so I am going to begin with the things that give me greatest joy at working at JCS.
4 words: First and Second Graders.
I LOVE walking out every morning to the cafeteria area and being mobbed by wonderful, loving small children who want nothing more than a good morning hug or a FUERTE low-five. or to just hang all over me. It's seriously the joy of the morning.
I LOVE my lunch time. I have a special time with the maturing 3rd graders as we sit and talk about school, weekends, the latest Jonas Brothers news, and mostly I just love listening to them as they talk in Spanish and I try and understand what they are saying.
I LOVE after schools. I love being mobbed, once again, by the first and second graders chanting "eh-steekers, eh-steekers, eh-steekers" (stickers) until I give in and then have a massive group of students running up the staircase to my classroom. It's SO great.
Mostly I love the relationships that I'm building with the students. Estheisy who I've mentioned many times before is a big joy in my life. Every morning, noon, and afternoon I get ambushed by this little girl. Oftentimes while I'm sitting with the third graders at lunch, Estheisy comes and sits on my lap and I just hold her for awhile and then she shares my lunch with me. I love my special time with my special girl. :)
another joy:
daily I receive wonderful pictures of hearts and people holding hands and stick figures. I keep them all. I especially love receiving pictures from my friend Nathalia and notes from my dear friend Estheisy. After I write Estheisy a little note, I receive the same words in a note back to me. I think I should maybe start saying how awesome she is...therefore I will receive a note saying how awesome I am. no, just kidding!
Bonus story of love.
Today after I brought my students in from recess, they were writing in their Language/Writing notebooks, I happened to look outside and what I saw just made me smile and laugh a little out loud. I saw the first graders (specifically Miss Elmer's class) outside playing. They were giving each other piggy back rides (which they have learned from me...bad example. I'm sorry, Miss Elmer!) but the funniest part was that they were lopsided or the one on the back was much bigger, therefore they would both just fall over. again and again I watched the first graders just continue to give each other piggy back rides and falling over. again and again. Holy joyful. I cannot even lie to you, it made my day so much better.
Can I just say one thing I love about teaching in the DR? I love that I can go to a student's mom's store and pick her up and take her out for ice cream. One Friday night I just went to a first grader's mom's store and just took her out for ice cream. It made her so happy to spend time with Miss Kelsey and Miss Brewer, and it made me so happy to spend time with my little friend. I love that it is okay to just hang out with the students outside of school. SO different than in the United States. We are allowed, nay, encouraged to develop great relationships with students and are free to facilitate those relationship in any appropriate manner possible. One Sunday we had two girls over (twins: Carla Nicole and Carla Camille) just to spend time with us, play Uno, and go to church. Tell me about how that would fly in the US. not. I love this school because of this. :)
I am so encouraged by this. :)
I will try and update more later, but for now, this is the joy that is coming from my heart! :)
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