I SURVIVED!!

I have successfully completed my first week of teaching in my very own classroom. Sooooo much has happened in such a short amount of time that it will be impossible for me to describe it all, but I'll try.

Tuesday was by far the worst. I showed up Tuesday morning with the expectations that I would have volunteers that had been working in my classroom help me ease the transition and show me around the lessons, school, classroom supplies, and resources. I was also expecting to have the Materno kids (ages 3-4) from 8am-10am. WRONG. I stepped on campus and was informed that not only was my Materno volunteer was going to be sent out of the classroom due to the fact that one of the students is terrified of him, but I also was scheduled to have the little ones from 8am-11:15am!!!! That mean more than an hour extra and that much time taken off my lunch break, leaving me with a meager 45 minutes to book it home, eat, and power-walk back to school. I DID have one volunteer helping in Materno, but go figure it happened to be her first day too. In a scramble, I tried to pull up the schedule the old teacher had sent me, but of course, it only went until 10am. NOT TO MENTION the parents were all coming in trying to meet me while I was scrambling. Naturally, they only spoke Spanish and I was so rattled I couldn't even remember the basics! Thankfully, Alyssa was able to squeak out some sentences, and one of the parents was from Virginia. Still, due to this chaos AND the fact that NEITHER of us knew what to do with kids so young (Alyssa was a former secondary ed major), we borderline panicked. What in the WORLD do we do with only Spanish speaking little children who can barely count to 20??!! This was not my forte. Alyssa and I tag teamed calendar, counting, art, blocks, and free play activities, and despite our doubts, we made it through what felt like an 8 hour morning.

Exhausted and crunched for time, I managed to eat the planned leftovers I had made the night before. I knew today would be crazy but not this much! After a quick break, we were back to school to work with 3rd-6th.

THANKFULLY, the rest of the day was about 150 degrees different. I say that because there was still SOME chaos, but it was much, much more doable. I DID have volunteers in there that helped, and we were even able to start my "Between Us" activity. I stole the name and the idea from two separate teachers, but I think it has been the best thing I've done all week. In "Between Us," students are free to write WHATEVER they want in their journals. Literally anything. I read these entries, and reply each night, they reply the next day, and so on so that it becomes a daily letter back and forth. Because I am the only one who reads these journals, the kids have freedom and security to say what they want. I have already been told one secret, and on day two I even got told that I was a fun teacher! Yay already! This is the first thing kids do when they come in the classroom, and so far, they are coming in hot and ready to write. Amazing! And I can actually handle writing to them each night since I only have 7. It's a great way for us to get to know each other, and a safe place for us to talk about important, and not so important, things.

The afternoon flew by! It felt like only 1.5 hours instead of three, contrary to that 8 hour morning I had that was also only 3 real life hours long.

Wednesday, the kids get out at 2 so that teachers can have meetings and/or planning periods. I was informed TODAY around noon that this week's meeting was going to be with ALL of the parents in the school so that I could be introduced and the numerous changes happening at the school could be addressed by the new director. Fine I thought, no big deal, just a little meeting. Again, WRONG. Two hours later, and my brain swimming with incomprehensible Spanish, I was dismissed.

However, Wednesday was 900 times better than Tuesday. I actually made a plan for both classes, so the day flew by, pretty smoothing, other than the meeting. If every day got exponentially better like this one, I would be so set by the end of the week.

Fingerprint ants :)

^^BEST IDEA ALL WEEK!!

Luckily, each day did get much and much better, just maybe only minimally exponentially. Thursday, Materno continued to improve, likely because I only had 2 of the 6 students. 2 were sick, 1 had Dengue ( I still haven't met her), and 1 was still terrified to come to school. So out ratio was 2:2. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. In the afternoon, we studied the moon, and the kids are so hungry for any science that they loved it. Previously, they only had 20 minutes, 2 times a week. Now though, we will have it everyday but Wednesday (the kids get out at 2:00 remember?). I still think the kids are in shock about this, in a good way.

The highlight of Thursday though, was going to Gustavo's palm oil farm. Gustavo is one of my students, the only 6th grader, and he is an absolute charmer. He's actually the one on the school video with the dark curly hair. The other volunteers went yesterday, but the meeting hung me up. However, it rained so they had to come right back. We rode bikes about 30 minutes out of town, and I'm not joking when I say these bikes were so rickety that I was surprised they made it. (Actually one didn't...the entire front wheel blew ha). It was a beautiful ride on the only paved road for who knows how long, through lush forests of palm trees. These palm oil trees are HUGE and planted in rows, just like our harvest timber pines at home. We pulled up to Gustavo's farm house, and it was no more than wooden walls and a roof with some holes for windows. Chickens and dogs and cows roamed around, and we took a huge bamboo pole to knock mamones (lychees) out of the tree so we could eat them under the palms. Gustavo, who by the way is a wonderful tour guide, led us farther out into the palm forest to a muddy river. A dark storm was looming in the distance, framing the jungle trees and vibrant birds nicely. Once there, planning to hand fish, we realized SOMEONE had forgotten the bait! Bruno (a volunteer is who also Gustavo's close friend these days) and Gustavo went back to look, but could not find it. Once back, Bruno caught a grasshopper and put it on my hook for me. Not kidding, I caught a fish with it, first cast! The fish was only about 10 inches long, but a fish by handfishing nonetheless! Then, it began to rain, so we rode back through the palm forest until we hit the paved road. The rain felt nice compared to the intense heat of the day, and the shadows in the forest were cool and relaxing. I haven't been on such a nice bike ride in a while. :)

Today, another good day. Materno was a little cranky, but the older kids loved to begin research on their animal projects. I was able to stay at school until 5 and was incredibly productive. I've planned about half of next week, and have all materials prepared for Materno until Wednesday.

Tomorrow we are off for a weekend at the beach, and I could not be happier. I am ready for a break, and I feel like it will be a well deserved one.

The farm house

Mamones

Gustavo