Okay, so it’s been less than a week since my last blog post—not too bad! We just completed week four of school which means we are 1/10 of the way through the school year (but who’s counting?!). This week went well and my kids gave me plenty of reasons to be proud of them.
First, on Wednesday Colin “challenged” the students at school to say hello to as many staff members as possible, not just the ones who teach them. There are dozens of people who work at the school whose hard work goes unnoticed. People are mopping the floors, cleaning the bathrooms, microwaving food, fixing technological difficulties and very few of the students even notice the work that it takes to keep the school looking great. So I ran with the challenge and told the students that we would count how many people we said hello to throughout the day (with a smile on our faces, of course!) and then add up the total before it was time to go home. I told them that I would email Colin our total so he could see how friendly our class was. The kids were so pumped for this challenge. They went around school saying hello to everyone; it was awesome! Every time they said hello, it was so sweet and genuine that the people receiving the gesture were shocked. I even had some teachers come into my classroom and mention how happy it made them that my kiddos said “good morning” or “Hello, Miss So-and-So.” At the end of the day we added up the class total and my 22 students said hello 755 times (yeah, I know, that's probably not accurate at all but I trusted them and they got a nice little math lesson in when they had to add that high)! Colin came by the class to congratulate them and they just couldn’t stop smiling. It was one of the best days I have had with my kids so far :)
Then, for science on Friday, I asked my students to “study” the parts of an egg for five minutes because I had an egg drawn on the board with blanks for all the labels that I would randomly select students to fill in. They studied SO hard and then I started to pull popsicle sticks for students to fill out each part. They were really nervous but really excited to show me what they had learned. A few kiddos weren’t able to fill in the blanks when I called their names but the rest of the class was very willing to help them out. We took a class photo in front of our egg because they worked so hard on it and I knew it would be erased by the time the weekend was over.
Then, I had a student who got in some trouble at school for not following directions. I wrote a note in his agenda for his mother because she informed me that he had difficulty listening and that he needed some motivation at home sometimes to remind him to stay on track. This kid was SO upset that I was writing to his mom and he told me that he would have his toys taken away if he got it too much trouble. We talked about how his behavior can be changed if he works hard and takes responsibility for what he learns in school. The next day he worked his hardest to follow along and listen in class. It was amazing how much of a difference it made when I didn’t have to constantly bring him back to the lesson or repeat the directions or remind him what he was supposed to be doing when he does the same task everyday. I was so proud of him and made sure he knew what a great job he had done throughout the day. He just couldn’t stop smiling and I think he learned a lot more too.
On Thursday, we had our first soccer practice that ended up being rained out (surprise, surprise). Now, the school is saying that the soccer field has been so rain damaged that we cannot use it for three more weeks-- lame! After school we went to Katie's apartment to throw a surprise birthday party for Trevor. The party was complete with awesome bday cake, lots of fruits and veggies, a piñata, and great company. It was a fun little get together after school and it was great to celebrate Trevor since he is an incredibly humble person who didn't even tell a sole it was his birthday :)
On Friday, I went to watch the high school boy’s basketball game at another school in the city. They won single-handedly and it was pretty cool to see them so excited about playing as a team. The school the game was at was incredible—they had an indoor basketball court with hard wood floors and plenty of seating, an outdoor pool, tennis courts, huge classrooms; pretty much everything our school doesn’t have. Even though I’ve had opportunities to see other schools in the city, I still really love ours. I think it has a lot to do with the people we work with and the kids we teach. They make it all worthwhile.
We had another ITRRC dinner, this time at a Mediterranean restaurant. The food was not as good as it was at the last place but the service and the atmosphere were great. I had a Gorgonzola pasta and a michilada. Michilada is a Guatemalan version of a Bloody Mary only instead of vodka its made with beer (Mike told me that apparently they have these in the US and they are called “red beers” but I’m going to pretend that its authentically a Guatemalteco drink).
On Saturday, we were told that there was a 50% chance of a tropical storm so we decided to stay in the city instead of risking getting stranded somewhere. We played volleyball with a bunch of teachers in a park in our zone. The park was pretty ghetto but there were a crap ton of kids there. Blake and I were playing on the monkey bars at one point when a guard blew his whistle at us and yelled, “Solo para niños!” Oh man, it was so funny I couldn’t stop repeating that phrase all day.
Aubrey, Blake, Tom and Tom’s friend Noemi and I made vegetarian lasagna, bruschetta, and tiramisu and then went to Laura’s house for game night. This morning Aubrey and I cleaned the apartment and then went to play ultimate frisbee. It was much more enjoyable this weekend! There were FIVE girls playing and the most sexist males from the pervious weeks were not in attendance. I also found out that a few of the other players are running the Guate City 21K next Sunday as well and they said they could give me a ride (I’m not sure if I mentioned that I signed up for a 21K a week ago. For some reason, the only time I ever run half-marathons is when I spontaneously sign up for them at the last second. Also, I think calling it a 21K sounds nicer than a half-marathon). Some of the same people who are running next weekend also do super awesome activities outside of teaching and frisbee. They do open water swims, adventure races, rock climbing, mountain biking and much more! They also go swimming after school at the pool at their school and they said I was more than welcome to join. Oh, and guess what else the pool had? A DIVING BOARD! It was pretty sketchy looking but it’s better than nothing at all. We exchanged phone numbers and they said they would let me know the next time they did something awesome.
Tomorrow the students start taking their MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) tests to see where they are academically and what kinds of information they are missing. It should be another action packed week! I’ll do my best to blog mid-week but if not I hope you all have a great first full week of September :)
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