Didactica de las Matematicas

A minute ago, I was doing some reading for one of my classes in English. Tita is a few feet away from me, and she was talking on the phone in Spanish. I soon realized that when I am hearing Spanish and reading English... I don't understand either of them at all.

Also, I have a water update. I bought more water yesterday. I was very careful to make sure that the two bottles that I purchased were not carbonated. However, I didn't realize that I also have to be on the lookout for "autentica agua mineral" (authentic mineral water). This water tasted super gross!!! I quickly drank one of the bottles and then washed down the taste with some Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. Emily suggested that I use the other bottle that I bought to water the flowers. I'm  not sure yet what I'm going to do with it.

Last night, Tita took me to Mamut, which means... mammoth. It's a sandwich restaurant that is painted in very bright colors and there are lots of pictures of mammoths on the walls. They also serve very large (and very yummy) sandwiches. And after that, we dodged across a very crazy street to Capriccos, which is a wonderful place. They serve good food, really good hot chocolate, and, as I found out last night, amazing desserts. I had a very chocolate chocolate cake.

I want to tell you all about my Didactica de las Matematicas class!! I love this class!! It meets twice a week, and there are six students in it. I get the idea that they all know each other from other elementary education classes, but on the first day, the professor (she's wonderful!) welcomed me to class and we all went around and told a little bit about ourselves. She made me feel very welcomed, and throughout that class and the ones since then, she has frequently asked me how things are done in American classrooms, which makes me feel like my opinion in that classroom is valued. She also takes are to explain things to me that she thinks that I might not know about, which I greatly appreciate.

The professor clearly loves teaching. She taught elementary school and high school, and she reminded us that, as teachers, we will NEVER stop learning about how to be better teachers. Teaching is dynamic--on a given day, we never know what is going to happen during class. And teaching requires humility--we are shaping human beings, just as other people have shaped us. After a summer of being out of the classroom, it was so much fun to be in an education class again and to be reminded that I cannot wait to be a teacher!!! But I will wait, and while I do, I will love being in Peru!

On the second day that we met as a class, I got to talk quite a bit to my classmates. We actually broke into two groups and had to do a short presentation about a section of a math textbook. This was a little bit intimidating for me, but my classmates were very gracious with the errors that I made, and after class we all walked to the bridge together. One of the girls in the class speaks English fairly well, but the other two whom we were walking with do not know English at all. Thai, the girl who knows English, wanted to practice with me, so we did and had to translate for Grace and Laida. We talked about America and Peru and about teaching and Arequipa... it was so much fun to get to feel welcomed with these girls and to get to know them!

I have been relieved to discover that I understand much of what the professors say. And, when I don't understand, my classmates are very helpful. I have also found that it is very difficult (okay, right now it's impossible) for me to read the powerpoint and listen to my professor at the same time. It doesn't work. Similarly, a few nights ago I discovered that I cannot listen to the television program and listen to Tita and Andrea at the same time, either--nothing makes sense when I try to do that.