&then something competely out of the ordinary happens.
like how there was a huge grasshopper sitting peacefully on the curtains 2feeet away from me during class ..and eventually landed on a desk.
or when, for a straight week, the boys collected bugs and put them in girls pencil cases just to see them jump out of their desks during classs &interupt the lesson for a good 5minutes.
(i like how both of these examples involve bugs)
these things you wouldnt find in an american public schoool ..and sometimes that slipps my mind.
on the attendace sheet, there is a total of 45 people.
45 brasilians in one classroom with one professor ..actually 46 people becasue theres me :) litttle old american, ariana, who sits in the back corner, last row everyday
i observed the class one day and here was the results:
there were 7 little conversations going on at once, some from acrosss the rooom
there were 4 people sleeeping
there were 2 people drawing litttle creations on their paper
there were atleast 5 people using cell phones in some: charging, texting, calling their momma
there were 8 people daydreaming
and then there were a grand total of 6 people struggling through the lesson
of course this varies from class to class, subject to subject, but overall, this is typical
class starts at 7:15 each morning ..the teacher wonders into the classroom at around 7:20 each day so the lesson usually starts are 7:25 ..usually. people leave the classrooom to go to the bathroom, drink at the foundation, or grab some food down at the "cafeteria" all while the teacher has their lesson.
you look across the room and we are a sea of forest greeen and faded white with our matching uniforms ..but hardly does everyone go according to the rules. like me for example. do i wear tennis shoes like the school states. absolutely not. does anyone say anything besides my peers? absolutely not :)
they take their headphones and wire them under their shirts and turn the music down to a whisper.
there are a total of 4 classrooms of 3rd year ..all with the same amount of kids. mine, sala 330, is almost without a doubt, the worst. weekly, the teachers have to remind us to get more serious for the vestibular (the huge test they have to take to enter college) the students stay silent for the little lecture, pay attention, and then literally 5minutes later, the murmur of voices slowly, gradually, increasingly grows louder until the whole process starts again.
i asked my first question in class last week.
yes it has taken me a whole 7months to bring up the courage to actually say something during the lesson, but it probably will be the last.
it was during geography, a class that i love, and i was hard.core paying attention during the lesson. its hard for me to pay attention when EVERYONE is talking at once, throwing in their opinions & their conversations, but i was focused.
i always sit next to brian, (they call him cow, which is pronouced "cou") the smartest boy in my class that never pays attention and always lets me use his book &explains everything to me :)
the class was doing exercises in the book & i didnt hear the one answer, so i shot my little hand up in the air & asked.
the teacher made everyone be quiet so she could hear my question ..making everyone peep their head over to stare in amazement that i am paying attention, let alone, asking a question.
the class clapped.
i was embarrassed.
sometimes i have the strong desire to throw my whole classroom into an american high school. just take them all and put them in the same room with an american teacher and see the look, the shock, and the amazement of both parties.
yes, i would find that very amusing.
and just for laura:
they have these little cards that they have to swip to enter/exit the school. i dont have one which really upsets me so i have to exit a different dooor. so one day, laura let me use her card and felt SO COOOL !
my usually actitivies during school hours: sleeep. read. converse. pay attention.
