Hollywood Middle School Debut!

The debut has been shown and the official Hollywood Middle School video is up on you tube. The kids went nuts cheering during it's initial release on Friday in the auditorium. Our middle school tech guy, John, envisioned, filmed and created it. I only have a small part near the end during the 'Let's Celebrate' continuous shot. The video is awesome and I am so proud to be working with such a great group of teachers/ up-and-coming actors. Middle school does a video every year for the theme that the students choose from the year before. This year the theme is Hollywood.

The 127 Hours spoof is my favorite!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6gA3S3psIM

One week down!

On the first day of school the students showed up with
mountains of school supplies and were excited to see their friends and their new teachers. Many of them immediately asked, “Hey meester, are you a new teacher? Where are you from? What did you do this summer?” Others flopped down in their chairs displaying their disappointment in being forced to return to school. The first day’s classes were short. 25 minutes each. That’s how it should be in The States. Kids come in from summer not ready to be in school and only have to stay from 8am to 1pm. It makes more sense than throwing them into the deep end right away. I’m currently attempting to read all the ‘About Me’ papers I had them fill out and memorize all their names. Getting to know 105 new students’ names in a few days is no easy task; especially when there are 8 Juan Pablo’s, 7 Ana Maria's and 10 Jorge's.

The evening following the first day I played my first night of soccer. I showed up at 7 when I was told we would be starting. I should have known better as I waited 30 minutes for people to start showing up. The teams ended up being gringo teachers against local Mexican community members. I played on the Mexicans team and after 3 hours of running my out of shape body ragged my team won 6-5. It was a nice way to wind down from my first day of teaching my own class.

The second day was another short day. We barely had time to talk about the procedures of science class and mention the science notebook. “The science notebook,” I told them, “is the primary tool we will use to conduct science this year. The goal of this class is not to memorize a bunch of facts, but to learn how to think about science and think critically and creatively.” On the second day of school students are still in the ‘honeymoon’ phase of behavior. No ones trying to push the teacher’s buttons too hard yet.

Wednesday was the first day we dug into science. I had the first two of my five 95-minute blocks. I led the students down to the science lab next to the elementary cafeteria (noisy!). We started out with observing different photos. The students recorded qualitative and quantitative observations while differentiating between inferences. I showed them an optical illusion elephant that appears to have 4, 5 or 8 legs depending on how you look at it. A few of the quick ones shouted out “Meester, you tricked us!”

Somewhere along the line all the students at ASFG learned how to address all gringo teacher as ‘meester’ and ‘miess.’ “Meester, what are we doing next? Meester, I infer that they are in France. Meester, can I go to the bathroom?” I decided not to dilly-dally around too much and got them observing slides with microscopes right away. Some of the sketches they produced are priceless. The written observations were equally entertaining: hairy, holey, reptilish, staring, ugly, etc. (describing slides of fly heads, frog skin, and the like). Thursday was the same lesson three more times, each lesson getting consecutively better than the last… now if I could just teach 6^th grade science again next year I’d be a pro.

One week down and who knows how many to go!

La Charreada

Every Sunday the city of Guadalajara explodes with exciting things to do—one of which is going to la charrería. There are multiple charrerías found throughout the city, but there’s one that takes place every Sunday from 12 to 2:30pm. It’s located on the southeastern side of Parque Agua Azul at the Lienzo Charro de Jalisco.

La charrería in Mexico is more than a simple rodeo. It is a symbol of the ranching lifestyle in Mexico and a place for the charros (cowboys) to show their skills. The sport developed out of the vaqueros necessity to learn how to rope, ride untamed mares and herd cattle. As it moved from the countryside into the city it took on a new set of regulations and rules that have made it into the formalized event it is today.

The competition is divided into nine categories that reflect the tradition of being a charro. It strarts out slow. Charros prance around the ring in full traditional wear (including the wide-brimmed felt sombreros) and get warmed up. Chalk lines are drawn into the ring where charros take turns rideding full gallop and then skid gracefully to a stop near the line. Judges score the maneuver and then call out the next competitor.

Finally it starts to get more interesting. The charros retreat into the long track area of the arena where they take turns roping wild mares and chasing down bulls by pulling on their tails. The announcer excitedly reports the standings to the crowd as they cheer on the most elegant and masterful performances.

Traditional Mexican music continues to blare through the stadium as the team bull roping, bull riding and wild mare riding competitions play out. At first I questioned the brutality of these competitions; the bull roping competition especially. One charro would rope the bull’s head while another the bull’s hind legs. They would then pull and lay the bull down on his stomach. There was always someone nearby to immediately help free the bull and give him a break. Sometimes traditions are not up to speed with today’s demands of eliminating animal cruelty, but they seemed to do the best they could.

The most exiting parts of the show were undoubtedly the manganas a caballo and the paso de la muerte. In the manganas a caballo (roping wild mares from horseback) a team of three mounted charros chase a wild mare around the arena trying to rope only the animal’s rear legs as not to hurt it. This must require an enormous amount of skill. One charro gracefully lassoed a mare while facing away from the horse as it sped by at top speed. The finale for the charrería is the paso de la muerte in which a young charro jumps from the back of one speeding wild mare to another.

Besides the action-packed charrería there was plenty of entertainment from watching the spectators. A group of older men in jeans and cowboy hats polished off a half a gallon bottle of tequila in about an hour. A 12 year-old concession boy ran around the stadium serving Indio (a cheap Mexican beer) to thirsty vaqueros. Couples lounged in the shade of the covered bleachers occasionally watching the competition.

La charrería embodies the traditional Mexico we think of when Pancho Villa and vast deserts come to mind. The competition is not only exciting, but aesthetic and full of pride and tradition as well. I would highly recommend checking out a charreada when visiting Mexico (there are over 900 charrería associations in Mexico).