minutes.
Caitlin presented the Minutes from the previous day and Jonathan made a motion to accept the Minutes. The motion was seconded by De’Harion.
Mr. Henthorn led a discussion on the reasons of making us read 1491—to set the tone, to challenge us, and to prepare us for Mr. Koon. We briefly talked about how most history book writers are white males. Also, Mr. Henthorn told us that culture and history go hand-in-hand and Aztecs used symbols, which created syntax, and made a word order, which means that they had language. All of this took about 25 minutes.
We were shown the critical questions for detecting bias and they were explained by Mr. Henthorn for 5 minutes. Then, we chose groups to read the Conquest of Mexico in, and read our assigned pages for the last 30 minutes of class.


Respectfully submitted,

Jay Crowder



Minutes for English III
Our objectives and standards for February 2, 2009 were as followed:
• R(2.1)- Show how cultural influences affect literary works.
• R(2.2)- Compare and contrast information within and across texts to draw conclusions and make inferences.
• W(3.3)- Use texts to make connections and support ideas.
• W(3.4)- Use grammatical conventions of written Standard American English to clarify and enhance meaning.

The following are the minutes for Monday. We started class with a fifteen minute journal about coming to the New World as a Pilgrim. We were to describe our first 3-5 days in the New World. Ms. Chamberlain proceeded to put up examples of vague language from our essays on the overhead. We discussed what vague language was and identified it in the examples. This took about ten minutes. Corey presented the minutes from Friday and read the poem, The Introduction to Poetry by Billy Cullins. There was a motion to accept the minutes and a second. The class voted and the minutes were accepted. Ms. Chamberlain put a chart she called Food For Thought, on the overhead. This chart displayed the idea of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The chart was divided into six different sections; Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. We learned the type of questions that were apart of each section as well. Ms. Chamberlain separated us into pairs and one group of three and we were to come up with fifteen questions. There was to be a least one question out of each section but totaling fifteen. Our questions were to be based out of the piece of literature was read last Thursday, “of Plymouth Plantation.” We worked on this for the rest of class. When the bell rang we starred our five best questions and turned the entire sheet into Ms. Chamberlain.
Respectfully submitted,
Scottie Turner


Minutes

2/11/09
Block 3
Objectives:
- Relate prior research of the Salem Witch Trails to the events in Acts I and II of the Crucible
- Discuss the relationship between Miller’s “ Why I Wrote The Crucible and The Play.”

 We wrote in our journals for 10-15 minutes. The subject was to evaluate the work your group has done on the Salem Witch Trails project so far.
 Next, we talked about what makes a story real. Examples of this would be voice, dialogue, and the writer putting himself in his writing.
 Then we reviewed and discussed an article, entitled Why I Wrote The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. Mrs. Chamberlin then read excerpts from the article and we discuss each one.
 While still discussing the article we talked about the tower of power and how Abigail manipulated every one to get power and to get John Procter.
 We then talked about the 1950’s , which was the time of the communist. Communist are people who believe in letting the government have absolute power. After discussing that we compared communism to the witch trails. If you were accused of being a communist then you were sent to jail. If you were accused of being a witch and you confessed you were set free but if you didn’t confess your were put to death. This all ties around history repeating itself.
 After that we went to our text books and summarized Act II of the Crucible. At the end of class we were given homework on pages 849 and 862.

Brittany Thompson

E3 Hnrs Book Report

Book Project:

This book project will be as an introduction to the book, which I have approved for the assignment. It should be on a play or novel—most important and/or most recent—by an author from the list provided and/or referenced to. It should be approximately two-three typed pages (double space), using MLA format and works cited. Write in complete sentences, and check your spelling, grammar, construction, expression, and organization. Number/label your headings. You can also use multimedia or PowerPoint presentation.

1. A short introductory paragraph about the book, including MLA documentation of the book and a few general statements about the book’s content, style, and worth.

2. Author’s background–date of birth/death, something about the author’s life, particularly young life, and any events in the author’s life, which are relevant to the book. Also include the other works the author has written.

3. Background to the book–historical/cultural/political. Include any background information, which will add to the reader’s understanding of the book. For this section, you can use both historical documents and literary criticism.

4. Content of the book–a short synopsis of the plot. Also include any themes or motifs that run through the book. Here you would refer to anything unique or unusual in the writing style or subject matter.

5. Your analysis–your opinion on the importance of the book to the reader, not merely whether or not you like it or not, but your own understanding, backed by examples from the book, why the book is a significant literary work.

A Disturbing, Disquieting Death

Sex and virginity, revenge and forgiveness encompass the why and more importantly the why not of Gabriel Garcia Marques’s novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Almost everyone in the town knew that the Vicario twin brothers were going to kill Santiago Nassar, the wealthy, aristocratic Arab for the heinous crime of theft, robbing their sister Angela of her virginity, shaming the family of the good fortune of her famous, wealthy husband, Bayardo San Roman. Marques structures the novel through a friend’s investigation twenty years later with crisp detail, grotesque yet fascinating. This riveting tale involves no DNA evidence, no fingerprints, and no real answer. The reader is left fascinated, befuddled, and questioning the whole nature of the dead man’s reality from beginning to end.
García Márquez was born March 6, 1927 Aracataca, Colombia, which was one hundred miles inland where he lived until he was nine years old. There he witnessed atrocious acts of pure, unadulterated violence. Marquez recalls: “The weekends were a regular fiesta he we virtually locked ourselves in houses. On Mondays, there were literally corpses and wounded people in the street” (Maurya 58). His grandfather was a famous colonel in the War of a Thousand Days and often shared war stories. His mother’s mother and sisters “fed him on a steady and disquieting diet of folk tales, ghost stories, and legends of the supernatural” (Maurya 54). According to the Repertorio Espaniol Study Guide for Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez moved in with his stranger parents at 8 years old, his father being an apothecary who eventually settled in Bogata. During national violence that erupted while he was studying at National University, he moved to the coast city of Cartagena . This may explain why Marquez is known for his magical realism, a blend of Faulkner-like regionalism with a touch of the surreal. René Buch, Artistic Director of Repertorio Español, believes in magic realism: "If you go to Latin America," he says, "you believe that someone can levitate. That's why Hispanic art is called 'magical realism.' It's Don Quixote. It's in our genes” (Repertorio Espaniol Study Guide for Chronicle of a Death Foretold). Marquez says, “Faulkner got us… to think of the Caribbean not as a geographical region surrounded by its sea but as a much wider historical and cultural belt stretching from the north of Brazil to the Mississippi Basin” (Marquez, “The Mysteries of Bill Clinton”). He is famous for One Hundred Years of Solitude, his short story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings,“ and his famous essay, “The Mysteries of Bill Clinton,” where he compared President Clinton to Hester Prynne in Hawthorne’s A Scarlet Letter where “Puritanism is insatiable and feeds on its own excrement” (Marquez, “The Mysteries of Bill Clinton”). He is also known, of course, for his 1982 Nobel Prize in literature and his friendship with Fidel Castro.
According to Repertorio Espaniol Study Guide for Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the story is based on actual events of a similar plot line. Marquez says, I wrote in the first person, for the first time. So what happened was that after thirty years I discovered something we novelists tend to forget–the best literary formula is always the truth” (Repertorio Espaniol Study Guide for Chronicle of a Death Foretold). What he wanted to know was why did everyone in the town know that the victim was going to die but the victim himself, and why did not anyone stop the murder. According to Vergara in his essay “Haunting Demons,” the wealthy Indian virgin stealer was a “sacrificial lamb” who had to die in order for the society’s members to move on. In essence, young, swarthy Arab party boy Santiago Nassar must pay with his life, must be hashed to death with everyone’s knowledge just as Christ suffered on the cross. Vergara goes on to say that both men die at a time of “decadent values” because there were massive parties preceding the death event. Only, in this case, Santiago Nasser did not know and Jesus’s mother didn’t slam the door to preclude his safe return. Just as Jesus, Nasser had a stab wound like stigmata of the Christ (Vergara). The original story, according to the Reperterio Espaniol, involved a man named Guatono Gentile, an Italian man, who supposedly deflowered one Margarita Salas, whose fisherman brothers were outraged that she was returned (Espaniol Study Guide for Chronicle of a Death Foretold). They decided to kill him savagely by degutting him, even as he walked with guts hanging out.
Man woos virgin wife, virgin wife is not a virgin, he returns wife, and brothers go kill the named perpetrator. By trade, Marquez was a reporter and the novel clearly pursues this de facto narration of memory. Some remember with vivid detail, while others hide the truth for their own mental sanity. Marquez pursues the theme of “personal versus individual responsibility,” which makes the novel a frighteningly complex investigation of the base facets of our humanity (Espaniol Study Guide for Chronicle of a Death Foretold). It is this idea of the collective irresponsibility that is most disturbing. The bright side of this is that there is the Good Samaritan in the character of Cristo Belaya, but he, unfortunately, is delayed four crucial minutes in an act of service for a dying elderly man. Thus, he is absolved, though he acted too late. Because of the first person narration, the reader trusts the narrator, who seems to be giving both sides of the story in search of truth--fair and balanced, though we sometimes forget that the narrator was a friend of Nasser’s , so we never really know his true motives for wanting the back story.
In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, his first foray into first person, the narrator makes the reader understand how death is sometimes inevitable even in the best of circumstances. Marquez makes you feel as if you yourself are trying to hold in your gut as you scramble for solace. Such is the power of Marquez texts that is easy to believe that he has witnessed bludgeoning all his life. He tells the story as from a child’s point of view, always asking questions…why? Why? But no one has the answers. We, as readers, get different points of view. For instance, Angelo, in an interview 25 years later refused to get her rich husband drunk , so she could stain her sheet with Mercurochrome and “give herself a drastic douche of alum water to fake virginity“ simply because “it was all something dirt that shouldn‘t be dome to anybody“ (91). Though she subjected herself to “the African tool” (95). It was at this point in the novel the reader begins to realize the hypocrisy of sex. The narrator relays his sexual escapades with a mulatto Madame and her ladies of pleasure. Shortly after Nasser’s body was butchered, she, Maria Alejandrina Cervantes, almost had a sexual dalliance with him but stopped short because he “smell[ed] of him” (78). After all, Nasser was her lover until his father found out. So, there’s a weave within a weave, and the judge is convinced that Nasser acted so innocent because he attended the wedding feast; he sang merry songs in a drunken state with the narrator and his brother wishing the new bride and husband a happy marriage. The narrator informs us ”…no one ever believed it had really been Santiago Nasser because…no one had ever seen them together, much less alone together” (898-90). So, we are left wondering at the end why even his mother, Placido Linero, barred the door as they gave him “ a horizontal slash o his stomach and all his intestines exploded out until he saw his viscera in the sunlight, clean and blue, and he fell on his knees” (119). Everyone in the town shared in the blame but only Nasser took the responsibility. Life is not fair.






Works Cited
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. New York: Vintage Books, 1982. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. "The Mysteries of Bill Clinton." Editorial. New York Times Special Features 1 Feb. 1999. Salon Newsreal. 1 Feb. 1999. 5 July 2008 .

Maurya, Vibha. "Gabriel Garcia Marquez." Social Scientist 11.1 (Jan. 1983):
53-58. JSTOR. ECU J.Y. Joyner Library, Greenville, NC. 12 July 2008. Vergara, Isabel Rodriguez. "Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Menippean Satire ." Critical Essays on the Works of Gabriel García Márquez. By Isabel Rodriguez Vergaro. 1998. N. pag. Biblioteca Digital del Portal Educativo de las Américas. Vers. 64. INTERAMER. 12 July 2008 .