When you start hoping your students do bad on a pop quiz. Mind you, I do not wish anyone ill. I actually want all of these kids to do great, learn alot and succeed. However, we started reading the Diary of Anne Frank last week. Well...CORRECTION....I handed it out and they were supposed to start reading. I know they did not read the first ten pages like they were supposed to, they know they did not read the first ten pages like they were supposed to - so what is one to do? Coming from the teacher who said on the first day 'I LOVE HOMEWORK' as I have proceeded to give them homework a majority of the days - my solution was a pop quiz. Some questions were a bit more tricky, but some questions easy enough that you could almost guess the answer (e.g., what noise did they hear that scared them - answer: soldiers. One of my students guessed because there were tanks, guns, plans and soldiers. I gave him a quarter point for good guessing). Anyway, hopefully that will jolt them back into reality and allow them to study a bit more. At the end of the day, these are really smart kids - so I'm hoping that they throw all they have at this play as I think it is a great one.
I wish you all could hear this. There is a car alarm going off in the La Palabra Parking Lot - its like every $50 alarm you buy at Radio Shack back in the states. It prevents nothing - but it sure is both loud and annoying. Wait...it stopped for a second....oh wait...its back on. My ears hurt.
Anyway, did you all catch the news today? The U.S. government decided we needed another one trillion dollars in taxes and bailed out all the finance companies. I'm too tired to do a 'my analysis' of the situation. At the end of the day some variation of a saving plan was probably worth while, but when you think about the long term impacts its pretty staggering.
Anyway, hope everyone is going well. I'm going to try and listen to another Covenant seminary lecture before I get too tired to be of any use. If you get a chance, write us and tell us how you are doing.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Where do I start...
Its been so long I hardly even know where to start. We just completed our second full week of teaching (my last post was right before our first day). I would say that Christy and I are starting to 'feel' like teachers which makes our class go a little more smoothly. She has a class of mostly 9th grade girls that - if not interested in learning - are at least a bit more respectful. I on the other hand have a class of mostly 10th grade boys who....well....I guess act like 10th grade boys. But, none the less after what was a totally frustrating first day, have seen glimmers of hope on almost every one of the kid's faces based on something I said or some topic that is resonating with them. I just need to lock those mental images up in a special place and refer back to them the other 90% of the time. We have a test next Tuesday, our first one, so hopefully the kids will not do too terribly.
Also, we are going to be reading the Diary of Anne Frank - hopefully the kids will enjoy that book. I remember it being a powerful book for me when I read it. I also hope it provides them a chance to see what World War II is all about. Christy asked her 9th graders what they knew about the war today and they mentioned they had not even studied it. That blew my mind. I think I shocked my class by finding out that Costa Rica actually joined the Allies in 1941 and allowed the US to base an airfield off of the coco islands. I'm not so sure they even believed me though :)
One thing that is nice about teaching Engish instead of something like science is that you have alot more freedom to do 'what you want' in your plan. At the end of the day, the most important thing they need to do is learn how to speak/write/read/listen to English. So, we have flexibility to take a curriculum and tie it back to the Bible alot. For example, the book we are using just had a lesson plan on superstitions - so I used a verse from proverbs which says 'The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.' From there we were able to talk about and contrast the worlds view of luck versus the Biblical view - all in the name of learning English. So...thats a pretty cool thing. However, as cool as that is, I am also looking forward to teaching more science next year as I am both a) intrigued by science and b) more comfortable with it as a subject given my background.
Lizzy has been going to the Kinder here which goes from 6:45am until 11:45am - five days a week. This is officially both the earliest and the longest (time each day) that she has been going to school. She really enjoys it, and it is fun to see her starting to learn more Spanish already. However, we can already see she is beginning to wear down some. This is not surprising given that Lizzy is actually almost a full year younger or more then folks in the class (you have to be 4 at the start of the year, which is in January, Lizzy didn't turn four until last month.....we got a special exception from the school to allow her to go. So, we need to decide what to do by either implimenting more quiet times, reinstituting naps, or maybe holding her out of school 1 day every week or two to give her some quiet time.
Rainy season has been in full swing here. Its getting humid to the point that if you leave papers out in the print hold - the edges start to curl. And in the worst couple days ink even started to bleed slightly on the water logged (from humidity) paper. Also, clothes start just to absorb water just hanging in your closet. Thank goodness we have the drier because I'm not even sure how would we would be do anything.
Oh yeah, we have a new empleada and she is great. Her name is Neli and she is just amazing with the kids. The first full day after coming back from school lizzy said, 'Where is my friend?' so I guess they have hit it off. Neli likes to brush and pull up Lizzy's hair in different types of pony tails - wich is just fine with Lizzy. They also play number and letter matching games as well. Also, she likes to hold Sammy and let him help sweep the floors, make the beds and do the laundry. Sammy is a natural helper (when directed) so this works out well. Best of all for us, in the last couple days we've actually been able to start and get ahead on school work. This is wonderful too because it means we can spend a bit more time doing some of a tutoring work as well. All that said, God has provided for us and we feel very blessed.
There are so many things that I could talk about like my 'new friend' - that is what Christy likes to call him. I met a random american through a strange circumstance who is martial arts guy and works down here in Costa Rica. He had coffee the other day at a place near buy and he is both funny and down to earth. I'm hoping we can hang out some because even though it is great to know students and other Ticos, its nice to be able to continue conversations with someone from your own culture as well too. Also, my brother who had lost his job just got a job ofer - praise the Lord!
Anyway, it is getting late and I'd like to get some sleep. However, I hope everyone is doing well. Sorry for the delay in getting this posted and I'll try to be both more prompt and include a little less text a few more pictures next time.
Also, we are going to be reading the Diary of Anne Frank - hopefully the kids will enjoy that book. I remember it being a powerful book for me when I read it. I also hope it provides them a chance to see what World War II is all about. Christy asked her 9th graders what they knew about the war today and they mentioned they had not even studied it. That blew my mind. I think I shocked my class by finding out that Costa Rica actually joined the Allies in 1941 and allowed the US to base an airfield off of the coco islands. I'm not so sure they even believed me though :)
One thing that is nice about teaching Engish instead of something like science is that you have alot more freedom to do 'what you want' in your plan. At the end of the day, the most important thing they need to do is learn how to speak/write/read/listen to English. So, we have flexibility to take a curriculum and tie it back to the Bible alot. For example, the book we are using just had a lesson plan on superstitions - so I used a verse from proverbs which says 'The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.' From there we were able to talk about and contrast the worlds view of luck versus the Biblical view - all in the name of learning English. So...thats a pretty cool thing. However, as cool as that is, I am also looking forward to teaching more science next year as I am both a) intrigued by science and b) more comfortable with it as a subject given my background.
Lizzy has been going to the Kinder here which goes from 6:45am until 11:45am - five days a week. This is officially both the earliest and the longest (time each day) that she has been going to school. She really enjoys it, and it is fun to see her starting to learn more Spanish already. However, we can already see she is beginning to wear down some. This is not surprising given that Lizzy is actually almost a full year younger or more then folks in the class (you have to be 4 at the start of the year, which is in January, Lizzy didn't turn four until last month.....we got a special exception from the school to allow her to go. So, we need to decide what to do by either implimenting more quiet times, reinstituting naps, or maybe holding her out of school 1 day every week or two to give her some quiet time.
Rainy season has been in full swing here. Its getting humid to the point that if you leave papers out in the print hold - the edges start to curl. And in the worst couple days ink even started to bleed slightly on the water logged (from humidity) paper. Also, clothes start just to absorb water just hanging in your closet. Thank goodness we have the drier because I'm not even sure how would we would be do anything.
Oh yeah, we have a new empleada and she is great. Her name is Neli and she is just amazing with the kids. The first full day after coming back from school lizzy said, 'Where is my friend?' so I guess they have hit it off. Neli likes to brush and pull up Lizzy's hair in different types of pony tails - wich is just fine with Lizzy. They also play number and letter matching games as well. Also, she likes to hold Sammy and let him help sweep the floors, make the beds and do the laundry. Sammy is a natural helper (when directed) so this works out well. Best of all for us, in the last couple days we've actually been able to start and get ahead on school work. This is wonderful too because it means we can spend a bit more time doing some of a tutoring work as well. All that said, God has provided for us and we feel very blessed.
There are so many things that I could talk about like my 'new friend' - that is what Christy likes to call him. I met a random american through a strange circumstance who is martial arts guy and works down here in Costa Rica. He had coffee the other day at a place near buy and he is both funny and down to earth. I'm hoping we can hang out some because even though it is great to know students and other Ticos, its nice to be able to continue conversations with someone from your own culture as well too. Also, my brother who had lost his job just got a job ofer - praise the Lord!
Anyway, it is getting late and I'd like to get some sleep. However, I hope everyone is doing well. Sorry for the delay in getting this posted and I'll try to be both more prompt and include a little less text a few more pictures next time.
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