Kids Day

Welp, I should really be filling out my report cards right now but I've noticed that the lack of blogging is creating bigger distances between myself and my readers. I don't want to lose you all so I am sacrificing one of my plan periods to make an update. Do you feel special? You should :)

Well as mentioned, the end of the quarter is today which means over the last week we have been giving final exams, grading, entering scores, writing comments, entering data, setting up conference, etc. Our jobs get intensely hectic for a week and a half each quarter and no matter what we do to prepare ourselves, its incredibly time consuming.

Anyway, on Friday we all took a break from it all and celebrated "Kids Day" at school (though my mother always told me, "everyday is kids day!"). It ended up being "Hannah Day" for me as I enjoyed my first moments of fame... well, lets be honest... my last moments of fame. We had an assembly with these clown-like (but not dressed as clowns luckily) ladies teaching the kids dances and other such things. All students grades 2-5 were packed into the cafeteria while screaming and eating popcorn and drinking sweetened juice. The clown ladies then asked for one teacher for each grade level to come on stage to spin a plastic plate on a plastic stick. I was egged on by my kiddos and went on stage. Then before the act even began and as soon as all the other grade level teachers were on stage, the entire audience, for whatever reason, started chanting, "Mees Han-nah! Mees Han-nah! Mees Han-nah!" It was the greatest moment of my life! All these tiny people cheering me on! I felt like I was a superhero about to save Guatemalan children from an unentertaining "Kids Day." Unfortunately, I was not particularly talented at plate spinning so my early success proved to be a fluke but still. Nothing really makes me happier than when little kids show their love for ol' Mees Ana :)

3B on "dress as you want" day... are you loving my dude on the far right?

I guess that is about all I am going to have time to share with you today. I promise to become more dedicated to sharing these storie just as I always promise. Maybe I'll start posting my updates so you won't have to check and be disappointed every time there is nothing new?

Birds, Bottle Bricks, and Brother-withdrawls

This morning while I was getting things ready for my students who were arriving in a few moments, an early student ran breathlessly into my classroom shouting, "Miss Hannah! There is a bird in Mr. Gordon's class!"

(Now, I haven't done a good job of introducing you all to the new staff but Mr. Gordon is the new third grade teacher who has graced Inter with his experience, positive attitude, and incredible ideas. He was making some copies in the office at time which ended up being a huge helping of irony as Gordon is an avid bird-watcher while I am an avid bird-hater.)

I creeped out of my classroom and slowly started towards Gordon's class, taking deep breaths and doing some self-talk. I didn't even make it halfway there when 4 students ran out of the class with one of those students holding the bird in her hand. Seriously.

This sweet girl looked at me innocently and asked, "What do I do now?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh... well... [gulp]... go over there [points to opposite direction of self] and open your hand while raising it up so it can fly away."

Child releases bird and Miss Hannah ducks. Other students laugh at Miss Hannah.

"Okay, now go wash your hands realllllllllly well!"

Turns out the bird was panicking more than I was and had knocked over a plant and thus spilled soil all over the floor. I ran to inform Mr. Gordon of such and he remained calm as usual. Made for an interesting story though!

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I don't want to get TOO excited about this bottle bricks thing until after the weekend but Jaron and I are meeting with the NGO Hug it Forward who funds the bottle schools this Friday in Antigua. Katrin, our ECA director, is coming with me right after school so we can discuss our contributions to the school and our ideas for how our students can be involved and possibilities of the students from the school we hope to build coming to visit us. We've got HUGE dreams for this project, I just hope their aren't too huge. I leave you with this link to check out the current situation with the bottle schools and this one to explain the bench we hope to build at Inter.

One thing I can say for sure is that my Earthkeepers club as increased enrollment to over 20 members. Some students even told me that they plan on coming but couldn't make it yesterday. What a relief! I even have some 4th and 5th graders there that are making my job so much easier (now that its not just me and 5 other Kindergarteners in the room, geesh!). We are planning an assembly to perform for the elementary school in two weeks to teach about how we can recycle and what materials we will need in order to get these bottles made. EXCITEMENT OVERLOAD!

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Yes, Mr. Zack has returned to Seattle. My kids were convinced that he was just a dude that has nothing to do in his days but travel the world (wouldn't that be nice!?) and were asking me questions like, "Why he go?" and, "Well what will he do now?" It's really funny to me how kids cannot conceptualize adults going to school. I think they picture them in an elementary school classroom with their knees up to their ears while they sit in tiny person chairs and mold their answers to questions with play-dough. Hm, sounds awesome.

But overall, Zack's visit was more than incredible. So many lives were changed because of his one month devotion to this country. My students adored him and cannot stop talking about him. My friends wanted to hang out with him more than they wanted to hang out with me (no hard feelings, he's pretty darn likable). My brother himself is now considering following the path of teaching. And I was in a constant state of jaw-drop as I watched my baby brother walking around my current country of residence with maturity, interest, perspective, open-mindedness, kindness, eagerness to know more, hilarity, and grace. He had his eyes opened to a completely new place and didn't let anything hold him back or shock him to the point of disliking the place. He is quite frankly one of the most well-rounded individuals I know and I am so thankful that I was able to spend almost two months in total with him in the last three months. 

I really do have a rock star family (NOT sorry for bragging!) and I seriously cannot wait for Sarah and Weston to come in December... a little over 2 months to go!!!

I Scream, You Scream

We made ice cream today in class to 1. celebrate Mr. Zack's last full day of school (SAD FACE!) and 2. work on our "following multi-step instructions" abilities. At first... it was total disaster. The students didn't seem to get why they spent all language arts the previous day taking notes with the directions for how to create the sweet treat. They would come up to the ingredients table, smile, and say, "Vanilla!" What do you mean vanilla?! Do you want a box full of vanilla? Two vanillas? The whole container? Give me some details! Go back and read the instructions. Almost every kid was sent back to their desk to review the directions and once they finally made it there they were able to ask for the appropriate amounts of unhealthy things for their ice cream. 

As soon as they got to the movin' and shakin' part of our project, however, things got a lot more fun. Here is a video for you to enjoy from our day :)

Please also note that the students listed the ingredients as, "vanilla... ice." You know, like the white rapper from the 90's? Word to your mother.

Finally! A Brother Post!

Ok, so I'm starting to get into trouble for not blogging, and for those of you who know me this shouldn't be terribly shocking as I tend to just drop of the face of the earth sometimes, but yeah, anyways, my sister's pretty good at peer pressuring me. So I should probably begin by saying, "Hola, es mi, Pablo!" but I feel like literary pseudonymity isn't really all that vogue anymore, slash the theatrical effect would totes be lost on most of you, so I'll drop things down a notch and accept the anglo-american banality of my first name. I'm Zack, and I am in Guatemala.

I'd like to say that my arrival in Guate was painless, but that would be boring and not worth a paragraph, so yes, I can attest to the just nature of my sister's post when she so elegantly recounted my late night episode of waiting...alone...stranded...in the dark... outside of the world's most ghetto-fab airport after 12 hours of chugaluggin' through tropical storm Gerty. Worst. Sister. Ever. Nahhhh just keeding. It was actually pretty funny. I got to meet a pair of exceedingly kind Guatemalans (it seems to be more of the rule than the exception here. Except of course for the ones that like to murder people), and it's always a pleasure to see my dearest sister again. I don't know if any of you have had the good fortune to chat with my sister past midnight, or when she's just up from a nap, but good god is it fun.The convo is generally pretty groggy, pretty hard to follow, and never fails to make me smile. :) After arriving at Los Rincones, he apartamento, I ate some lasagna and was shown to my suite.

The following morning, ie- 3 hours later, I was awaken at 5:45 (the earliest I've been up in ten years) and got ready for my first day at Colegio Interamericano. I was decently awake, some coffee required, and maybe just a little bit nervous at the thought of my first face-off with a group of 8-year-olds. In the game of elementary school, every day is a battle, a perpetual struggle of influence, an incessant attempt to establish one's authority. I've seen a 3rd grade teacher loose control before. It ain't pretty.

Just kidding. Turns out they're not actually monsters, as I once so firmly believed. We like to play games like tag, 'Mr Zack is a monster', and hide-n-seek. Except they insist on playing it in a field, sooooo, yeah. I don't think they quite get the concept. I wish I could thoroughly chronicle the daily comings and goings of 3-B, because to be quite honest, getting to know these kids has been one of the coolest parts of this trip, but to do so would be anything but fair. They're just too cool for that. So, if you truly want to get a taste of Miss Hannah's glorious Guatemalan life, I suggest you start by spending some time in her classroom :)

In fact, I was so touched by this experience that I myself have begun seriously considering the prospect of teaching (public affirmation=self contract?). Although I'm well aware that I'll never live up to my big sister's reputation as a B.A.T. (bad a$$ teacher), I have a lot of energy, a lot to offer, and I think I could get pretty used to signing two year contracts and living all around the world. Thinkin' maybe China? Sorry mom! ;)

Speaking of living around the world, I'm so thankful to have had this opportunity to spend an entire month getting to see a country I likely would've never known otherwise. Guatemala is a beautiful country, with amazing natural beauty, impressive diversity, unending adventures to be had, and a whole lot of problems. I was lucky enough to come at a very particular time with the arrival of the rainy season, guatemala's 190th b-day partay, and the presidential primary elections. The combination of political propaganda strewn about the entire capital (literally posters on every available surface), and the daily monsoon around 3pm made the grass all the greener on the other side of the city limits. I was able to spend a significant amount of time out of the city at Lake Atitlan, the beach, Antigua, and Semuc Champey (coolest place I've ever been) so we definitely took full advantage of our free weekends.  I'll write up another post for Semuc Champey, because it deserves the extra attention, but I think I'm gunna call it quits for now. Spent about 5 hours in the toilet blowing chunks etc. last night (bless your bitter heart, Montezuma, but that's Central America for you) so I think I'm gunna take a nap in Miss Camille's class while the kids are at recess. Thanks for reading! :)

pic sures

Day one of our egg experiment

AMAZING family :)

Dance party with Meester Sack!

look! we voted! and its really sunny outside!

amazing Israeli food from a coworkers dinner party

Move Yo Body with Beyonce

Even Kinder kids can care about the earth!

Dinner at Walter's

Our "dorm" in Semuc Champey

Jumping off stuff again

Eating stuff again

faux toes

Here are some pictures to hold you over in the meantime while we await Zack's epic storytelling :)

piñata danger

A perfect day in Antigua with an amazing family

Lake Tapps ain't got nothin' on Lake Atitlan

Mayan King

Blame the Brother!

Okay, I've been asking Zack to write a guest entry for two weeks now but with no luck. Maybe if he gets some pressure from you readers he will do it?

Things have been really wonderful with Zack here. We went to Antigua, the beach, the lake, stayed in town to do some exploring one weekend and are about to prepare for our 4 day weekend at Semuc Champey. My students just love him and he feels the same way about them (he is even looking up ways to pursue teaching after this experience!). He also fits in perfectly with my friends as I laugh about how they will text me looking for him... where's the love?!

No but I would really love for you all to read his take on it all, especially since this is a completely new experience for my world-traveling brother.

Things in Guatemala are looking just as sad as ever. Its an election year and apparently Guatemalans have chosen the most outragous two out of the ten possible candidates to run against each other; former civil war army general vs. drug dealer. So, essentially it looks as though crime and drugs will increase. Though I read recently that those may not be the two biggest problems this country has. I realize this article is old, but it explains the findings of malnutrition worldwide and how Guatemala ranks the 6th worst country in the world for malnutrition. And though my students can all afford to eat healthy, complete meals, many of them still come to school with sugary drinks, chips and cookies... for their entire lunch. We are doing an experiment in class right now with hardboiled eggs in various types of drinks. We look at the eggs each day to see the affect the sugar and carbonation is having on the shells. Yesterday, after coming back from the weekend, Zack and I were shocked to see that the "Grapette" (basically soda grape juice) drink had changed from a dark purple color to a pale shade of blue. Had someone accidentally spilled the liquid and replaced it with gatorade? Did the dyes in the drink changed from purple to blue to entice my small children to drink it? Or was it because the Grapette was the only liquid "powerful" (in the words of my students) enough to crack the egg and release the necessary gases to change the color? Either way, I think after showing my class the swollen, broken, purplish-blue egg they might actually think twice about drinking that garbage... or maybe not. We'll see!

Alright I'm going to get going but will post some pictures later today. And send some threatening messages to my brother and maybe he'll write too :)