Meanwhile, Back in Tela...

Due to all the weekend trips, I have been neglecting writing updates about my home-base city of Tela and my lovely school. So...

School
Last week was review week and this week was the 3rd quarter exams. The children only come to school from 12:00pm - 3:00pm during exam week. They take 2 or 3 exams a day. The teachers have to stay until 5:00pm... even if we finish grading and planning. On Monday, the first day of exams, I went to the office to ask for the copies of my exams and they didn't have them. They had to go get them from the copy place. I didn't get my exams until 12:20pm and then the founder, Ms. Graciela, had to check off that each student paid their monthly tuition, otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to take exams. I finally got to start my first exam at 12:30pm. Luckily it was a shorter exam. In Christina's class, their first scheduled exam was Spanish and Mrs. Calix, the Spanish teacher, didn't even arrive at school until 12:25pm. Off to a great start.

My students (I teach 3rd grade) have been doing well. In math, we finished a unit on division and one on fractions. We also constantly review previously taught units on place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, rounding, time, and comparing and ordering numbers. The kids are really developing a strong grasp of the concepts.

In science we had completed a unit on animals. Afterward, to get more reading and writing time in, I put the kids into pairs and each pair chose an animal to research. The pairs had to read books together about their animal, talk together about their discoveries and thoughts, and take notes. Then each student (after first writing, revising, and editing a rough draft) was responsible for writing and illustrating their own book about the animal. The books turned out so cute and the kids are really proud of them. I am trying to set up time for them to read them to a class of younger kids.During writing we have been working on dialogue. Before that we worked on possessive nouns, when and when not to use past tense, choosing between 'a', 'an', or 'the', using different forms of 'to be' (is, am, are, was, were), putting adjectives before nouns, punctuation, capitalization, and friendly letter format. All without using any of those insipid, out of context, workbooks the teachers rely on here. My class has been writing their own stories and pen pal letters to develop these skills in context. Their current writing compared with that at the beginning of the year is drastically improved. It is still not perfect but it is so rewarding to see how much progress they have made and how confident they have become.

In word study we have worked on contractions, plurals, irregular past tense verbs, sorting the regular past tense verbs by ending sound ("ed", "d", or "t"). We have done a little work with long and short vowels sounds which I am not sure how useful it is for the kids. Being English Language learners, they especially need help with pronunciation but I am still struggling to find a better way to go about it.

Reading is always more of a struggle but the students are progressing. Read alouds and shared readings permeate the day. I often start the day with a poem or book promotion and incorporate books, or excerpts, into each lesson. We sometimes do picture walks before reading, summarize as we read and make predictions. I am still helping the students question the texts, make meaningful connections to themselves and what they know, analyze the characters, think about bigger ideas in the texts, and especially choosing books that are right for them.

During each independent reading session, the students write some of their thoughts as they read and, at the end, they have time to talk with a partner about their books. Most of the students are adept at decoding the words correctly but struggle with the meaning. I really push them to choose books they can understand that are not confusing. It is hard given the limited number of lower level books I have to offer. Each time I finish a read aloud, the students clamor around, begging to be the first to reread it on their own.

I honestly don't know what I would have done with no books at all and only the impossibly high reading textbooks which are now gathering dust. Thank you again to those who donated books and money to get these kids better resources. The kids adore the library, even if small, and they encourage children from other grades to check out books too. The school even built us bookshelves and the kids helped organize and label the books by genre or topic. I have been tutoring two kids, Anastacia and Luis, after school three days a week for one hour. Both began the year extremely low and are still way behind but they are progressing and have much more confidence in themselves. In August, Luis refused to write anything. Then by October, he would write but only in Spanish. Anastacia would just write the same non-word over and over again on her papers. Now they are writing full pages in English, taking time with each word, and are proud of their work. (They still have a long way to go but what an improvement.)

They have also become more confident readers. In August they couldn't read basic Kinder sight words and are now reading first grade level books independently. Both of them really put in the effort to read with fluency. If they struggle with a word on the page, they will use numerous strategies to solve it and, on their own, go back and reread the entire sentence until they feel it sounded smooth. They are also now participating in the read-aloud discussions and offering up their own comments about the books. (Everyday you see fires in Honduras, mostly people burning yard waste, but not always right in front of the school.)As far as behavior, I have mentioned in previous posts that my class is the most well-behaved of the elementary grades. I still agree with this. They often act up for their other teachers (social studies, spanish, computers) but they are really great with me. They do their work, raise their hands, participate in discussions, are polite to each other, and don't complain. They all honestly seem to really enjoy the class and the work. Maybe because the work is more authentic and not worksheet based. Maybe because I love teaching and it creates a great aura in the room. Maybe because I respect, adore, value, and am patient with each one of them. Maybe I just got a cohesive, well-behaved bunch. Whatever it is, I leave school each day with aching cheeks from all the smiling I have done. I couldn't imagine a more rewarding job.

Compared with the kids in San Diego, the kids here are much more innocent. They have less attitude and are less mature (in a good way). The kids have more a true childhood and don't try to act so tough and grown up so soon. They are more able to just be kids. They have similar interests as the kids in San Diego: boys - playing video games, tossles, sports; girls - gossiping, drawing, writing notes. They all like playing on the computer and watching TV. The girls here definitely have more of a princess complex than those in San Diego. They all want to be women and there are hardly any tomboys. On free dress days, their hair is styled, they wear short skirts with high heels and carry purses and sometimes even wear makeup.

Oh, and the other day one of my students brought in a chick and a little lamb ran across the school yard. The Mall
It was gray and raining last Saturday (weird since the day prior was 90F and had bright blue skies) so Christina and I decided to go to the movies. About two months ago a brand new mall opened in Progreso, about an hour bus ride away, and it has a movie theater. Prior to this the closest theater was in San Pedro, 3 hours away. We got off the bus and enter the Mega Plaza Mall. I don't generally enjoy going to malls but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

All of a sudden we felt transported into any American mall. It was all indoors with immaculate and shiny marble floors. There was a large food court with Wendy's, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Subway, a smoothie bar, four ice cream stands, a chicken food place, a taco stand, and Dunkin' Donuts. There was even an Applebee's restaurant. While we sat in the food court, a stage in the center featured a children's fashion show with music blaring and an announcer screaming over it causing both of us headaches. Next to the stage were two clowns making balloon animals and an inflatable house for kids to bounce around in.

There were about six shoe stores, even a Payless. There were many clothing stores ranging from large, two-story, department stores down to smaller boutiques. There was a hair salon, two stores for body builders filled with those huge plastic jars of their weird pills, four cellphone stores, a pharmacy, and a grocery store. It all seemed surreal and out of place. I mean people are living in tiny shacks right across the street.

The movie theater had 3 screens which were currently playing: The Wicker Man (the remake with Nicholas Cage), The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, and some other film about a dad and his little girl that looked unbearably hokey. We opted against the movie and just took the bus back home.

Due to the weather, the ride back was somehow magical. The dark sky with the clouds perched on the mountaintops, the intermittent drops blowing across the windows, the cool air penetrating my sweatshirt, and my ipod playing melancholy, thoughtful tunes. I will really miss the bus rides here. The views on all of them are just gorgeous.

Bracelets
On Sunday our new friend, Genesis, came over to teach Christina and I how to make bracelets. She is only 14 but she's fairly mature and down to earth. She brought over her big bag of colored thread and showed us how to make two different kinds of bracelets. One employed a wrap around technique where you could pull threads out to make your name. The other was more of a knotting method where each side of the bracelet has the opposite pattern. It was fun. I once again felt like I was back on childhood summer break. Especially when afterward she had us play hand clap games and thumb wars with her.

La Rueda de Chicago
There was a carnival in town this week so of course we went to check it out. It was just like a carnival in the states. There was cotton candy, popcorn, candied apples, and other food. There were games: a few gambling games similar to roulette, a shooting game where you knock down army men for prizes, and a game where you roll marbles into slots for prizes. The prizes were the usual, mainly stuffed animals, trinkets, and Tupperware. There were also many rides (which you had to buy tickets for): bumper cars, a roller coaster made to resemble a caterpillar crawling on leaves, a ride with octopus arms which each held carts and every part spun in the air, two little and one large boat swing, and a merry-go-round.

And it wouldn't be a true fair without a Ferris wheel, which is here called "la rueda de Chicago" (since it was invented in Chicago by George Washington Gale Ferris for the Columbian Exposition of 1893, a celebration for the 400th anniversary of Columbus "discovering" America. Read more at: http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/newsletter.html ). Christina and I wanted to ride it but there were no other people riding it and they wouldn't let just us two ride alone. We waited around for about an hour hoping others would show interest, I mean they were riding other rides, but no one came. We went home feeling despondent. Semana Santa
Next week we have no school for Semana Santa (their name for Easter week). Christina and I are taking a 12-hour bus to Guatemala to meet my sister, Reina, at the airport. We will immediately head to Antigua to check out the quaint city life and hike to an active volcano with real live lava. Then we are off to Lago de Atitlan to enjoy the gorgeous views and traditional Mayan culture. Our final stop is Rio Dulce for a jungle canoe ride and takin' it easy. After our jam-packed 10 days in Guatemala, we will circle back to Tela where my sister will spend 4 days getting to know my lovely city and the surrounding areas. I am so excited and I promise to write all about it when we return.

(Meanwhile back in reality... my school district in San Diego has to cut $80 million from it's budget! I was told I will be excessed from my previous school site as I am lowest in terms of seniority there and they need to excess 2 teachers. Also the district is sending out pink slips to anyone who signed their contract after Aug. 2002 - I signed mine Aug. 2003 so I will get one. Hopefully they will rescind most of the pink slips. I have been teaching 6 years now and it is still not secure employment even with a master's degree in education, a contract, and union membership. I love being a teacher and hopefully will get to continue being one when I return. If you want to help... write, email, and call your legislators informing them of your concern about the funding for education. I mean, besides doctors, what could be more important than teachers?)