Surprise Parties and Exams

Hello all!
I'm sitting here trying to think about what I need to fill you in on from the past couple of weeks but the reality is there just isn't a whole lot that I think is terribly noteworthy. I suppose the new of everything has worn off and I'm really beginning to settle into what feels like a normal life here. Things are becoming routine and I like that.

We had 3 days off school on the 7th, 8th, and 9th and honestly, I was so bored. I can only watch so many movies before I start to go a bit stir crazy. The night of the 9th I went to a barbecue with some friends where we watched the Cardinals/ Cubs game, played some frisbee, and ate together. It was a fun way to bring in my birthday. My birthday itself was super uneventful with the exception of the delicious cheesecake that I had that day. My big birthday surprise came on Monday at school...my kiddos practically pushed me out the door at the beginning of lunch and slammed the door behind me. A bit later, one of them came out the the cafeteria and asked me to please come to the classroom right away. I opened the door to be showered by confetti and shouts of "surprise" followed by a big group hug from my whole class. My 5th graders had worked together to plan quite the party complete with soda, food, a cake, and decorations. I was blown away! I'm sure these sweet kids have no idea how much it meant to me, but it is a memory I will forever treasure.

Classes proceeded as usual last week. 5th grade started long division and at first I was very discouraged because they really weren't getting it. By the end of the week though, they were all flying through the problems we were working on. I just love those moments when you can tell that they're really understanding new concepts. The 6th graders had a math quiz last week and most of them did really well which was super encouraging. In English classes, we've been working on writing and rewriting letters because I'm working on setting up pen pals with a class back home. The kids all seem pretty excited about this so I hope it goes well.

Tomorrow begins exam week. The students have tests in 2 subjects each day and we only have regular classes for half of the day. I'm thinking it will be a fairly easy week from a teaching standpoint as half of the day will be taken up by tests and I'm not introducing any new material while the kids are testing. We'll see I guess.

We've got Folklore Dance Day coming up next Friday and have FINALLY planned our trip to the ruins. I'm really looking forward to experiencing these pieces of Honduran culture. Hopefully I'll even get to learn some dances on Folklore Day!

Well, I suppose that's all I've got for now. Like I said, nothing terribly exciting.
Until next time, much love from Honduras!

When I don't even want to smile...

Another 2 weeks have flown by. I can't actually believe that's it's October already! Where have the past 2 months gone?? Seriously, where? I suppose they've gone to hours and hours of teaching, lesson planning, grading, etc. And that's a good thing. Just the other day, I left school thinking about how much I love my job and how this was definitely the thing that I was meant to be doing. And let me tell you, that is an amazing feeling. So let's recap what's happening in school:

I am enjoying teaching math more than I ever thought possible. If you know much about me at all, you know that math was always my least favorite subject. I have always said I'm terrible at math, but really that's just in comparison to all of the other subjects that I never had to even try to understand (I don't mean that to sound like I'm bragging, at all). There's just something about introducing a new concept and then seeing that ah ha moment on the kids faces when they get it that I absolutely love. The other day I was working with one of my 6th graders who generally struggles a bit and he would call me over after each step of the problem he was working on and ask if it was right. His face absolutely lit up every time I told him it was correct and congratulated him. It literally made my entire day.

We've had some fun in my language classes lately as I decided to take a week off from drilling the grammar concepts in the book. The kids get so bored with the textbook and I can't say I blame them. I know native English speakers who can't tell me how to form the tenses these kids are trying to learn. This week, we learned vocabulary for giving directions and then did activities with said vocabulary. My fifth grade classroom became a town on a grid system and each student go to decide what location their desk would be. We took turns directing each other from place to place. They had such a fun time with this. Perhaps my favorite thing this week was the map project I gave to each class. The students were to make up their own town and draw a map of the town. They could be as creative as they wanted and include whatever they wanted as long as they labeled everything in English and presented to the class in English.

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing I can think of as I sit here writing this is how much I laugh with these kids. They say that laughter is life's best medicine and I think that's the truest thing I have ever heard. If you follow my other blog at all, you may know that I have been at odds with my own mind, if you will, for quite some time now. Coming here in such a state was terrifying, I won't lie to you. Most days I don't want to get out of bed and barely have the motivation to do anything. Just functioning is a struggle. But then something happens when I hear my little 4th grade boys giggling and I ask them what's funny and one of them says to me, "Miss, I am a princess!" and they just crack up laughing and I can't help but bust up right along with them. Or when I hand out a math test and a kid says to me, "Wait, I need this first..." and puts on a bear hat. These kids can make me laugh hysterically when it takes everything in me just to paste a fake smile on. I am so grateful for their ability to do that, it's those little moments that keep me going.

I suppose that's really all I've got for you this evening. Thank you for following along with my journey. Until next time, much love from Honduras to you!

All of the celebrations!

I meant to try and keep this updated each week, but I totally missed last week. My apologies to all of you who are clearly extremely interested in hearing about my life.

Let's see here...on the 10th we had children's day. I honestly find this day a bit strange, as I'm sure most Americans would. I mean, kids have it pretty easy in life as it is. Do they really need a day off school for no other purpose than to play and eat candy? Whatever, Honduras believes that such a day is necessary. Los Pinos decided to celebrate this year by taking the kiddos to the "Aqua Park." It's a glorified pool with some slides and fountains and such, but the kids LOVED it. I really enjoyed splashing around too. We also had pizza and piñatas and, of course, lots of candy. All in all, it was a very enjoyable day and I know the kids enjoyed the treat.

We went back to school on Friday expecting to accomplish nothing. After all, the kids had just spent an entire day swimming the day before and wouldn't have school at all the next week. Little did I expect though that we would actually quite literally not accomplish a thing because we literally had parade practice ALL day long. Those kids marched up and down the road by the school for hours to prepare for independence day. Luckily, Mildred called the buses and sent us all home an hour early. The hard work paid off and all of the students did an absolutely magnificent job in the parade on Monday!

Tuesday we piled 8 adults into an SUV that seats 5 and headed for Omoa for a few days at the beach to celebrate teacher's day which was the 17th. It was a long and uncomfortable drive, but well worth it. We stayed with some of Mildred's family that has a nice, big house there and enjoyed a few days of relaxing at the beach. We also visited the fortress which was super cool. Miss Fanny tried to teach me how to make tortillas. I wasn't very good at it, but it was still a fun learning experience. We also got to teach the Honduran teachers some card games, this was probably my favorite part of the trip. Seeing a 20 year old play slap jack for the first time and get an absolute kick out of it was so much fun!

Now I'm enjoying a quiet weekend. I watched movies all day today and it was fantastic. Tomorrow will be lesson planning then back to the school thing on Monday.

Until next time world, much love from Honduras!

Bucket showers and 4 am fireworks

Sunday morning I rolled out of bed bright and early. I threw my sheets in the washer and settled in on the porch with a cup of coffee and a book while I waited for them to wash. After a lovely breakfast of macheteadas made for us by Mildred, I decided to hop in the shower before we went out for the day. Much to my surprise, in the time between doing laundry and deciding to take a shower, we’d lost running water. No problem though, not the first time I’d had to take a bucket shower.

Sunday day Mildred’s brother took us into Copán. On the way back home he made sure to point out cool Mayan points of interest and different random things to us like a cliff that people like to say is home to a gateway to “the other side.” He even took us to get an up close look at one of the Mayan steles that sit atop a hill overlooking the river. I loved being so close to all that history and cannot wait to explore the ruins park when we finally get around to it.

When my alarmed sounded at 5 on Monday morning, I was really hoping for a real shower. I was pleasantly surprised when I turned the knob and water actually began to flow from my shower head. Most unfortunately, that only lasted until my hair was full of shampoo. Washing all of that shampoo out of my hair on my own with only a bucket of water was a real adventure, but I managed. We didn’t have water again until Tuesday morning which made my unexpected 4:30 am wake-up call that day considerably more bearable.

That’s right, 4:30. What was my wake-up call, you may ask? Fireworks. Because why wouldn’t you set fireworks off in the streets at 4:30 am? It was flag day, after all. And apparently our neighbors are big fans of the holiday. Some of our older students were set to be part of the town’s flag day celebration and Mildred decided to take all of us white folk along so we could enjoy the experience. There were marching bands, dances, color guards, and of course more fireworks. It was a long day of standing in the sun but I really enjoyed it. The greatest part was watching some of our 8^th and 9^th graders perform a dance they had prepared, it was beautiful!

The rest of the week, school progressed on as usual. Thursday morning I got to lead the morning assembly so that was weird. I survived though. And it was really fun to hear a chorus of 108 kids say, “Good morning Miss Jacque, how are you?” They are adorable. The 6^th graders and I are getting along much better. I have realized that the best approach seems to be to teach only a very short mini lesson and then give them lots of time to work in class. They stay more focused that way and I am able to help them one on one when they have questions. I am encouraged each time one of the classes, or even just one kid for that matter, seems to get whatever we’ve been working on. It makes me feel like perhaps I really do have a faint idea of what I’m doing here.

In other news, Thursday evening, we got to cook dinner by candle light because the rain had knocked the power out for a few hours. Luckily we have a gas stove. I always enjoy the nights that we all cook together (which is most nights) but I found it especially fun to do everything in just by the light of a few candles. Unfortunately, none of us really knew any good ghost stories to share, but it would have been the perfect environment for telling them as the lightning cracked outside and we sat in the dim light.

Next week we’ll have children’s day, so only 4 days of actual school and the Independence Day parade the week after. The whole week after the parade we won’t have school and some of the teachers are planning a trip to the beach in Omoa. I’m very excited about the beach! It’ll be October before I realize it and that still seems so crazy to me. Almost seems like just yesterday that I was sitting at the airport surrounded by my family and friends ready to set out on my new adventure.

I’m grateful for each of my new experiences here. Things like having a few days without running water or cooking dinner by candle light when the power is out remind just how very fortunate my life has always been. I think we all need that reminder once in a while, even if we know the realities of the rest of the world, it’s easy to get comfortable in our little corners of the world and remember that  sometimes running water and electricity are huge luxuries to people. We have no water again today, but life marches on in the absence of modern conveniences.

Thank you all for your continued love and support on this journey!

Until next time. Talk to ya later, world!

Time flies and all that...

I kind of can't believe that another week is coming to a close. I really can't believe that I've been here almost a whole month. But 'tis true. I don't really have an awful lot to say this week, but I promised to try and keep this updated for all of you lovely people back home.

Despite the cold I have been fighting the whole time, this week has been great. First thing Monday morning I had a chat with the 6th grade class about how their behavior last week was unacceptable. I told them we would start fresh. We've started working with a daily point system and it seems to help. There are still rough moments, but we're getting along MUCH better than before.

This has definitely been a great opportunity to practice being flexible. For example, one of the math problems the 6th grade class was working with yesterday asked them to write the remainder as a fraction...they didn't understand what a fraction was and were all sure they had never learned fractions. Today's planned math class got pushed back for a quick lesson on fractions. I think they had merely forgotten learning them before because they caught on really fast. But I'm glad we don't have a standardized test to teach to because it gives me the time to go back and reteach things or spend extra time on lesson is we really need to. I've decided I would much rather take longer to make it through things than attempt to race through a textbook and leave half of the class behind.

I'm still not a huge fan of the early mornings, but I'm getting used to it. And the smiles and hearing "Good morning Miss Jacque" from each of the kiddos as they arrive is certainly one of my favorite parts of every day. And getting out of school at 2 is really nice, especially when I'm usually back in bed by 9! Mostly my free time at home is spent working on school things or reading or watching movies. The other day though, we went to the pool after school. That was a nice, relaxing treat! On a touristy note, last weekend we visited Copán to do some shopping at the school supply store and enjoy a nice lunch out together. We also went to a soccer game on Sunday-my first ever soccer game.

There's talk of visiting a school in a rural area tomorrow. And perhaps a visit to some of the Mayan sites on Sunday. We shall see. No matter what, I'm thankful for the weekend and time to recuperate from being sick. Going to school sick when you're the one teaching is way more taxing than when you're the student.

Until next time, world! Thank you for journeying with me!

My first week teaching.

My alarm went off SO EARLY on Tuesday morning. It's been a long time since I rolled out of bed at 5 am every day. But that's my new wake up time so I can be showered, have my coffee/ breakfast, and be ready for the bus that arrives around 6:40 and the school day that begins promptly at 7.

The first day was fairly uneventful, beginning with a welcome assembly then a day filled with get to know you activities and games. All in all, it was a great day and I enjoyed meeting the kiddos.

Speaking of the kiddos, I teach 3 grades. My home room is 5th grade but I also teach 4th and 6th grade math and language arts. The classes are very small, only 20 kids between the 3 of them. 4th grade is the smallest group with only 3 in their class. They are a fun little class of 2 boys who have lots of energy and a sweet girl who is new to our school this year. The boys have been very good about helping her since she has no prior experience with English and I'm only supposed to speak English with the kids. I do sometimes give her a word or 2 in Spanish because I feel bad knowing she's sitting there so lost. It's been fun getting to know these kids better! One of the boys told me yesterday about how he loves to cook. I asked if he could teach me to make tortillas and he just started rambling off about how to make them like it's the easiest thing in the world, it was so cute.

My 5th grade class is so amazing!! Seriously, those 8 kids are all wonderful. They are so smart and mostly very well behaved. I cannot wait to see how much they grow and learn throughout this year! I can see many of these kiddos doing huge things when they get older. Most of them are in the band and are also talented little musicians. Seriously, they're just great kids.

I'm having a bit more trouble with the 6th graders. They're sweet kids and several of them are really bright. But they are so hard to keep on task. It already feels like a losing battle with them when I have to tell them like 5 times to do something before they all actually listen. On that note, if anyone had any ideas for classroom management with 6th graders, please send them my way! These 8 kids have the potential to do really well in class, they just don't seem to care. They'd rather be doing random art projects or playing with their band stuff or talking to each other. I don't get that because I was always the kid who wanted to be in class.

Some things this week have been incredibly frustrating. There has been a lack of communication, near constant schedule changes, classes moving much slower than I anticipated, reteaching things that the class appeared to understand very well the first time around, a lack of books and materials for planning/ teaching, and just some general confusion. I've tried not to make comparisons to the American public school system, but that's been hard. When we're cutting classes down to practice for a parade, it's tough not to get annoyed and want to point out that we're losing valuable learning time.

But it has also been so great. The moments when we're talking about a new topic and I can tell that the kids are actually understanding it are so so wonderful. Totally worth all of the other frustration. I'm eager to see how things improve as we move through the year and I figure out the best ways to reach each group of kids.

For now, I'm happy to have survived my first week and am ready to enjoy a restful weekend with the other teachers!

Talk to you soon, world!

What am I even doing here?

At some point in my first week here, I was having a bit of trouble adjusting and I remember emailing my best friend and asking her, “What am I even doing here??” She answered me but in true fashion for me, I ignored her and instead sat there and contemplated if I was really cut out for this or not or if I’d made a colossal mistake. A few days later, we were Skyping and she brought up Cecil the lion, to my great annoyance. You see, I’m of the opinion that while it wasn’t right to kill said animal…it’s an animal. There are people dying all over the world every day of things we could totally help prevent, but we don’t seem to care. But a lion is killed and everyone seems to think the world is coming to an end. Wait, what?? Come on guys, you’ve got to be kidding me. 

This somehow lead me to the soap box that I love to get on about how it is vastly unfair that most Americans seem to think that just because they were lucky enough to be born in America, they win. By that I mean that basically anything to do with immigration or helping other countries generally turns into a bunch of rednecks yelling about their country and how they pay taxes and they shouldn’t have to pay for a bunch of people who aren’t from ‘merica because that’s not fair. Hmmm, ok. I’m of the opinion that we’re all just citizens of the world as a whole. We’re all people and deserve the same opportunities no matter where we’re from. Governments and countries are just entities of the people. It’s vastly unfair that just because someone is born in a different place than me, I have more opportunities for an easier life. Granted, I’m not saying I have any answers or that anything will ever change, it’s just how I see things. Karman calmly listened to me and nodded her head as I ranted and then said to me, “That’s why you’re there, all of that.” And I suppose she has a point. Even if I can only do one little thing to help a kid here have a better future, I’ve done what I set out to do. I’ve been especially grateful over this past week to hear those feelings echoed by my coworkers.

Mildred started the school 9 years ago in her house. She just wanted the kids of her community to have better options than running a pulperia or selling drugs. Her goal is to see her students go to university and use what they learn to better their country. This woman amazes me! She loves all of her students so much and has put so much work into making a brighter future for Honduras.

Jacqueline is a mother of 5 grown children and a grandmother of 14. She left her job in England when she felt that it was no longer doing anyone any good because it was becoming too political. Now she’s here in hopes of doing the little bit she can to give these kids the chance they deserve in life. That is so amazing to me!

Shane, Lisa, Katrina, María José, Yubissa, Jenny, Jacenia, Claribel, Sofía, Juliana, Fanny, Bedi, Ulises, Victor, and Skarlet are all amazing human beings who work so hard to make their school a great place for students to learn and grow and prepare to change the future. I am honored to work alongside each and every one of them.

This past week has been full of preparation for the new school year. From building a schedule to decorating classrooms, everyone has been hard at work. Tuesday we will open our doors to students and parents as we have our open house. I’m a bit nervous but very excited at the same time. The stack of math books that I need to make lesson plans for is daunting but it’s a challenge that I know I can handle with a bit of hard work. Just another new adventure I suppose.

Now that I feel like I know what I'm  doing here, I'm ready to really get started!

Thanks for all of your love and support on this journey! Say a prayer for the kiddos and the school and we get ready to roll. 

Talk to ya soon, world!