Crazy Hair or Moustache Day

Well, its Friday and today we had a blast at school so I really couldn't be happier at this moment. I'm sitting on the couch, listening to Christmas music, and breathing in our gingerbread scented candle-- dang, life is good.

Over the next month at school, we are collecting toys from the students to donate to a school in the Lake Atitlan area that houses about 200 students who can barely afford to attend school. The effort was started by the one and only Katie Monson and so far it has been a huge success! As an incentive to get kids to bring gifts, they get to dress up on Friday as a coordinated "spirit day" if they bring something to donate. Today's theme? Crazy Hair and/or Moustache Day. Kids and teachers came to school with glitter, pipe cleaners, and way too much styling gel all over their hair. Students and teachers, both male and female, also came to school with moustaches drawn on their faces. To say the least, we looked like the most attractive school in Guatemala... maybe even in the whole world. Just sayin'.

"What tattoo do you want? I can draw a flag of
Spain or Guatemala."

Today also happened to be "Market Day" in third grade. When I was student teaching in Kansas, the fourth graders had a market day when learning about economics and it was one of the most hilarious activities we did the entire year. I suggested the idea to my team last week since we were learning about "making change" in math and we thought we would give it a whirl. It ended up being a total hit and the kids, and us third grade teachers, just about died of happiness. Each student had to provide a good or service, create an advertisement, and list a price for their clients. We printed out a crap ton of fake quetzales (the name Guatemalan currency, and also the name of the national bird) and gave every student Q. 25 to purchase goods and services from their peers. The kids sold their products throughout the entire third grade and we were even able to entice quite a few brave and hungry teachers to come checks out the market run by 8-year-olds.

Mr. Brown getting his hair did but a gaggle of giggling girls

Ladies and gentlemen, the brains behind the toy drive,
Miss Kite!

The best part of the whole experience was seeing just how incredibly creative my students are. In Kansas, I'd say about 75% of the class made some sort of dessert. Here, we had ideas from teaching foreign languages to telling jokes to doing make-up to temporary tattoos to Hebrew name tags to Harry Potter masks to bowling lessons. It was incredible! I had one student who advertised "Crazy Hair Dos" do my hair crazy for crazy hair day and another who advertised "Face Pain" (she forgot the "t" in paint-- hilarious) draw a moustache on my face. Smokin' hot. After almost an hour of buying and selling it was time for recess and the market day came to a close. Some kids had upwards of Q. 95 when they finished (I think they thought they got a prize for making money; nope!) and some spent every quetzal they had. In all, it was blast and though I had a stomach ache from all the candy I ate, the image of those kids beaming with pride as they sold their hard work and spent their earnings was priceless.

This kid couldn't figure out why no one would buy his cookies. I told him he may
have been lacking in enthusiasm, jajaja!

Miss Makenzie with her moustached student :)

After Market Day, the students had to give a brief presentation about their dream. We read a story in Language Arts about a girl who dreamed of becoming a professional basketball player but had to overcome many obstacles (mostly sexism) before she could get there. Most of my kids want to be professional futbol players, lots of them want to be teachers, a few of them want to be video game programmers, and many of them want to be whatever their parents are. One girl about made me cry again when she explained her dream of becoming a teacher. "I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I got to third grade and had the most awesome teacher ever, Miss Hannah. I hope I can be like her when I am a teacher!" WHOA! Either that kid was doing some seriously brown-nosing or she had some lame teachers in the past but regardless that comment sure required I do some intense tear-holding-back strategies like biting my lip, looking around the classroom, and laughing. Another girl said she "wants to be a professional diver because [her] teacher Miss Hannah inspired [her]." Holy cow, niños! Maybe they are all secretly trying to make me cry now that I already did it in front of them. They probably have a club at recess where they all practice saying endearing things so perfectly that it just makes me lose it. I'll keep an eye out for this club and report back with you.

Tomorrow we have "Family Day" at Inter from 12:30-7pm. I really don't know what to expect. There is a humongous tent on the field, probably close to 30 food vendors, posters and signs all over the school, an elementary talent show (we are doing the Habitat Song!!!), a raffle with prizes such as tickets for four to Miami, and a bunch of parents running around with their heads cut off trying to get things organized. We're all required to go but are only required to work for one hour-long shift. I'm going to babysit, Leah, my favorite little four-year-old neighbor for most of the day and hopefully play some games with my students for the rest of it. I'm sure I'll have a ton to blog about after tomorrow so hopefully I'll get back with you on Sunday. Oh! I'm running a 10K with Walter and Leslie on Sunday and then we are having a Thanksgiving feast with the North American teachers since we had to go to school on Canadian Thanksgiving and most people are going out-of-town for the American one. OH! Also, I'm Employee of the Month at school! I don't really know whose idea that was but there is a bulletin board in the main office with my picture on it. I guess employees of the month get rewarded with an additional personal day with pay at any time throughout the school year. Yes, please! I thought I would make my family proud by taking the picture below... its very fitting, eh? :)

Employee of the Month? ;)