The Little Village Lawndale High School of LA?

Hello friends and family! Once again we are getting back late at night, so our apologies for the tardiness of the blog post. Today has been yet another wonderful day in Los Angeles. Our day began early with our departure for South East High School. This high school is fairly new- being opened in just 2005. The campus is composed of several different buildings, with the outdoors being the hallways. The lockers, lunch room, and passing periods take place in the great Los Angeles sun.

One of the interesting things about this school in particular is that there are 6 different academies that function within the high school, just like Little Village Lawndale High School's 4 different academies in Chicago. They are also on 4 by 4 scheduling, which means that there are 4 block classes offered each semester for the students. One semester will consist of 2 core classes (i.e. math and science) and two electives, while the second semester will consist of the other two core classes (english and social studies) and two other electives. The SEHS had their staff tour us to different classrooms in small groups, and we would come back to a conference room after each block to ask questions about different things we saw. In addition, they put together a small performance of their choir for us to see, and boy were they good! We had chills from their beautiful harmonies.

During our visit we also saw posters for the Visual and Performing Arts Academy's benefit for their Special Olympics program. They invited us to attend to contribute to their cause. We all agreed that this was definitely something we wanted to do to give back to a school that was so kind to us. We attended the performance later in the evening, and the students were fantastic. We saw many musical theatre performances, singing, dancing, and even a Michael Jackson tribute. These students surely worked very hard for this performance. They raised over $1000 with this event, and we were certainly happy to contribute! We even helped the staff by picking up some trash on the way out of the auditorium! SEHS had wonderful hospitality toward us.

Rewinding a bit in the day, after our original visit with SEHS, we headed over to Chinatown near downtown Los Angeles. Here we looked at the different buildings, did a little souvenir shopping, and had some authentic Chinese cuisine. It was a great way to see a different side of Los Angeles.

After about an hour in Chinatown, we headed over to Las Angelitas del Pueblo to take a tour of the oldest part of Los Angeles. We had a wonderful tour guide named Frank who gave us the history of the area. He had some great stories about this area! We were able to see the first church in LA, as well as the oldest building still standing in LA. The history of this area is so rich! After our tour, we were able to walk around the plaza and visit many of the Spanish shops around the area. We were also able to enjoy the free Spanish musical performances of entertainers on the plaza. It was a wonderful way to watch the sun set in this beautiful city.

All in all, today was yet another day that flourished with information and strategies that we will be able to use as future teachers. UNITE members are working very hard to make the most of our short time here by gaining as much knowledge as we can. We cannot wait to start tomorrow!


Side note: We're having a bit of difficulty uploading some pictures at this time. Rest assured, we will have them up as soon as we can! Thank you for your patience and support on this trip!