My full-time job

After working for a week, I´ve made some observations about the school:

• First, I LOVE the fact that this school´s bathrooms come with paper and toilet seats!
• Everyone at the school says hello to you--teachers, other staff, kids, and parents--whether they know you or not.
• At recess, there are no bells. Instead, each teacher has a different musical instrument that they play when they want their kids to come inside. Our class has a maraca.
• At the end of the day, some kids stay for after-school activities, but those that go home either take the bus or get picked up in cars. I have pick-up duty and it´s interesting how almost every student is picked up by a nanny and a driver. I very rarely see any parents. When the driver arrives, the kids get into their car and the nanny or driver picks up their bags and put them into the car.

Last Thursday, I started working full time at Roosevelt, the American School of Lima. I´m the teacher´s assistant for a 3rd grade class--the job is very similar to that of our IA´s back home. I help collect, organize, and mark the homework, do some small group work, help another teacher for an hour each day, walk the kids to specialists, monitor break time and help in the pick-up area after school. It is a very busy job, but I love it! Every teacher, preschool through 3rd grade, has one of these teacher´s assistants. That, combined with no more than 22 students per classroom, makes for a very nice teaching atmosphere. I´ll be working at the school until the end of the school year--June 27th.