My week in a blink

I was sitting on the bus coming back from Gracias this weekend and realized that I had not posted a blog in a while! (Sorry to anyone who may have been checking for a new one only to be disappointed at my laziness.) Then I tried to think of what on earth could I actually write about since my life has been rather uneventful since we have not traveled anywhere, and my mind instantly drifted to my students and school. I realized that I could conjure about a pretty decent blog that highlighted the events of last week.

Grades: Our first partial officially ended and I have turned in my very first ‘final’ grades as a teacher. At Abundant Life, a grade of 65 or above is considered passing, and if you have a 64 or below that you are considered to be failing. I am proud to say that none of the ninth graders are failing my math class! The two students that I was worried about slid past with a 67 and a 69. Phew! Hopefully they do better this next partial because those grades were too close for comfort. In third grade I only have one student who is genuinely failing third grade – Elman. He may be a sweet and curious little boy, but he is truly not the best student and I am worried about him. I already keep him after school twice a week to give him extra help, but his mom asked if he could stay every day. Unfortunately I have my own work to do so I told her that I could not manage that, plus I would really like to see him learn how to study on his own. Other than him I have a few other students who are failing a subject or two. Overall everyone is doing much better than I thought! (In my classes anyways. I did get the chance to look at their grades for the subjects that are taught by other teachers and they are not doing so well. I am realizing that my group of kiddos is not the brightest bunch in the school, but I still have hope for them.) Parent-teacher conferences are on Saturday so I will have the joy of explaining all their grades to their parents, wish me luck!

Third Grade: We had an excellent week in science! Our new unit is on plants so this week every student got to plant a seed in their very own cup. To be honest I was a little nervous about the soil that we put in there so I have been praying like a fool that God helps those seeds sprout. They also all passed their science quiz with flying colors (all A’s and B’s)! I think that is one of the best tests/quizzes that they have taken as a whole. Unfortunately they performed at the exact opposite level for Reading. We are focusing on ‘sequencing’ for two weeks and they all bombed their quiz. While they know the vocabulary that I taught them, when they had to apply the skill to a 1^st Grade comprehension level reading passage, they panicked and dropped the ball. Good thing it was only the quiz so I have another week to work on that particular skill with their little minds.

In math we reviewed all of our multiplication facts from 0-7 and they are rocking it! I have started them on timed multiplication tests to practice their facts. They have 2 minutes to get 35 problems entirely correct. If they pass, then they get to color that facts’ number and put it by their name on the wall. We have begun counting (U.S.) coins and that has proven to be a challenge. Another challenge is making sentences in Basic English. This unit focuses on daily activities and once again they know the vocabulary fairly well, but they cannot use them in context. I am trying to teach them how to conjugate verbs for different subjects in order to make more coherent sentences, but everyone is struggling. (For example: “I get dressed” instead of “I am get dressed,” or “he takes a shower” instead of “he take a shower.”) I know with more practice they will start to remember the rules, but I will know that they have really mastered the material when they can speak correctly formulated sentences.

Speaking of knowing how well my students are doing… I have noticed a minor detail but a rather big one in their English skills! A few of my students are now answering the question “How are you?” like a normal human being instead of sounding like a robot. If you ask any of the younger students (and probably quite a few of the older ones) “How are you?” they will automatically answer “Fine thank you, and you?” It’s just what they have been taught to answer with, like you or I would answer “Cómo estás?” with an instant “Muy bien, y tú?” But I have had a breakthrough with a few of my little ones who actually answer the question with how they are really feeling instead of their automated, pre-recorded response! The first time I heard it, it actually caught me off guard, but then I immediately felt proud that they are learning.

Outside of class Rolando made my week by gifting me a pair of earrings :) He wrapped them up in a plastic bag with a note that said “You are my favorite teacher in old the school” (yes, he put ‘old’ instead of ‘all,’ but I overlooked it because his gift was so precious). They are beautiful purple beaded earrings and I instantly put them on to show him my gratitude and that I loved them, but more importantly that I love him more.

Ninth Grade: On Tuesday I gave a homework assignment to my students that consisted of 16 problems to complete, all that would help them prepare for their quiz on Wednesday, and I gave them about twenty minutes to get started on these problems in class. Unfortunately only 1 student received a passing grade on the assignment because 4 of them decided to not turn it in, 4 chose to only do about a fourth to half of the assignment, and 2 made the worse decision to copy the homework. I had more zeros on the assignment than I knew what to do with so I decided they all had to be punished. I scolded them on Thursday about what it means to be a good student and doing their homework WITHOUT copying it from someone else (all topics that I have previously discussed with them in the same scolding manner). I proceeded to tell them that everyone, except the one girl who actually did the assignment and put effort into completing it, would receive the following punishment: they would all lose their participation point for that day, have to keep their failing grade on the assignment, and then have to stay after school on Friday to re-do it since they neglected it the first time. They all thought I was kidding about the last part, until I showed up to their classroom after the last bell rang on Friday afternoon.

Work?: Apparently Hondurans and foreigners have two very different ideas about showing up to work. This has happened in the past but it was really bad this week and extremely frustrating for the rest of us: some of our teachers decided to not show up for work and didn’t give anyone advanced notice. The 1^st grade teacher showed up late every single morning because her maid apparently quit so she had to take care of her daughter (thus continuing the cycle of ‘not showing up’). While this is a totally legitimate reason to be late in the morning, she did not let anyone know that she wouldn’t be on time and the 1^st graders ran free and wild until someone noticed that they were without a teacher. The 4^th grade teacher was in Tegucigalpa all week for a doctor visit. Again, a completely fair reason to be gone, but she didn’t tell anyone that she wouldn’t be at school for the entire week until Monday at dinner time (after already not being present all day or answering her phone). And one of the Spanish teachers didn’t show up to school on Friday because, as her sister put it, “she had better things to do.” Seriously? You would be fired instantly in the States for doing something like that. The rest of us teachers were running around like chickens with our heads cut off all week trying to cover their classes.

Volleyball: We have been participating in a community-wide volleyball tournament over the past few weeks. The kids at the public school organized the event as a fundraiser for their school, so the teachers at Abundant Life put together a team to participate in the tournament. We played our final games this week because we weren’t the BEST team. We had a lot of fun playing and did our best to compete, but we fell a little short. Even though we didn’t make it to the playoffs of the tournament, we were valiant players and had battle scars to prove it – Cassidy twisted her ankle pretty badly, Kara and I both had bruises on our arms that looked like someone was abusing us, and there were a few scraped knees as a result of playing on a concrete court. We are going to keep practicing so that we perform better in the next tournament, and we are also going to request that they change the times of the games because they had us playing after dark and usually at 8pm (to their advantage because as teachers, that was too close to our bedtime to function at our best).

T.I.H.: I have had the unexpected joy of witnessing a few of the students driving this week. A fifth grade student was seen driving through town in a truck, all by himself. A sixth grade student was cruising around on a motorcycle, also all by himself. And a ninth grade student was putting through town behind the wheel of a big bulldozer. They have taken seeing your students outside of class to a whole new level!

The Weather: The seasons are changing in La Unión. Some people call this the rainy season and others call it winter, but whatever it is, I’m not sure I like it. We had a lot of rain due to Hurricane Sandy (all my prayers go out to those who were more deeply and directly affected by the storm) but that is just the start of a long and very moist winter for us. The temperatures are dropping and rain is more frequent. We no longer have rain storms, just rain. The town is supposed to be in this constant state of ‘damp’ once winter is in full swing – always misting, cold, and with plenty of mud to share. Since we do not have heating of any kind down here, I’m preparing myself to start looking 10 pounds heavier with all the layers I will start wearing to school.

Health: Please be praying for our teachers this week; last week we had multiple teachers out at one point or another. Kara has a parasite of some kind in her system and it doesn’t seem to be leaving her alone. She’s already been to the clinic once to seek care but she’ll have to go back this week because the meds aren’t working. She has been sick after every meal and has sharp stomach pains. Mrs. Turcios was in Tegucigalpa all week to seek medical attention on a bad knee. She is quite overweight and desperately needs to shed a lot of it if she wants any hope for relief on her knee. Mr. Bustillos (the secondary Spanish teacher) has an unknown disease or condition that has rendered him helpless. In his past something happened that left him paralyzed; however, since then he has regained motion in his legs but still cannot use his hands. Sadly he relapsed this week and was sent to Tegucigalpa because he could not walk and needed emergency medical treatments. Beth was feeling very under the weather in the middle of the week.