Main courtyard where all the action happens!
Every year Chilean high schools commemorate their anniversary with a week-long celebration. Schools are divided into “cursos” with 40-45 students each. These students share the same schedule of classes for the entire year. My liceo is a technical industrial school with different career paths: mechanics, telecommunications, woodworking, electronics, welding, etc. During the anniversary, the “cursos” group into 6 “alianzas": blue, green, red, white, yellow and black. During the week, classes are pretty much suspended and there are various competitions and activities where alliance members compete to earn points. At the end of the week, points are totaled and a winner is named. The kids make huge banners, confetti, impromptu drums and each alliance chooses a queen, "ugly" king and mascot to represent them along with the alliance president that tries to keep everything in order.
Students watching the events on stage
Some of the alianza competitions were soccer, ping-pong and volleyball games, a mini marathon, a dance competition, an “American Idol” singing contest, tug – of – war, trivia, spelling contests, a skit, etc… There was also a students vs. staff soccer game which was totally entertaining! Alianza also lost points for rude or inappropriate behavior, which seemed to sort of help keep things from going totally out of control.
At the starting line - School marathon
Dance competition- Easter Island style
Staff members are asked to judge competitions. I was fortunate enough to be a judge of the American Idol and dance competitions as well as the presentation of the “reina y el rey feo” in formal wear (the queen and her ugly king). It really took me back to my days of being homecoming queen and on the dance team. :)
My favorite events were the skits and the king and queen in “recycled” attire. Lots of CDs and newspaper.
The grand finale on Thursday is the parade. Each alianza builds a float in its subsequent workshop. But these are not your typical Rose Parade floral floats. (Remember this is a technical industrial school! they have power tools and big machines!) The base of the float is a car and the rest is metal, glass, wood, etc…with moving parts. Sometimes they spit fire too! There was an eagle with flapping wings and the winning float was a transformer that actually transformed – very cool!
Totally cool winning Float: a transformer!
It was a pretty crazy week! The kids really get into the competition! It was nice to see the students working together to kick the other alianzas’ butts! On Friday there was a brief ceremony to award teachers who had been working at the school for 20, 25, 30 and 35 years. Wow.
It was a pretty crazy week! The kids really get into the competition! It was nice to see the students working together to kick the other alianzas’ butts! On Friday there was a brief ceremony to award teachers who had been working at the school for 20, 25, 30 and 35 years. Wow.
A few of my students!
There was also a cueca dance performance and a luncheon. Overall it was a really cool
experience for me and a nice break from the daily routine of teaching!
experience for me and a nice break from the daily routine of teaching!
Jo and some of the cueca dancers!
1 comment:
This is really cool. Glad you had fun!
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