Sala de Informatica

 It’s filled with some of my favorite memories and some of my most frustrating memories.  A place where patience came up against all types of frustrations, sometimes winning, sometimes losing.  I was there every Monday through Thursday, repeating the same lesson twelve times every week.  It’s my Sala de Informática, the computer room.

Though still facing complications with unreliable electricity and technological malfunctions, this second year of teaching was a huge leap from last year’s attempt.  Aside from being more comfortable with the language, I also had more realistic expectations for my students, better ideas of how to teach computer lessons, and better new computers to teach them on.

  

Teaching computers is not easy, that’s for sure.  When students have no knowledge or background, or perhaps have never even seen a computer, you must start from the very beginning, even before the beginning.  Combine that with the fact that students outnumber usable computers 3:1, classes are 30-40 minutes just once a week, and electricity comes and goes as it pleases.  What can you expect anyone to teach, let alone learn in such a short amount of time?

Though definitely not all of my students, maybe not even half, finished the year with a super solid understanding of the material, I can confidently name many who did, and I think (hope) that many walked away with at least something, even if it was just the story of having had the opportunity to use a computer.  During our last class, my student Luis said, “Teacher, you taught us all the basics.  Now we can do anything with a computer!”

Inocencio, Islaito, and Amilo modeling for the camera

The Sala is also the school's storage room.
These books are supposed to be for distance school, but they've been
here all year... and those on the right are the broken computers from last year.

Luis is one of those students who definitely
mastered the basics and is going to go on to
do great things.

Inocencio works on creating his health advertisement project on HIV

Though I was definitely exhausted and done with teaching computers by the end of this year, it was certainly sad to lock up the room for the last time.  Students would say, "See you next year!" to which I had to reply, "Nope, this is it."  It's a very surreal feeling.  In my last few weeks, I'm working with some of the school administrators to teach them how to use the computer program and pass on some of the tips I have learned during my time here.  Hopefully next year, they can have more than just one computer teacher and continue to take full advantage of the incredible resource available for these students.