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| Spider guarding my hot water tank |
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| Late afternoon in the city |
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| Bowlful of tunas from the tianguis |
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| Hopefully we'll add to REIMEX's instrument collection... donations anyone? |
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
A few recent shots....
Musica y limpieza
Hey lovely people,
Things are going pretty well here in our final planning stages. We officially have only three more days until the first days of classes and I'm alternating between feeling totally competent and completely unprepared. I've been buckling down after a highly unproductive weekend of beer and street food, and my lessons for the first two weeks are all ready to go. Although as we haven't met many of the students yet, drastic revisions may be in order.
Today we went out to the school in La Palma and cleaned the hell out of that place. We had lots of help from our students and their families, who upon our arrival set to work digging up weeds, clearing the yard of the summer's debris, and mopping some of the dustiest floors I've ever seen. We also tried to install the Adobe Youth Voices software on our donated computers... but they are so old that most of them don't even know what a DVD is. So some last minute scrambling and begging for help from the nice folks down at Computadoras Pro Jovenes (http://www.cpjmex.org/) non-profit is probably going to be necessary. It was great to meet more of the students and their moms and siblings, though - and they seem really exciting about the music program, too!
Music programming is going really well; thanks to a little help from Liliana Gutierrez, a local musician and choir teacher, and my mom, I've got lots of silly singing warm-ups planned. I also got to give out my first business card today (I almost peed myself with excitement) to a local music store who may assist me in finding an affordable keyboard. Last time I was in Mexico I lugged a full keyboard around for ten months; apparently it would have finally come in handy. I've even got a few songs in mind - we'll be having a Christmas concert and party on December 18th in La Palma, so if you're around you should check it out! Look us up on our website or on Facebook for more details as the date approaches.
K, I'm going to go eat something. I went to the Tuesday market today and the plethora of interesting things in my fridge is calling me..
Thanks for reading, and see you soon,
Natalia
Things are going pretty well here in our final planning stages. We officially have only three more days until the first days of classes and I'm alternating between feeling totally competent and completely unprepared. I've been buckling down after a highly unproductive weekend of beer and street food, and my lessons for the first two weeks are all ready to go. Although as we haven't met many of the students yet, drastic revisions may be in order.
Today we went out to the school in La Palma and cleaned the hell out of that place. We had lots of help from our students and their families, who upon our arrival set to work digging up weeds, clearing the yard of the summer's debris, and mopping some of the dustiest floors I've ever seen. We also tried to install the Adobe Youth Voices software on our donated computers... but they are so old that most of them don't even know what a DVD is. So some last minute scrambling and begging for help from the nice folks down at Computadoras Pro Jovenes (http://www.cpjmex.org/) non-profit is probably going to be necessary. It was great to meet more of the students and their moms and siblings, though - and they seem really exciting about the music program, too!
Music programming is going really well; thanks to a little help from Liliana Gutierrez, a local musician and choir teacher, and my mom, I've got lots of silly singing warm-ups planned. I also got to give out my first business card today (I almost peed myself with excitement) to a local music store who may assist me in finding an affordable keyboard. Last time I was in Mexico I lugged a full keyboard around for ten months; apparently it would have finally come in handy. I've even got a few songs in mind - we'll be having a Christmas concert and party on December 18th in La Palma, so if you're around you should check it out! Look us up on our website or on Facebook for more details as the date approaches.
K, I'm going to go eat something. I went to the Tuesday market today and the plethora of interesting things in my fridge is calling me..
Thanks for reading, and see you soon,
Natalia
Hola, gente hermosa,
Las cosas van
avanzando aquí en San Miguel. Ahora estamos en nuestra ultima semana
de planeando, y empezamos a dar clases el lunes. A veces me siento
que soy completamente preparada; en otros momentos pienso que todo va
a ser un desmadre total. He estado trabajando mucho después de un
fin de semana lleno de chelas y comida de la calle, y ya tengo mis
lecciones para las primeras dos semanas listas. Aunque como que no
hemos conocido a muchos estudiantes, es posible que tengamos que
revisarlas mucho.
Hoy fuimos a La
Palma para limpiar la escuela. Los estudiantes y sus familias nos
ayudaron mucho – llegamos y ellos estaban desherbando y
rastrillando el jardín y trapeando los pisos, que eran unos de los
mas sucios que he visto en toda mi vida. Intentamos poner el software
de Adobe en los computadoras que están allí, pero la mayoría son
tan viejos que no tienen lugar para DVD... entonces creo que tengamos
a suplicar a la gente de Computadoras Pro Jóvenes
(http://www.cpjmex.org/
) por su ayuda. Sin embargo fue chido conocer a
mas estudiantes, sus hermanos y sus mamas, y me parece que van a ser
muy lindos niños. ¡Están
emocionados para el programa de música, también!
Los planes para
el programa de música ahora va muy bien, gracias al apoyo de Liliana
Gutierrez, una música y maestra local, y a mi mamá
desde Canadá. Tengo muchos ejercicios divertidos para hacer con los
niños, y aun tengo algunas ideas para canciones. Vamos a tener una
fiesta y concierto para la Navidad en La Palma el 18 de diciembre;
¡si
estén en San Miguel, deben venir! Miren aquí o en nuestra pagina de
Facebook o web para mas detalles.
Bueno, ya me voy
para comer algo. Fui al tianguis hoy y la comida en mi refri me
llama...
Gracias por leer, y
hasta pronto,
Natalia
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Youth creating media
Hey guys,
Well, my yoga class got cancelled and I'm not due at work for an hour, so I am going to be a productive individual rather than just aimlessly wandering around San Miguel's lovely streets. I'm currently drinking really really good pineapple juice on Calle Recreo and I'm going to write about the Adobe Youth Voices program, a media and media-literacy program which we'll be implementing this year.
Adobe Youth Voices is a global program aimed at providing marginalize students with the opportunity to access technology and express themselves through photography and film-making. We received a grant from Adobe to put this program into effect with our secundaria group in La Palma, so the last couple of days we've been training with the software (anyone who knows me knows that even using the word "software" is impressive for me) and brainstorming class activities. The program is great because it's totally youth-centered; media projects are based on local issues which students feel are important to them, and teachers facilitate rather than direct the process of creation. We ask questions to encourage critical thinking and a thorough examination of the issues, and help with technical an logistical problems, but in general the program tries to promote self-direction, collaboration, and creativity.
I think this whole thing is pretty awesome. Considering that there are very few computers in these communities, and very few people with computer skills (myself included), having access to digital media-making equipment and programs such as Photoshop and Premiere is a great opportunity for students to develop new technical skills, but also a new and appealing way to learn how to articulately express complex ideas about relevant issues in their communities.
We've got to have five projects completed by May, and I'm really looking forward to getting started. Since I'm designing and teaching a music appreciation and vocal music program, I'm hopeful that we can tie all these projects together - for example, by building media literacy through analyzing reggaeton videos, or by creating our own soundtrack to a visual presentation. I've yet to meet the students, but hopefully I'll see them at our registration meeting this weekend. If you're interested in Adobe's program, check out their website for examples of some other youth projects.
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/
Que estén muy bien,
Natalia
Well, my yoga class got cancelled and I'm not due at work for an hour, so I am going to be a productive individual rather than just aimlessly wandering around San Miguel's lovely streets. I'm currently drinking really really good pineapple juice on Calle Recreo and I'm going to write about the Adobe Youth Voices program, a media and media-literacy program which we'll be implementing this year.
Adobe Youth Voices is a global program aimed at providing marginalize students with the opportunity to access technology and express themselves through photography and film-making. We received a grant from Adobe to put this program into effect with our secundaria group in La Palma, so the last couple of days we've been training with the software (anyone who knows me knows that even using the word "software" is impressive for me) and brainstorming class activities. The program is great because it's totally youth-centered; media projects are based on local issues which students feel are important to them, and teachers facilitate rather than direct the process of creation. We ask questions to encourage critical thinking and a thorough examination of the issues, and help with technical an logistical problems, but in general the program tries to promote self-direction, collaboration, and creativity.
I think this whole thing is pretty awesome. Considering that there are very few computers in these communities, and very few people with computer skills (myself included), having access to digital media-making equipment and programs such as Photoshop and Premiere is a great opportunity for students to develop new technical skills, but also a new and appealing way to learn how to articulately express complex ideas about relevant issues in their communities.
We've got to have five projects completed by May, and I'm really looking forward to getting started. Since I'm designing and teaching a music appreciation and vocal music program, I'm hopeful that we can tie all these projects together - for example, by building media literacy through analyzing reggaeton videos, or by creating our own soundtrack to a visual presentation. I've yet to meet the students, but hopefully I'll see them at our registration meeting this weekend. If you're interested in Adobe's program, check out their website for examples of some other youth projects.
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/
Que estén muy bien,
Natalia
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Here's the link to our website, which is currently under construction, but which should give you some idea of the work that we do. For more information, look us up on Facebook or send me an email at natalia@ruralmex.org.
http://www.ruralmex.org/
http://www.ruralmex.org/
Bienvenido!
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| The city of San Miguel de Allende |
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| Me, in Jalpa, one of the rural communities in which REIMEX works |
Hola a todos. Gracias por ver mi blog, en la que intentare informarles sobre mi vida trabajando para el Instituto de Educación Rural de México. Voy a escribir no solo sobre mi estancia como interna para una pequeña organización non-gubernamental, sino también trato de la experiencia de ser una mujer canadiense viviendo en Latinoamérica. Aunque en el pasado solo he escrito un blog sobre cosas tan emocionantes y pertinentes como la poesía de la edad victoriana y la teoria psicoanalítica, espero que este esfuerzo sea ambos informativa e interesante. Mi trabajo aquí es algo sobre que me siento muy apasionada, y ojala que tenga éxito en compartir estos sentimientos con voluntarios del futuro, estudiantes de los estudios latinoamericanos, mi familia y mis amigos. Gracias por leer!
-Natalia
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| La Parroquia in downtown San Miguel |
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| Nopales, or cacti, are everywhere. And I love both eating them and looking at them. I also love alliteration; hence, the blog name. |
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