Well, this was my second official week of teaching 5th grade. It is so much harder than I imagined it would be. I'm realizing how teaching styles are so different and how different people can set the environment in their classrooms. Although the kids seem so undisciplined and regressed, I see growth in their academics and in their personalities. It has been frustrating jumping in and trying to understand what Laura has done for the past 3 quarters while not changing too much from their daily/weekly routines. To top it all off, I'm getting a new student on Monday. I decided that he's just going to have to figure things out and I am not going to spend a ton of time trying to catch him up, when honestly I don't know what to catch him up on.
Honestly, I have been so angry, bitter, and impatient towards anyone and everything JCS lately. I feel so ready to move on and ready to start something new and exciting. I feel not helped in my new adjustment, everyone just tells me that it'll get better soon. I miss my 3rd graders. It's hard going in there and teaching them and disciplining them when I don't feel like it is my classroom anymore. Although Jess has been amazingly patient with my new teaching situation, I still feel awkward sometimes just stepping into someone else's classroom and teaching/disciplining.
It's hard to take a step backwards and realize that my problems and frustrations will be insignificant in a few months. I'll be desiring to be back in the DR, with my students, my friends, my new adopted country.
Thankfully God is faithful and I know this "low" will be gone in a few days. I just pray for encouragement and direction and a job in the States soon...
Field trip #2 this week went much smoother. Thankfully the party-pooper of the field trip wasn't in my class, so I got to relax and just enjoy time.
Our first stop was to the monument in Santiago and didn't get to go inside or go up in the monument. So we just killed some time, walking around looking at the statues surrounding the museum and taking lots of pictures and enjoying life.
Then we went to the Centro Leon cultural center again. We went to a Visual Art section (not the modern art section...) and low and behold there wasn't paintings of nudity, there were full blown photographs of women from the top up naked and men from the top up naked. Now, obviously the men aren't a big deal, but jeesh. They're 10, 11, 12 years old. Seriously. Don't stop and make them sit down and analyze the pictures with nudity. Idiotas. Anyhoo, then we got to go to the highlight of the field trip: McDonalds. Everything went so smooth this time, thanks to our once-again-amazing field trip coordinator, Dilania, and our secretary, Yesenia, who called in the order early. So I got to gorge myself twice this week on McDonalds and man, I can't complain. :) Although, I did get in a fight with one of the Spanish teachers. Guess who won, even speaking Spanish...
I'm so excited, sidenote, because my friend Janessa and her husband are coming to the DR this weekend!!!!!!!! :) :) :)
Yesterday was my first (and LAST!) field trip with my 3rd graders. Let me tell you. It was a doozy! We all got on the bus fine and it was a fun ride to La Vega, dancing (in the seat), singing, and talking. We went to see some ruins of La Vega, the city center that had been demolished by an earthquake. That's when things starting going awry. Basically, it was a big playground for the kids. They were going nuts.
As a teacher, I was freaking out because there were tall rocks everywhere that the kids were playing on, and all I could see in my head was one of them falling and breaking something. Well, all of a sudden I heard a blood-curdling scream and figured the worst had happened. When I turned around, all that had happened was a kid had gotten stung by a bee. DRAMATIC. UGH. Moms everywhere were comforting this poor child and I just wanted to tell him to suck it up!
Then we made the trip to Santiago, my patience wearing thinner, Jess taking ibuprofen to keep her headache at bay, yelling at kids to sit down and face forward, yelling at moms to be respectful of the teachers' directions, etc. Diale! It was insanity. Then we get to the cultural center, Centro Leon. We are supposed to see the Modern Art portion (big red flags going up) but then our AMAZING field trip coordinator, Delania, got us in to go see the Anthropology part of the museum. Super cool and grade level appropriate. Low-light of that part: right in front of our tour guide, two boys were going back and forth, grabbing each other's private parts in front and in back! AHHHH!!! I wanted to die, I was so embarrassed at their terrible behavior. (BTW: I had to say Anthropology in Spanish about 4 times and it almost killed me. Tongue twister for the gringa!) Then we went, for the last 30 minutes, to the Modern Art portion (where the 2nd graders had spent their hour and a half...). LOTS OF NUDITY. Jess and I were standing in front of paintings so the kids wouldn't see. RIDICULOUS. Delania was so ticked off and it was awesome to see her at work.
Then we finally got to the highlight of the trip: McDonalds. CHAOS.
Trying to get kids the correct meals, other teachers being unhelpful, kids running around with their shoes off, playing like crazy, leaving their trash everywhere, being super loud, ay-yi-yi it gives me a headache just thinking about it.
So we're getting ready to leave, I'm cursing the students who just purchased ice cream because they aren't allowed to take it on the bus, and Delania is trying to get everyone out safely to the mothers that she has stationed around the outside of McDonalds to get back to the bus. All of a sudden a random teenager runs up to me and says, "One of the boys just took off running across the parking lot." I'm thinking, "I am seriously going to kill the kid that ran in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION of where he was supposed to be." The teen runs over and sends the little boy back to me, and I am spitting fire. I cannot even talk I am so angry at him not following directions. It still kind of makes me a little angry.
We finally all get to the bus. The ride home is exhausting, hot, and long. The bus starts pouring water from the air conditioning units. Parents are getting soaked, kids are getting soaked. It's a mess. So the moms end up standing so the kids can sit in their seats.
Seriously, it was a crazy day.
OH: Story of the day:
One of the little boys, right as we are getting ready to leave McDonalds, comes over with a soda and an ice cream cone. "Ezequiel, you know you can't take that on the bus, right?"
Tears pool up in his eyes as he replies, "It's for my mom."
He seriously wanted to take an ICE CREAM CONE back to his mom an HOUR AWAY.
Seriously. Common sense por favor!
As most of you know, at the end of this year I will be returning to the United States for good. At least for now. :) Although it was a tough decision, and daily I wish that I could forever stay with these kids, I truly think it is time for me to return back to the US. I'm considering moving to the Baltimore area with a friend who worked down here in the DR with me last year, Natalie. (Ironic, eh?) And possibly teaching or working with Young Life, an organization that I've come to know and love over the past year.
It seems like far in the future when I am leaving, as for now I am making another big change. My friend and coworker Laura is going on maternity leave starting on Monday and I have agreed to take over her 5th grade class when she goes. What does that mean for my kids? Well, this week we've combined the two third grade classes and I will be giving up (most of) my prep periods in order to be in the third grade classroom as much as possible. My co-teacher, Jessica, has so graciously stepped up to the challenge of having these 23 kiddos in the class.
It wasn't a decision that I really even got to make, as it was the only decision that could be made because the substitute that had been hired, backed out about 2 weeks ago. Although I've known the possibility of me teaching 5th grade, it didn't make it any easier to tell my students nor is it easy for me to leave them. It still makes me tear to think about the fact that I am not going to get to teach my wonderful 3rd graders anymore.
I could probably explain the tumult of emotions that I've felt over the past week, but I don't know that it would do any good, as the decision has already been made. But I know that if I would have been given a choice, I would have stayed with my 3rd graders. It has been a rocky year, but I have grown to love them so deeply...It's funny, but I kind of feel like I've been demoted. I feel like I got fired from my kids (mainly because I had to pack up my classroom and move all my stuff out and everything) and am now having to be a sub. Ironic because my friend (and admin) Karen sent me her "evaluation" of me today, which praised me a lot. and it is just funny because I have to "step down" from 3rd grade but am getting praised. I dunno, just ironic...
I'm here to serve at JCS, not to get my own way, and if this is what God has for me, then I will follow.
Pray for all the kids as they are adjusting to new teachers and new procedures and new situations. The positive is that I was the teacher of the 5th graders last year, so I know them and who they are and what they're like. Keep praying for us. and please pray that I can find a job soon!
This week I began my unit on Alaska. Let me tell you, it is awesome. I love teaching science (geography?) I love teaching Stone Fox. I love everything about teaching units. Let me tell you what. So on Monday we began our unit and filled out our map with all the important places in Alaska. Then I made a big deal about how we were going on a field trip to Mt. Denali (Mt. McKinley for you lover 48'ers)
How was I supposed to know they would take me so literally?!
So anyways, they all thought we were legit going to Alaska on Tuesday from 2:30-3:15.
When they got in class and saw it was a virtual field trip, my lesson got two incredibly large thumbs down. Complete with grumbling, heads down on desks, yells at me for being a liar.
2 boys even cried.
C'est la vie. Live and learn that you can't leave 3rd graders to figure out things logically...
Can you tell I was excited? and yes. that is my 100 peso hat. LOVE it.
This weekend I have the awesome opportunity to go whale watching with some friends. Holy cow. AMAZING. I wish I could express how happy I was to see these huge, amazing creatures floating gently and gracefully in the water. Out of the 15,000 whales that currently reside in the DR, we saw two. But I was content with that, as it was a mother and a baby calf.
So now it's beginning to be crunch time. I have many things on my DR Bucket List that I haven't quite accomplished yet. Thankfully I have great friends who are willing to do amazing things with me.
with some young boys who participate in Carnaval
Last weekend we went to Carnaval in La Vega. Supposedly it is 2nd to Brazil. I don't know about that, but it was definitely a good experience. :)
my adventures in the Dominican Republic. speaking Spanish. teaching. making friends. loving life. playing. riding my moto. and learning about Jesus. take 3.
Well, this was my second official week of teaching 5th grade. It is so much harder than I imagined it would be. I'm realizing how teaching styles are so different and how different people can set the environment in their classrooms. Although the kids seem so undisciplined and regressed, I see growth in their academics and in their personalities. It has been frustrating jumping in and trying to understand what Laura has done for the past 3 quarters while not changing too much from their daily/weekly routines. To top it all off, I'm getting a new student on Monday. I decided that he's just going to have to figure things out and I am not going to spend a ton of time trying to catch him up, when honestly I don't know what to catch him up on.
Honestly, I have been so angry, bitter, and impatient towards anyone and everything JCS lately. I feel so ready to move on and ready to start something new and exciting. I feel not helped in my new adjustment, everyone just tells me that it'll get better soon. I miss my 3rd graders. It's hard going in there and teaching them and disciplining them when I don't feel like it is my classroom anymore. Although Jess has been amazingly patient with my new teaching situation, I still feel awkward sometimes just stepping into someone else's classroom and teaching/disciplining. 
