What Teachers Make

This week seems to be dragging on forever. Usually the week begins and by Friday I can't believe it went by so fast. This week I've been waiting for Friday to come and I finally get my wish tomorrow :). 

This weekend is going to be fun because I'm organizing a halloween party for the volunteers and the Honduran teachers at school. Brie sent me an e-mail with some costume ideas and I decided to go as a gypsy/fortune teller. I think it's fun but simple enough to pull off in Honduras. I plan on going shopping with Lacey tomorrow to get a skirt, shirt, and some awesome jewelry! I'll be sure to update the blog on Sunday and post some pictures of the party.

So many funny things have been going on at school:

A few days ago I brought a ham and cheese sandwich to eat for lunch. My aid was taken that day to help out in third grade so I couldn't leave my classroom to put it in the refrigerator. I quickly scanned the room to see who would know enough English to go and put it away for me. I asked a little boy who I was pretty confident would understand my directions. He said he understood and headed towards the teachers lounge with my lunch in hand. He returned to the classroom five minutes later and walked in with my lunch still in hand. I thought "Dang! He didn't understand. Let's see who else I could ask"...but as these thoughts are going through my mind he hands me my tupperware container, that is now scolding hot. I immediately asked if he put it in the microwave and he just said "I could not find it". As I drew a picture of a microwave on the board and acted out putting the container inside, he shook his head yes, and confirmed that he had indeed heated up my cold sandwich. Since I was really looking forward to that sandwich, I decided to have another student put it away for me. When I ate it for lunch I just pretended it was a toasted sub from subway that I couldn't finish and had to put in the fridge.

Yesterday a dog got into the school as they often do, but I was walking my students down to an empty room to practice our letter sounds when they saw it. They all started saying "dog, dog, a dog Miss King". I confirmed that yes it was a dog and made sure none of them tried to touch it. You never know what kind of condition a Honduran dog may be in. It just cracks me up that those kind of things happen in the middle of my school day. Actually at church last week a dog wondered in and just laid right below the alter for the entire mass. Pretty comical!

The journal entry today was "What would happen if animals could talk?" I encourage all of my students to try and write at least one English word and then draw a picture. Most of the kids today wrote down one of their vocabulary words. This week we are learning the words: jump, skip, skate, hop, spin, walk, run, throw, etc. I saw a lot of jumps and spins in journals this morning. One of my little girls though came up to me and had these letters written on her paper: "Glo". I of course read it as "glow" because that is how I recognize it phonetically. When I asked her what the word was she said "Hello". Then I thought "Of course! G in Spanish makes the H sound, so that would be how hello would sound to her." How cool!! My kids are doing inventive spelling in Spanish to create English words. They are still a long way from writing well in English on their own or reading anything, but they're making incredible progress!

Toni Layer, you are a saint and the most wonderful blessing! I wish you could have seen my face when I opened your box. I got it yesterday and I was beaming all last night and all day today. The kids love the folders and they went crazy when they saw the foam shapes and letters. One little girl came up to my desk and said "Oh miss, muy bonita (very beautiful)". I can't wait to use them for an activity in class or for one of their centers.  I'm so so so excited to finally be able to put name tags on my desk with the contact paper. It'll help a lot with some of my behavior problems. I was using the scotch tape all day to tape some of the students books who had pages falling out. I can't believe you sent peanut butter and granola bars! I literally screamed out loud when I opened the box and saw those things. Thank you so much for your generosity and thoughtfulness, it means so much!

Incase you were wondering what teachers make:

Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see life with a clearer view again. - Alex Tan

Dios es Muy Bien

It's only Saturday :)...

This weekend has been wonderful so far and it's not even over yet!

Thursday night I played my first game ever of soccer! I was really nervous about playing since I had no idea what I was doing, but it was so much fun! A small group of us were going to go and meet up with some volunteers from other organizations, but none of them showed up, so we just played with a group of Hondurans. I didn't play horribly but at one point during the game the ball was flying towards me and instead of head butting it my instinct was to volley it. Haha! Jeff yelled from the other end of the field and said "wrong sport, Bridget!" It was pretty comical. The volunteers usually play every Friday, so I'll definitely start joining them from now on.

Yesterday was very productive! Michelle and I got up and had a nice little breakfast that consisted of eggs, potatoes, and toast. Then we deep cleaned our house and I spent a few hours getting all of my laundry washed. We watched a few hours of Glee with Anne and then got our grocery shopping done for the week. Last night we headed over to Maki and Peggy's to make some stir fry and have a girls movie night. The stir fry had cooked carrots in it and I think that's the first time I've had cooked carrots in many many years and I didn't get sick! When I was little I would puke up anything that had any hint of cooked carrot in it, right mom ;)! But they actually weren't bad...maybe my taste buds are finally changing :).

Today has been a day full of music and as a result I am in a wonderful mood! I woke up and listened to some good hip-hop jams as I got some lesson planning done. Then I rocked out to some awesome spanish christian (cristiano) music this afternoon! Rosita brought her flash drive to school last week and let me put all of her Christian music onto my computer. When I was heading back from cayos cochinos a few weeks ago they played nothing but christian music on the bus and I was in heaven. I'm in love with christian music in spanish...it's amazing! This song completely consumes me and makes me SO SO SO happy:



I hope you love it as much as I do!

I'm such a happy girl!!

peace.

it does not mean to be in a place

where there is no noise, trouble,

or hard work. it means to be in

the midst of those things and still

be calm in your heart.

The Ties That Bind Us

The secretary at our school, Milsa, lost her father two days ago. I went to the showing on Tuesday night and then to the funeral on Wednesday. She is only thirty years old and her father was only in his early fifties. It was so sad!

It was such an experience to go to something like that in Honduras. When someone dies here the family holds the showing that same day and it lasts all night. This is a time for family and friends to gather together, talk about the deceased person, share stories, and eat. The emotions everyone expresses are so raw and real because the death has just happened. It was amazing to see people drop everything they were doing to come and show support for Milsa and her family. In the states sometimes people can't make it to a funeral that's been planned for four or five days because of prior commitments or being out of town. That doesn't seem to be as big of an issue here, and it's so nice!

I'm exhausted this week and looking forward to my three day weekend. I don't know why we have the day off tomorrow but I'm very grateful! I had planned to go out of town for at least a day but then I decided my time would be better spent getting things done for next week. I always feel overwhelmed during the week because I can never get anything done on the weekends. So this one should be very productive!

I taught my students all about rectangular prisms, pyramids, spheres, cubes, and cones. A lot of people thought I was crazy for teaching first grade ELL students these topics, and maybe I was. But I don't like to water things down too much for them because I want to challenge them and see what they can retain. Well I found that at least one of my students retained that information, yesterday, as I was discussing same size and same shape during a math activity. As I was holding up a puzzle as a prop I asked "What shape is this?" Many students shouted out "square!" But one little girl said "no, cube." I was thinking there is no way this girl really remembers this but then when I held up a book as another prop and asked again "What shape is this?" the students shouted "rectangle!" The same girl shook her head and said "no, rectangular prism." Holy Moly!!! How exciting!!! I was so proud of her and even if she is one of the few who remembers that lesson I'm happy!

Another great thing happened yesterday as well! During our science lesson I poured some water into a cup that I drew a line around. I had the students predict what would happen to the water. Some said it would stay the same, some said it would get lower, and others said it would get higher. Other students thought it would freeze or get really hot. I had asked the students to date their papers and draw a picture of what the water looked like in the cup. All of the students did this and were very eager to show me what they had drawn. It's a constant battle to get my students to stay in their seats and raise their hands to show me something. Well one little boy came up to me to show me what he had drawn and I noticed two different pictures of cups on his page. As I looked at them I realized he had drawn a prediction picture of what the water would look like on Monday. I was SO proud of him I just bent down and gave him a huge hug! He just laughed and laughed and walked away with a huge smile of pride on his face! I then quickly had three or four more drawings like this because all of the kids wanted a big hug :). I love that I'm allowed to hug my students everyday!!

Three day weekend here I come...


“We live in deeds, not years: In thoughts not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.” –Aristotle

Emily Elizabeth

I would like to dedicate this blog post to my sister Emily, who is the light of my life and turns 25 today!

I love Emily for so many reasons:

She's absolutely beautiful! She is so photogenic and has one of the best side profiles I've ever seen! Case and point:

Overlooking the Badlands in South Dakota

Gorgeous

Lake Lemon

She is SO much fun:

Roadtrip

Imitating how we looked going down the ski slopes

Trying on the candy lips at a wedding we went to

Giddy-up

We look alike and even make the same facial expressions:

I think the glasses help

Haha-neither of us knew Theresa was taking our picture

We have experienced a lot of "firsts" together and I really value that :):

First time skiing

First time hiking through the Badlands

First Mini Marathon

She has an adorable cat:

Tinsel Bear

When I ask her to take goofy pictures she always agrees:

I LOVE my sisters!

This one is definitely a framer for our Mama

She has the most wonderful and contagious laugh. When the two of us get started it goes on for awhile. I love to laugh with her:

She was my very first friend :: insert picture here of three year old me squeezing the life out of two year old adorable Emily, as she looks for an escape route ::

She is eternally supportive of everything I do in my life. She is always cheering me on and encouraging me to do what makes me happy!

She has one of the most incredible hearts of anyone I know!

Feliz Cumpleanos Em! I can't believe you're already a quarter of a century. Sorry I'm not there to celebrate with you but I'm definitely thinking about you today. I can't wait to celebrate when I'm home in December. I love you!

"to laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!" - Emerson

Mt. Boqueron

The start of our hike

Sonia was very prepared! This cute cow really liked her and wanted to eat her blue sachel. It was hysterical to watch her yell at it and try to swat it away.

As we were hiking along there was a section of the trail covered with cows. It was so much fun to see them all interacting with each other. These three were cracking me up! The guy in the middle looks so annoyed with the two in the front. They were doing some friendly head butting.

Tobacco field with a view

This was the most incredible view from the whole hike! It was insanely beautiful up there. There wasn't a summit so this was highest view we got. 

Sonia wouldn't smile, so...

I made her take another picture and this is what she did. I love her! This woman lived in Moscow during the Cold War and has visit countless other countries. She speaks Russian, Arabic, Spanish, and English. She is in amazing shape and full of adventure. She's going to the island of Utila in a few weeks to get her scuba diving certification. Oh, and she saves cute animals all day long!

I was able to see all sorts of beautiful things on my hike up the mountain:

This butterfly had the most amazing blue wings! I wish I could have gotten a picture of one with it's wings open, but it was hard enough to get this. They don't land for very long!

Tree Frog

Awesome caterpillar!

Whoo hoo -- I made it! I did a little jog and sang "Eye of the Tiger" as I rounded the last bend.

Our group -- Carrie, Anne, Jeff, Andrew, Me, and Michelle

This was taken on the way back down. What a beautiful view! 

The grass was extremely high in some places...literally over my head at points. This was the view I had for about a half an hour on the way down.

Check this out...a truck, a chicken, a man with a machete, and a boy on a horse all cruising down the street!

"God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart. ♥" (Thanks Brie)

Happy Birthday

We celebrated Angela's 30th birthday this past Sunday night. Since it was the big 3-0 we decided to surprise her with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and some Champagne to toast the event. 

Here's Angela with her glass of Champagne 

Andrew pulled out all the stops when it came to making Angela's birthday cake. This is a triple layer (white, chocolate, white) cake. It has strawberry jam, chocolate, and whipped cream in between each layer. With strawberries and chocolate drizzled on top. We all very much enjoyed our slice of this yummy cake!

The highlight of my week was receiving a box from my Aunt Karen! It had all kinds of goodies in it and my face just lit up as I pulled each one of them out. You did a great job packaging everything Kare! The syrup didn't leak at all. The air freshener melted a little bit, but it stayed contained within it's bag and smells wonderful. I'll definitely be enjoying some good meals with all of the things you sent!

My lone freezer now has some M&M love in it! As you can see I already dug in :)

Honey Roasted Almonds (my favorite), chocolate frosting, and peanut butter...YUM!! I love them all. I was down to one sandwich's worth of peanut butter when I got the package. Perfect timing!

Braeden - I love the picachu sticker! This is such a great drawing! The house has so many details and I really like the cloud you drew under the picachu. I hope you're learning lots of fun things in second grade and being good for your teacher :).

Makayla - What a wonderful picture! I love that you drew me with my glasses on and flowers are one of my favorite gifts . I'm trying to teach my students how to say please and thank you. I bet you're loving Kindergarten so far! Miss King is a good teacher, isn't she? 

I have both of these pictures hanging above my bed in my room. It makes me so happy when I come home at the end of the day and see them. I can't wait to see both of you during my Christmas break :o)!

Thank you very much for sending a package for me Kare! It was so generous of you and I it was like Christmas morning to open it :)!

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any fellow-creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again."

Giving Thanks

Hi Bridget's friends and blog followers!  This is Brie.  BK and I have been friends for almost 20 years!  We both have a blog, so we thought it would be fun to guest post on each other's for a day.  If you'd like to follow my blog, just go to www.brieg.blogspot.com.  

Yesterday at mass, our priest was talking about being appreciative and giving thanks.  Most of us who grew up with manners say "thank you" to someone when they hold open a door, buy us a meal, or do something nice for us.  Too often, though, we forget to say "thanks" to the people we are closest to in life.  Did you tell your mom how much you appreciate the cookies she made for you?  Did you express gratitude to your friend for meeting you on short notice to have coffee?  Did you tell your dad how much you like your new fire pit that he built for you?  

It's amazing how we can be so polite to strangers, and yet sometimes forget to express our gratitude to the ones we love the most.  

So, here are a few things I'd like you to thank God for today:

-the clean air you're breathing

-the warmth of the sun (or perhaps a nice, cozy sweater)

-the clean water you're drinking, using to shower, and using for your laundry

-the food you have to eat - you have so many options!

-the money you have in your bank account - it's obviously enough to start an account

-the opportunities you have had so far in life - education, church, social interaction, etc.

-freedom

-people who sacrifice their time and energy so that others can grow, have freedom, get healthier, etc. 

-sunsets & sunrises

-the chance to start over each day

-(one of my personal favorites) a nice bed to sleep on, so that you will wake up refreshed each day

-the friends in your life!

-your family!

-God's unconditional love! :) 

...and if that's not enough, check this website out on any given day for 5 things to be happy about: http://www.thingstobehappyabout.com/cloud-calendar.php

Today's list (in case you can't open it): 

THINGS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT

• unshrinkable flannel shirts
• soft lamplight
• a favorite trail
• when blushing subsides
• food, love, literature
• kid-sized backpacks

I have to end with a quote, since Bridget always does!  

"Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit."

Gordon Parks

Me Encanta Mi Clase

My students are the most beautiful little people and I just adore them!

Yesterday during calendar I read them the story of Samson in our children's bible. We talked about Samson having pelo largo (long hair) and being very fuerte (strong). Maria Jose took this as an opportunity to show some of the boys in the class how big her muscles are. She was flexing and just had the biggest smile on her face. This girl is a spit-fire and very sassy! She lives in the orphanage and typically plays with the boys. She is always schooling them in whatever physical activity they may be doing. Today as I read our bible story the question "What do you want to be when you grow up" popped up. Most of the girls said they wanted to be teachers and a few said nurses.  It came as no surprise when Maria Jose raised her hand and said "policia!" That girl is going places! I can't wait to come back to Honduras in twenty years and see Maria in her police uniform. Then one of my boys said "Miss King"...that gave me a good laugh!

Teaching is the most AMAZING job in the entire world!! I get so excited everyday to see my students learning and participating more in classroom discussions. Yesterday as we were doing calendar I asked Jose Alberto (star helper for the week) to tell me what color our next circle would be. He looked at the number pattern and finally said "green, miss". When I asked him how he knew he pointed to the yellow circle and then to the green one that came after that! It's all about those moments. I get teary-eyed just thinking about it!

Even though I don't speak Spanish and barely understand anything my students say, they still talk to me every day. They act things out for me and they get so excited when I understand what they're saying. Many days they will teach me words in Spanish, it takes me awhile to get it but they are so patient with me! A few days ago Marcela explained the difference between nina and mujer. She said "Miss, tu mujer...Miss Varela es a mujer...yo nina." It was absolutely adorable! Even when I get frustrated with them and raise my voice to get them to sit in their seats or listen to me, they still leave school with a hug and a smile for me. If only all of us could have the unconditional love of a child. It's pretty incredible!

Last night as I walked to the store I heard a little boy yelling "Miss King, Miss King!" When I looked up I saw little Anyelo running to me. He just slammed into me and gave me a giant hug. I caught him cherry bombing lunch boxes in the hallway earlier that day and he got into big trouble for that. I actually thought it was funny to see lunch boxes go flying through the air from my classroom window, but he had to be punished. Even though I was stern with him he still ran to me like that. I just love that little boy!

I'm so grateful God has called me to a profession that gives me so much joy! Everyday something wonderful happens in my classroom that reinforces why I became a teacher in the first place. That is the most wonderful gift I could ask for.

Please continue to pray for me! I need help with being more patient and understanding with my students. I also need to find more creative ways to reach them because right now they are only understanding about 10% of what I say. That's frustrating for all of us. I know things will continue to improve and I'm excited for the possibilities ahead!

"No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness, and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure" -- Emma Golmam

You Might be in Honduras If...

Andrew had a rough day at school last week and wasn't in high spirits so I told him I would go home and send him some jokes to make his day better. I decided to send him a bunch of "You Might be a Redneck if..." jokes. My absolute favorite :)! That gave him the idea to do a blog on "You Might be in Honduras if..." These are the things he came up with...


1) When asking where something is, people respond by making kissy faces at you.
     Well, not AT you exactly. When pointing at something, it is customary down here to point with your lips rather than our finger. This is VERY disconcerting if you are not from around here. Especially when your students do it to point at the chalkboard behind you.


2) Clothes hung on the line to dry, when left out in the rain, are considered to have an extra rinse.
     Because honestly, it's just too much work to wash them again. They'll be a bit stiff, but at least they don't smell bad anymore.


3) When looking at a dog in the street, you wonder what's going on with it.
     Nobody spays or neuters dogs down here. Being a spoiled gringo, I'm used to pedigree, clean cut (in more ways than one) canines kept on leashes. Here they wander free, keep to their own packs and territories, and scare the living daylights out of anyone who walks past their house at night. The blind corners on the doorways get you every time. Thank goodness most doors have fly screens and wrought iron gates.

4) The sound of distant gunfire late at night seems normal to you.     
    What is this, downtown Baltimore city? Apparently two major families in the city are feuding and things have become a bit edgy of late. They aren’t looking for gringos, but it’s still best to keep indoors after 9 in the evening.

5) You have a high speed internet connection and no running water.
     I think I’m down to only three or four showers a week, depending on how much work I have in the evening. Honestly you sweat so much at night there almost isn’t any point in showering in the evening, you just end up waking up as filthy as you were when you got home. I would make an effort to shower more, but we just cleaned out the pila two days ago, and the water stopped running just as we started to refill it. If we want to be able to flush the toilet and do the dishes until we get water again, sacrifices must be made. On the plus side, all the dirt helps to keep the sun off. (***This last part doesn't apply to my house, but it's funny so I kept it in!)

Happiness is a conscious choice not an automatic response.

~Mildred Barthel

Some Like it Hot

This morning I was trying to make an egg for breakfast. When I went to check on it I realized it wasn't getting cooked at all. I felt the burner with the tip of my finger and realized it wasn't on at all. Then I felt it with the palm of my hand and realized it wasn't even the slightest bit warm. I turned on another burner to see if it worked, but it wasn't heating either. At this point I figured we had lost power, so I went to check my internet connection and I had one. So, I went back over to the stove and just banged my right hand down on the burner to try and wedge it into the stove top more. NOT SMART! The burner had turned on (there must be a short on the stove) and burned my hand! OUCH!!! Not a good feeling! At first I thought it wasn't that bad and I just ran cold water over it, but soon I was in pretty bad pain. Michelle had gone to mass so I was home alone. I called my neighbor Andrew to see if he had any burn cream. Luckily he was home and said he has some stuff I could use. Once I got to his house he was surprised to see that I had a rag covering my whole hand. When I took it off he said "OMG Bridget, that's bad! I thought you just grazed the pan with your finger. I'm going to get Peggy". At that point Jeff woke up. He got me a bucket of water to soak my hand in and started cracking jokes right away. In no time I was laughing and not focusing so much on the pain. Then Peggy and Maki came over to help and Lacey woke up as well. Now I had five wonderful people helping me and doing whatever they could to make me feel better. Peggy and Maki ran to the pharmacy to see what to do, but it wasn't open. Jeff had a book called "When There is No Doctor" and that determined that I had indeed gotten a second degree burn. No one had ever treated a second degree burn so Peggy went home to call her mom who is an infectious disease doctor. While she was gone Jeff put "Hook" in for me to help keep my mind off my hand. When Peggy got back she said I had to take my hand out of the water to dry it out, which I was DREADING -- that's when I felt the most pain! Her mom said it was important for the healing process. After Peggy gave me all the info I needed she made all of us some french toast :) - how nice!  Michelle got back from Mass around this time and she had some actual burn cream I could put on it, which definitely helped with the pain level. The aspirin Andrew had given me was also kicking in around this time. Peggy's mom said the pain would be really bad for the first two hours and still hurt for four more after that. She was right! It's been almost twelve hours now and after having the burn cream applied, taking a two hour nap, and eating some dinner that Michelle made for me :), I feel much better!

Here is a picture of the damage done:

This picture was taken six hours after the burn first happened. It's hard to see the blisters in the picture but you can definitely see the grid marks from the stove top across my hand.

I am so thankful that I only injured my hand. Today made me realize how much pain people go through that burn their entire bodies. I'm lucky it was only a second degree burn and I wasn't in pain for too long. It should be healed in about a week, which in wonderful! I'm so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people here. I don't know what I would have done without them today! 

I definitely learned my lesson and will not be touching anymore stove tops!

"It is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul of another." -George MacDonald

The Hills Are Alive...

With the "Sound of Music"!

My classroom is quickly becoming a full blown musical. My little guys have the shortest attention span of any class I have ever taught. That is due to a few things; most of my students being 5 years old and the fact that 95% of them don't understand any English. I try to remind myself of these key points daily when I'm ready to scream and rip my hair out because I'm so frustrated. So, I decided to change a few things up in my room to grab their attention! In the mornings they were taking 15-20 minutes to get their things unpacked while screaming and yelling the whole time. Since there are so many of them it would take me a solid five minutes to get them settled down. This is ridiculous! Now I'm starting to play a Greg and Steve song called "Good Morning" and they have the length of the song (about two and a half minutes) to get all of their things unpacked. I'm starting an individual sticker reward system on Monday--when a student receives twenty stickers they get a prize. Right now that will either be a book mark or a piece of candy. The first student to get their things ready for the day will receive a sticker. That goes for the afternoon too. When it's time to pack up and go home I play "The Freeze" by Greg and Steve. Every time the music stops they HAVE to freeze. They still only have the length of the song to get packed up. It's so fun to watch them dance around the room to get ready. Surprisingly the kids are more calm when they pack up this way too -- it's a win win situation! Here is a little video clip from this afternoon for your enjoyment :)

I also started singing lots of transition songs to get them moving on to the next subject. When it's time for calendar I sing "Are you ready, are you ready, first grade, first grade?" Then they respond "Yes we are, yes we are" and then I say "come sit down, come sit down". Sung to the tune of Frere Jacques. For Math I say "Give me an M (they repeat M), give me an A, etc." I still haven't come up with something for English and Science but that's one of my weekend projects. I have to be as high energy and enthusiastic as I can all day just to keep my students at bay. I know once they start learning more English things will get easier, but right now it's definitely a challenge.

My students took their first spelling test today. I knew more than 75% of them would flunk a traditional spelling test (where the students number their papers 1-10 and spell out all of their words). Instead I gave them a test I created. There were ten rows with three words in each row. I orally told them the words and then used them in sentences. The students then had to circle the correct word in the row. All of their words were part of the "an" family. Dan, man, pan, van, ran, etc. We have been going over these words for about thirty minutes a day all week. Which is why I was so sad when over ninety percent of my students failed the test. They are much lower academically than I was expecting. So now it's on to plan B. Monday I am going to start reviewing letter names and sounds with them and work our way up from there. My biggest goal is to have them reading by the end of the year and I'll do whatever it takes to get them there.

We had our first mass today and it was really cool to see. We will have an all school mass once a month. Today it was only 1st-6th grades but starting next month the kinder (preschool) and prepa (kindergarten) will also be joining us. The mass is held under our concha where the kids also eat their lunch. There are only a few chairs out there so students have to bring their chairs from the classroom. It was so cute to see my little first graders carrying chairs on their heads. It also made me really nervous because a few of them accidently banged their neighbor. Luckily we had no serious injuries. Here are a few pictures of them:

Kids getting ready to head outside

Katherine

Jose Francisco

Aren't they just adorable?!?!

Here is a little video of one of the songs we sung today at the mass. I love how lively masses are here.

I have a little girl in my class named Amanda who is constantly off task and not doing what she's suppose to. She has these super thick glasses that are never all the way on her face and she always looks very confused. Most days I just have to laugh at how out of the loop she is. Today was no exception. When the kids were packing up to go home I found Amanda on the floor by her desk just hanging out. She had made her religion paper into her own personal fan. She was chatting away as she fanned herself off. I had my camera out because I was taking the video clip I posted above. When I said "Amanda!" (wanting her to get her stuff packed up and not be playing around), she ran over and posed for a picture -- with the fan she should have never made in the first place. Ayiyi that child! But of course I had to take a picture once she was there, because it was too funny to pass up. Here she is:

Mom, thank you for the care package! I LOVE the sheets you sent. They make my room look so much more homey:

And I gobbled all of those peanuts right up. I'm enjoying the last few in the can as I write this blog:

Tomorrow I'm going to wash out the can, cover it with construction paper, and make it into a pencil holder for my desk at school. I love things that have multiple purposes!

Oh, and I'm going to cover the boxes you sent with construction paper too, and use them for my books at school. My students will be very appreciative!

One of the things my parents wanted me to do this year was create a blog for them. They wanted me to record videos of the songs we sing in class and the spelling and vocab words we're learning each week. A big thank you to my Aunt Monica for translating my first post for me :)! Here is what I created:

http://missking2.blogspot.com/

Please ignore my horrendous singing and get a good laugh at how silly I look. I only have one song up so far, but I'm going to try and record the rest of them this weekend. Next week I will start going over spelling and vocab words. Should be interesting!

On a more personal note I am currently reading "The Noticer" and I absolutely love it (thanks Julie)! It's a book about perception, and how changing the way you think about and see things can change your life. If you happen to pass it in a bookstore I would definitely pick it up. In the first chapter a man named "Jones" says:

"Everybody wants to be on the mountaintop, but if you'll remember, mountaintops are rocky and cold. There is no growth on the top of a mountain. Sure, the view is great, but what's a view for? A view just gives us a glimpse of our next destination - our next target. But to hit that target, we must come off the mountain, go through the valley, and begin to climb the next slope. It is in the valley that we slog through the lush grass and rich soil, learning and becoming what enables us to summit life's next peak"

Ah, I just love it! It's such a wonderful analogy and so very true!

In another part of the book he is helping a man who is suffering from depression and this is what he tells him to do:

"On a notepad, I want you to list things in your life that you are grateful for. You can list names, objects, feelings...anything. Remember to list clean sheets and a roof over your head--knowing there are millions who spent the night without either. As you eat breakfast or skip it, remember the millions who have none. Be generous and creative as you list the many things you have to be grateful for, young man. Don't be shy about writing the same ones down every day...You will be grateful! After all, the seeds of depression cannot take root in a grateful heart"

I hope this makes all of you think about the many wonderful blessings you been given in your own lives. I know if I wrote down everything I was grateful for I could probably fill hundreds of notebooks!

God is incredible, so:

live with intention.

walk to the edge.

listen hard.

practice wellness.

play with abandon.

laugh.

choose with no regret.

continue to learn.

appreciate your friends.

do what you love.

live as if this is all there is.

-mary anne radmacher