School life here is much more controlled and less independent for the students, it seems. First of all, teachers have to hand in a homework plan to their Head of Department every week! Students who fail to do their homework gets a warning. If they don't do it for the next day, then there's detention. Yes, you heard me: detention. When I think of detention, I think of that film with Antonia Banderas where he was in charge of after school detention and taught them ballroom dancing. Here at Aloha it's kind of different: Detention for senior school students means sitting in silence for half an hour during lunch! And who's supervising the detention? The teachers, of course. Do we get extra paid for that? Oh no. Also, we have to cover for each other in case of absence. No extra pay. And... each teacher has duties three times a week. Such as supervising the yards etc. Wow! Students are rewarded for academic performances every week. Fascinating. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this works. It may actually result in more academically mature pupils. Who knows? The system is really different from Norwegian school life.
The teachers in the English department are lovely! Females only. We are seven teachers, and me and a South African girl are the youngest ones. They're all very sweet, and there seems to be a great culture of sharing teaching material here. Great!
The college was established by parents back in 1982. This morning, the Chairman of the Board held a speech to all the teachers to explain the changes in the management. He, and everyone in the management, really emphasised the role of the parents. They are heavily involved, apparently. Will be exciting to see how this works!
Lisa and I went down to the post office (Correos) after work today to pick up
my books. I didn't even realise that I had sent 6 boxes with books and shoes. Oh la la! Had to queue up for about an hour... But we got them at last. Muchos libros! You can see me and all the books outside the abajo entrada to La Maestranza, where I live.Getting a bank account here is also a challenge! Banks here are open from 8.15 to 14. That makes the opening hours of the Norwegian banks look like heaven:)
So, as soon as I get a bank account (maybe tomorrow morning before work??) I will have my car insured. And then I can actually pick up the car! Wow! People still drive like crazy here, but I'll get a lot of practise on the roads between my home and the college.
Btw, someone asked me why I'm writing this blog in English. The reason is simply that I have to practise my English while I'm living here. After all, I'm a teacher of English, or Profesora de Ingles, as they say:)
Going for a night swim in the pool now. Lovely!
