Thursday June 10, 2010
It is the last day of real school because tomorrow is a half-day full of different activities. In reality today really isn’t even a real day. Grades were due today so there is no more teaching or testing. All I have for my students is a small presentation on the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and a survey to fill out, nothing too exciting. Tomorrow the students are going to get to watch the World Cup. As I write this in the cafeteria they are installing an antenna for this purpose. I don’t even know if an actual game is going to be on, but supposedly we are watching Mexico vs. South Africa. It must be a delayed recording of the game that is being shown at 8 am because I think the actual game is in the middle of the night Mountain Time. Either way it should be fun.
After the game (10 am) my Nivalacion kids are throwing me a going away party—two parties in two weeks from my Nivalaicion class. It should be a lot of fun as well. I bought two big bags of candy and a pencil for each student. I’ll make sure to get some video of this.
Speaking of video, I have made a few different videos that I have been unable to post on the blog because they would take too long to upload. Those will probably be posted once I get back to the United States and will probably be here on my blog under one entry as well as on my personal website. So look for those come the end of June.
The kids go home tomorrow at 12. I will probably clean up my room a little bit and eventually make my way back up to Villa Verde. After this I am embarking on my end of the year vacation.
When I first got down here and mentioned this to the other teachers, the possibility of taking a big trip at the end of the school year, I got a positive response from everyone. However, as time went on people began to drop like flies and at this point it is only going to be Rachel and I. We have been slowly planning the trip over the last couple of weeks and it is going to look something like this:
Friday after school we are going to head to Santa Rosa, which is about a little over an hour away from Gracias. We are staying there for a night and then heading up to Copan early Saturday morning. We need to be in Copan by noon so that we can catch a bus that will take us out of Honduras and into Guatemala. We will be heading up to the town of Antigua for about 6 days (we will be taking a few trips to other places around Antigua). The plan was to hike a volcano, which is near Antigua, but if you have been following the news at all that volcano is (was) erupting and tourists aren’t allowed near it (for unfortunate but obvious reasons). Antigua is quite the place though so there will be much to do.
After spending some time in Guatemala we are going to head back to Honduras on the 18th and make our way to San Pedo. We will spend the night in San Pedro and on the 19th head to Cieba (which is right on the Caribbean) where we will catch the 3 o’clock ferry to Roatan, the tropical islands off the coast of Honduras and the most touristy visited place in all of Honduras. We will be in Roatan for the 19th, 20th, and 21st and on the morning of the 22nd we will head back to Gracias.
The rest of my itinerary in Honduras looks like this:
We arrive (hopefully) back in Gracias on the 22nd and relax. On the 23rd we pack and visit with everyone in Villa Verde. On the 24th we will head back towards San Pedro and on the morning of the 25th we will be hopping on a plane bound for DTW, where we are supposed to land at 11:15 AM on June 25.
January 10 – June 25, 2010. That is my time in Honduras and it has been awesome. This will probably be my last entry while I am in Honduras because I will probably be too busy once I am back after the vacation. Plus, you know how long it took be to get something posted about Semana Santa.
So, to all of you who have kept in touch with me through this blog while I have been down here, thanks so much. I hope you had a few laughs and enjoyed reading about my experience. I will see many of you while I am home but for those of you who I might not see look for a link to my new blog starting the middle of August—Teach Spain.
Take care!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
As usual, it’s been a week since my last post. Update time.
So we did not have school this past Monday. Honduras was pounded with rain and the government closed all schools across the country because of flooding. That was a nice surprise. I found that out right before I went to bed on Sunday night. I ended up going to town on Monday and hung out at Guancascos and got my haircut too. It was a nice and relaxing day. I also had the opportunity to work on my TEFL class all day which I FINISHED! I just need to post two comments and I will be done.
School was usual Tuesday through Thursday. Things are wrapping up so it’s been pretty low key. I am giving my last set of tests to my history classes on either Monday or Tuesday (depending on grade) and final grades are due Wednesday with Friday being a half day and the end. It’s hard to believe I’ve been down here for almost 5 months. I feel like I just landed in San Pedro and Mr. Rodrigo and Mr. Bran were standing in the terminal with “Tad VandenBrink” written on a piece of paper. But here I am, 5 months later with a little more teaching experience and memories to last a lifetime.
So on Friday my kids decided to throw me and the other teacher (Mrs. Lopez) a birthday party. My birthday is today and Mrs. Lopez’s was on the first. My students blew me away. They not only decorated the classroom and wouldn’t let me or Mrs. Lopez in to see it until the party, but they brought food (pizza, chips and cake) and even brought in a piñata. It was incredible. Check out my new Picasa album for pictures from the party.
After the party on Friday Rachel, Laura Beth and I left school early to take a bus to La Union. We were going to visit the other school there and I was also going to hang out with my friends who are doing the microfinance company. We took the 12:30 bus to La Union and it was a bumpy and curvy ride through the mountains. It was some beautiful scenery though. We arrived in La Union a little before 4 and ran into Renske and Laura (the European teachers whom I have talked about before) walking home from school. We ended up hanging out with them for a bit and eventually connected with Jake (another teacher and guy who taken on a leadership role in my school and who actually hired me back in December) and my friends. We had dinner at a family that everyone in La Union has gotten to know pretty well. They own a small convenient store in town where most of my friends do their shopping. They grilled us pork and steak for and it was delicious and it was a lot of fun.
I really was looking forward to seeing my friends in action with their microfinance company. I had my opportunity early on Saturday morning. I got up at 7 with Pat and Mike and walked about 30 minutes outside of town to the La Union coffee growers cooperative. Here there is a giant warehouse where Mike and Pat were storing recently purchased fertilizer. The day before they had started to hand it out as loans to approved farmers (farmers had to go through an approval process which the guys have set up. Basically the cooperative is made up of farmers from about 15-20 towns around La Union. They guys have organized a local elected boards of directors for each town who look at the applications of each farmer and help Mike and Pat decide if the particular farmer is responsible enough to take the loan, use it well, and pay it back) who had requested “x” amount (usually only a bag or two of fertilizer). They continued this process on Saturday morning and I got to watch them interact with about a half-dozen farmers. I have talked some about what they are doing, but to actually go to La Union and see them do what they do was awesome. The guys are now starting to look into the possibility of buying some land and building a “model” farm that they could use as an example for the area farmers and also a place to hold meetings. They would also use it as an investment to grow and sell the coffee.
After some time things began to slow down so we decided to walk back into town to get lunch. We stopped at a comedor (restaurant) and had a nice tipico (beef, rice, beans and tortillas). After lunch I decided that I wanted to head back to town to try and connect with the girls. They had done some hiking while I went down with Mike and Pat and had plans to go to a pool. However that ended up not happening and I ended up playing volleyball with Jake, a couple of his students, and a couple of the local guys. We won 3 straight games, even though my volleyball skills are far from impressive. It was a lot of fun though. After volleyball all of us (including three current U of M students who are interning for my buddies this summer) went out to dinner. One of the intern’s birthdays was this past week as well so it was a birthday dinner for the two of us. After dinner we ended up going back to Renske and Laura’s place where they had made a birthday cake for me. It was delicious. Overall it was a pretty awesome night of hanging out. The only downfall was that my buddy Mike had gotten a nasty stomach bug during the afternoon and had actually come home throwing up and ended up not coming out to dinner or to the girls for cake with us.
We left La Union this morning, on the only bus to Gracias on Sunday, at 5 AM. We arrived in Gracias at 8 and grabbed some breakfast at Guancascos before heading up the mountain. I took about a two-hour nap when I got home and have just been hanging out since. A pretty relaxing birthday, and a birthday weekend I’ll never forget.
Anyway, the last week of school has arrived. I am actually going to be taking a vacation into Guatemala and out to Roatan after school, so I will be sure to write at least one more time before that starts Friday afternoon. But that may be my last post in Honduras—I could be writing my final posts talking about my vacation state side. June 25 is rapidly approaching but I still have some incredible adventures ahead of me.
I hope all is well in the State. Take care!
So we did not have school this past Monday. Honduras was pounded with rain and the government closed all schools across the country because of flooding. That was a nice surprise. I found that out right before I went to bed on Sunday night. I ended up going to town on Monday and hung out at Guancascos and got my haircut too. It was a nice and relaxing day. I also had the opportunity to work on my TEFL class all day which I FINISHED! I just need to post two comments and I will be done.
School was usual Tuesday through Thursday. Things are wrapping up so it’s been pretty low key. I am giving my last set of tests to my history classes on either Monday or Tuesday (depending on grade) and final grades are due Wednesday with Friday being a half day and the end. It’s hard to believe I’ve been down here for almost 5 months. I feel like I just landed in San Pedro and Mr. Rodrigo and Mr. Bran were standing in the terminal with “Tad VandenBrink” written on a piece of paper. But here I am, 5 months later with a little more teaching experience and memories to last a lifetime.
So on Friday my kids decided to throw me and the other teacher (Mrs. Lopez) a birthday party. My birthday is today and Mrs. Lopez’s was on the first. My students blew me away. They not only decorated the classroom and wouldn’t let me or Mrs. Lopez in to see it until the party, but they brought food (pizza, chips and cake) and even brought in a piñata. It was incredible. Check out my new Picasa album for pictures from the party.
After the party on Friday Rachel, Laura Beth and I left school early to take a bus to La Union. We were going to visit the other school there and I was also going to hang out with my friends who are doing the microfinance company. We took the 12:30 bus to La Union and it was a bumpy and curvy ride through the mountains. It was some beautiful scenery though. We arrived in La Union a little before 4 and ran into Renske and Laura (the European teachers whom I have talked about before) walking home from school. We ended up hanging out with them for a bit and eventually connected with Jake (another teacher and guy who taken on a leadership role in my school and who actually hired me back in December) and my friends. We had dinner at a family that everyone in La Union has gotten to know pretty well. They own a small convenient store in town where most of my friends do their shopping. They grilled us pork and steak for and it was delicious and it was a lot of fun.
I really was looking forward to seeing my friends in action with their microfinance company. I had my opportunity early on Saturday morning. I got up at 7 with Pat and Mike and walked about 30 minutes outside of town to the La Union coffee growers cooperative. Here there is a giant warehouse where Mike and Pat were storing recently purchased fertilizer. The day before they had started to hand it out as loans to approved farmers (farmers had to go through an approval process which the guys have set up. Basically the cooperative is made up of farmers from about 15-20 towns around La Union. They guys have organized a local elected boards of directors for each town who look at the applications of each farmer and help Mike and Pat decide if the particular farmer is responsible enough to take the loan, use it well, and pay it back) who had requested “x” amount (usually only a bag or two of fertilizer). They continued this process on Saturday morning and I got to watch them interact with about a half-dozen farmers. I have talked some about what they are doing, but to actually go to La Union and see them do what they do was awesome. The guys are now starting to look into the possibility of buying some land and building a “model” farm that they could use as an example for the area farmers and also a place to hold meetings. They would also use it as an investment to grow and sell the coffee.
After some time things began to slow down so we decided to walk back into town to get lunch. We stopped at a comedor (restaurant) and had a nice tipico (beef, rice, beans and tortillas). After lunch I decided that I wanted to head back to town to try and connect with the girls. They had done some hiking while I went down with Mike and Pat and had plans to go to a pool. However that ended up not happening and I ended up playing volleyball with Jake, a couple of his students, and a couple of the local guys. We won 3 straight games, even though my volleyball skills are far from impressive. It was a lot of fun though. After volleyball all of us (including three current U of M students who are interning for my buddies this summer) went out to dinner. One of the intern’s birthdays was this past week as well so it was a birthday dinner for the two of us. After dinner we ended up going back to Renske and Laura’s place where they had made a birthday cake for me. It was delicious. Overall it was a pretty awesome night of hanging out. The only downfall was that my buddy Mike had gotten a nasty stomach bug during the afternoon and had actually come home throwing up and ended up not coming out to dinner or to the girls for cake with us.
We left La Union this morning, on the only bus to Gracias on Sunday, at 5 AM. We arrived in Gracias at 8 and grabbed some breakfast at Guancascos before heading up the mountain. I took about a two-hour nap when I got home and have just been hanging out since. A pretty relaxing birthday, and a birthday weekend I’ll never forget.
Anyway, the last week of school has arrived. I am actually going to be taking a vacation into Guatemala and out to Roatan after school, so I will be sure to write at least one more time before that starts Friday afternoon. But that may be my last post in Honduras—I could be writing my final posts talking about my vacation state side. June 25 is rapidly approaching but I still have some incredible adventures ahead of me.
I hope all is well in the State. Take care!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Written Friday, May 28 2010
Sorry for the delay. No excuses other then its been raining and that has made me really lazy.
Last Sunday was a good day. I had gone to town early because my school’s girl’s soccer team was playing the other bilingual schools team early in the morning. Rachel, LB and I made our way to town at 10 to watch the game. Now there are no referees that you hire to come and referee these games, it is usually a parent or someone who happens to be there. The first half ended up being refereed by a student of the other bilingual school. Therefore, it only made sense for the second half to be refereed by someone affiliated with our school. The whistle was handed to our principal at halftime and before I knew it he walked over and handed it to me. The girls went crazy and started chanting my name, so I had no other option—I refereed the second half. I would like to think this gave the girls motivation because they ended up breaking a 0-0 tie by scoring two quick goals two begin the second half, but I’ll give our coach Mr. Bran the credit. The girls went on to win 3-0 and I feel like I refereed a pretty good game.
After the game Rachel and I went into town to grab lunch at Guancascos and I used the Internet to work on my TEFL class. At 2 we made our way to another field where we watched the first half of our 3rd and 4th graders play. It ended raining pretty hard so we went back home but the boys were down 1-4 at halftime (they ended up coming back and only lost 5-6).
The rest of the day we just hung out and relaxed.
This week went by very quickly, and I think the next two weeks will be the same way. Things are wrapping up. I have officially planned out the rest of the year for my classes and it is hard to believe it is almost June (let alone my 24th birthday…). I just felt like I arrived here in Honduras. Anyway, more update later!
Written Sunday, May 30 2010
My back hurts, my legs hurt, my knees hurt, shoot, my entire body hurts. But I did it. In just under 10 hours Rachel and I, and the father of the family I live with, made it up and down Celaque. At just over 9,300 feet it is the tallest mountain in Honduras and was one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done.
Rachel and I had decided midweek that we wanted to do this on Saturday (yesterday). And although the weather forecast looked unfavorable with a chance of thunderstorms we figured it would be our last opportunity to do it. So, at 5 AM yesterday morning we started our trek up the mountain.
Going up was difficult. In order to reach the highest point we had to go up and down what I counted to be at least 3 other mountains. The number of switchbacks we went up were numberless and the terrain was less that favorable. We have been getting pounded with rain here in Honduras over the last week and the trail was wet and muddy. As we went up we had a few peaks of sunshine, but it was only teasing us because our downhill trek after reaching the top would be miserable.
After about 4 hours we reached Camp Naranjo. This is the last camp and stop before you take the trail to the top of the mountain. Don Luis (our guide) said it was about 2 hours to the top from this point but it only ended up taking us about an hour and a half. The trail from Camp Naranjo to the top was beautiful. Large trees covered in Spanish moss surrounded us. Add the fact that we were in a cloud forest so there was fog all around us as made it seem like we were in a dream. However, getting to the top was rather anticlimactic. We made it, and there was a nice sign welcoming us along with a Honduras flag. But being in the middle of a cloud forest meant that we couldn’t see anything (no spectacular view of the mountains) because it was all white. However, we did hear the wind blowing across the mountain and it sounded really powerful. We had made it to the top in 5 and a half hours and after taking a few pictures and resting we began our descent.
By the time we had reached Camp Naranjo again it started to rain. This was going to make the hike down even more difficult. Don Luis said going to the top would be “easy” but coming down would be more dangerous. Dangerous was right. Rachel and I were slipping and falling constantly, and even our experienced guide slipped a few times. With the pouring rain I began to count the hours until I could hop in a hot shower and lay in bed the rest of the day. After being at the highest point in Honduras 4 and a half hours earlier I finally marched into the Comedor with achy knees and feet. I sat down for a few minutes before taking a shower and going to bed for 2 hours. What a trip.
All in all it was difficult and even miserable at times. But we did it, and have one heck of a story to tell about our trip up and down Celaque.
Anyway, I am going to let my body continue to recover as I sit around all day today and work on my TEFL class and other schoolwork. I hope all is well and in a week from today I will be 24! Yikes… my mid twenties…
Sorry for the delay. No excuses other then its been raining and that has made me really lazy.
Last Sunday was a good day. I had gone to town early because my school’s girl’s soccer team was playing the other bilingual schools team early in the morning. Rachel, LB and I made our way to town at 10 to watch the game. Now there are no referees that you hire to come and referee these games, it is usually a parent or someone who happens to be there. The first half ended up being refereed by a student of the other bilingual school. Therefore, it only made sense for the second half to be refereed by someone affiliated with our school. The whistle was handed to our principal at halftime and before I knew it he walked over and handed it to me. The girls went crazy and started chanting my name, so I had no other option—I refereed the second half. I would like to think this gave the girls motivation because they ended up breaking a 0-0 tie by scoring two quick goals two begin the second half, but I’ll give our coach Mr. Bran the credit. The girls went on to win 3-0 and I feel like I refereed a pretty good game.
After the game Rachel and I went into town to grab lunch at Guancascos and I used the Internet to work on my TEFL class. At 2 we made our way to another field where we watched the first half of our 3rd and 4th graders play. It ended raining pretty hard so we went back home but the boys were down 1-4 at halftime (they ended up coming back and only lost 5-6).
The rest of the day we just hung out and relaxed.
This week went by very quickly, and I think the next two weeks will be the same way. Things are wrapping up. I have officially planned out the rest of the year for my classes and it is hard to believe it is almost June (let alone my 24th birthday…). I just felt like I arrived here in Honduras. Anyway, more update later!
Written Sunday, May 30 2010
My back hurts, my legs hurt, my knees hurt, shoot, my entire body hurts. But I did it. In just under 10 hours Rachel and I, and the father of the family I live with, made it up and down Celaque. At just over 9,300 feet it is the tallest mountain in Honduras and was one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done.
Rachel and I had decided midweek that we wanted to do this on Saturday (yesterday). And although the weather forecast looked unfavorable with a chance of thunderstorms we figured it would be our last opportunity to do it. So, at 5 AM yesterday morning we started our trek up the mountain.
Going up was difficult. In order to reach the highest point we had to go up and down what I counted to be at least 3 other mountains. The number of switchbacks we went up were numberless and the terrain was less that favorable. We have been getting pounded with rain here in Honduras over the last week and the trail was wet and muddy. As we went up we had a few peaks of sunshine, but it was only teasing us because our downhill trek after reaching the top would be miserable.
After about 4 hours we reached Camp Naranjo. This is the last camp and stop before you take the trail to the top of the mountain. Don Luis (our guide) said it was about 2 hours to the top from this point but it only ended up taking us about an hour and a half. The trail from Camp Naranjo to the top was beautiful. Large trees covered in Spanish moss surrounded us. Add the fact that we were in a cloud forest so there was fog all around us as made it seem like we were in a dream. However, getting to the top was rather anticlimactic. We made it, and there was a nice sign welcoming us along with a Honduras flag. But being in the middle of a cloud forest meant that we couldn’t see anything (no spectacular view of the mountains) because it was all white. However, we did hear the wind blowing across the mountain and it sounded really powerful. We had made it to the top in 5 and a half hours and after taking a few pictures and resting we began our descent.
By the time we had reached Camp Naranjo again it started to rain. This was going to make the hike down even more difficult. Don Luis said going to the top would be “easy” but coming down would be more dangerous. Dangerous was right. Rachel and I were slipping and falling constantly, and even our experienced guide slipped a few times. With the pouring rain I began to count the hours until I could hop in a hot shower and lay in bed the rest of the day. After being at the highest point in Honduras 4 and a half hours earlier I finally marched into the Comedor with achy knees and feet. I sat down for a few minutes before taking a shower and going to bed for 2 hours. What a trip.
All in all it was difficult and even miserable at times. But we did it, and have one heck of a story to tell about our trip up and down Celaque.
Anyway, I am going to let my body continue to recover as I sit around all day today and work on my TEFL class and other schoolwork. I hope all is well and in a week from today I will be 24! Yikes… my mid twenties…
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Saturday May 21, 2010
So it was an up and down week. First the up part.
I had the students (Nivalacion) evaluate me and in that evaluation I asked them to write something they would like to learn in English. Many of them (including some of the girls) wrote that they wanted to learn vocabulary related to soccer. I decided to do this and gave them some basic soccer vocabulary at the end of last week. On Monday I assigned them a project in which they had to construct their own soccer stadium out of anything they wanted and then label the parts (positions and parts of the field). The projects were due yesterday and I was amazed at some of my students work. The students really liked it as well—many of them commented that it was a really cool way to learn the vocabulary. That always makes you feel good as a teacher. You can see all of the stadiums in my Picasa albums.
On the other hand there were a few downers. My seventh grade class has been a little rough the last couple of weeks. It is not only my class, but it is with all of the teachers and their classes as well. There are 28 of them and it is a relatively small classroom, therefore they are all sitting really close to each other, which allows them to get distracted rather easily. Add this with their age and it is almost a perfect storm for chaos on a regular basis. A few weeks back I caught two girls cheating (see May 9 post) and I have had problems with students copying homework, and making it obvious, as in doing it in class or in front of another teacher during her class. Well, I had another new one this week. Two actually.
Take One:
Thursday I was checking their homework and came across one of my student’s assignments. It was a boy student’s assignment and the handwriting was definitely not a boy’s. I looked closer and he had written his name in the left hand corner but in the right hand corner there was a whiteout spot and clearly through the whiteout you could read the girl student’s name whose work it actually was. This may be partly my fault, but sometimes my students do their homework in their history notebook and they don’t want to rip it out—they want to keep it with their notes to study. This particular girl student whose name was “hidden” behind the whiteout had asked if I could just check her homework in her notebook the day the homework was due so she didn’t have to rip it out. I did this and didn’t think anything of it because I had done it before. On Thursday while I was checking the homework I realized what was going on and I went and talked to this girl student (the boy student was absent that day). I was clever and first asked her to go get her history homework that I had checked for her. She said she had left her history notebook at home because we don’t have history on Thursday. I said fair enough, and then I took out her homework with the boys name and asked her if it was hers. She said yes. I then asked why the boy’s name was on it with her name “hidden” by whiteout. She said she didn’t know why, but said admitted that she had given her homework to this particular boy student so that he could copy it. At least she was honest. The boy though was the one that blew my mind. Instead of re-writing in his own handwriting, which would have been harder to pick up, he just whiteouted her name and put his…
Take Two:
Yesterday I was hanging out with Mrs. Lopez and my Nivalcion class after lunch—it was my off period and the kids were watching The Pursuit of Happiness. My principal, Mr. Calderon, came and asked for me and went on to tell me that he had talked to the girl student about the above situation and she had given him more information about some cheating going on in seventh grade. Evidently there was another boy student who had done the same thing. This boy student had just turned in his homework late and I hadn’t checked it yet. So I went to go look at it and sure enough, a boy definitely did not do the work, the handwriting was too neat. So we pulled the boy student and the accused girl student out of class and asked both of them about it. The girl said it wasn’t her handwriting, but the boy insisted it was. After comparing the girl’s handwriting in her notebook to the homework in question we (Mr. Calderon and I) determined it wasn’t hers, but she was still very hesitant and was holding something back. My principal and I sent the boy student back to class and kept the girl student. Within a few seconds after this she broke down crying and started to talk very fast in Spanish to my principal. As she did this the principal made a sign that told me that she liked this particular boy student (crossed his fingers). I stopped her and asked her to explain what she was saying in English. Evidently, because she liked this boy student, she had had a friend of hers (who doesn’t even go to our school) do his homework for him and then he turned in that homework. The irony of this is that this girl student hadn’t even turned in HER homework, but had had a friend do the homework for a boy she liked. Seventh graders…
Anyway, today has been an extremely successful day. I got up early and have planned the rest of the year for both 7th and 8th Grade and am about to start on my TEFL class. I might post again tomorrow, but for now, adios.
So it was an up and down week. First the up part.
I had the students (Nivalacion) evaluate me and in that evaluation I asked them to write something they would like to learn in English. Many of them (including some of the girls) wrote that they wanted to learn vocabulary related to soccer. I decided to do this and gave them some basic soccer vocabulary at the end of last week. On Monday I assigned them a project in which they had to construct their own soccer stadium out of anything they wanted and then label the parts (positions and parts of the field). The projects were due yesterday and I was amazed at some of my students work. The students really liked it as well—many of them commented that it was a really cool way to learn the vocabulary. That always makes you feel good as a teacher. You can see all of the stadiums in my Picasa albums.
On the other hand there were a few downers. My seventh grade class has been a little rough the last couple of weeks. It is not only my class, but it is with all of the teachers and their classes as well. There are 28 of them and it is a relatively small classroom, therefore they are all sitting really close to each other, which allows them to get distracted rather easily. Add this with their age and it is almost a perfect storm for chaos on a regular basis. A few weeks back I caught two girls cheating (see May 9 post) and I have had problems with students copying homework, and making it obvious, as in doing it in class or in front of another teacher during her class. Well, I had another new one this week. Two actually.
Take One:
Thursday I was checking their homework and came across one of my student’s assignments. It was a boy student’s assignment and the handwriting was definitely not a boy’s. I looked closer and he had written his name in the left hand corner but in the right hand corner there was a whiteout spot and clearly through the whiteout you could read the girl student’s name whose work it actually was. This may be partly my fault, but sometimes my students do their homework in their history notebook and they don’t want to rip it out—they want to keep it with their notes to study. This particular girl student whose name was “hidden” behind the whiteout had asked if I could just check her homework in her notebook the day the homework was due so she didn’t have to rip it out. I did this and didn’t think anything of it because I had done it before. On Thursday while I was checking the homework I realized what was going on and I went and talked to this girl student (the boy student was absent that day). I was clever and first asked her to go get her history homework that I had checked for her. She said she had left her history notebook at home because we don’t have history on Thursday. I said fair enough, and then I took out her homework with the boys name and asked her if it was hers. She said yes. I then asked why the boy’s name was on it with her name “hidden” by whiteout. She said she didn’t know why, but said admitted that she had given her homework to this particular boy student so that he could copy it. At least she was honest. The boy though was the one that blew my mind. Instead of re-writing in his own handwriting, which would have been harder to pick up, he just whiteouted her name and put his…
Take Two:
Yesterday I was hanging out with Mrs. Lopez and my Nivalcion class after lunch—it was my off period and the kids were watching The Pursuit of Happiness. My principal, Mr. Calderon, came and asked for me and went on to tell me that he had talked to the girl student about the above situation and she had given him more information about some cheating going on in seventh grade. Evidently there was another boy student who had done the same thing. This boy student had just turned in his homework late and I hadn’t checked it yet. So I went to go look at it and sure enough, a boy definitely did not do the work, the handwriting was too neat. So we pulled the boy student and the accused girl student out of class and asked both of them about it. The girl said it wasn’t her handwriting, but the boy insisted it was. After comparing the girl’s handwriting in her notebook to the homework in question we (Mr. Calderon and I) determined it wasn’t hers, but she was still very hesitant and was holding something back. My principal and I sent the boy student back to class and kept the girl student. Within a few seconds after this she broke down crying and started to talk very fast in Spanish to my principal. As she did this the principal made a sign that told me that she liked this particular boy student (crossed his fingers). I stopped her and asked her to explain what she was saying in English. Evidently, because she liked this boy student, she had had a friend of hers (who doesn’t even go to our school) do his homework for him and then he turned in that homework. The irony of this is that this girl student hadn’t even turned in HER homework, but had had a friend do the homework for a boy she liked. Seventh graders…
Anyway, today has been an extremely successful day. I got up early and have planned the rest of the year for both 7th and 8th Grade and am about to start on my TEFL class. I might post again tomorrow, but for now, adios.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
**This is my second post for today. Scroll down to see the finale of my food blog and then read this, it will make a lot more sense!***
Sunday May 16, 2010
So it was a tough weekend. First, you heard about the food. Maybe its because I have been thinking more about getting some American food once I am back in the States, but between bugs and chicken neck it was rough. Not only this but something I ate on Friday (or seeing that fly on Saturday) really set my stomach off and I have been fighting a stomachache since.
Saturday afternoon Rachel and I went into town to buy food for the dinner she was making me and as we walked around Dinora (the supermarket where we grocery shop) I could barely stand up. Not only was my stomach off but I also ached all over. She told me to go sit down somewhere while she finished shopping, which I did. But I still didn’t feel much better. I went to the pharmacy and bought some Pepto, which eventually helped, but it was no fun. We eventually made it back home and I took some ibuprofen for my achy body and then passed out in bed for 2.5 hours. When I woke up my stomachache was better but now I had a pounding headache. I took some Excedrin and went up to see how Rachel was doing on dinner. She had just started and after being told to sit down and wait for dinner I just relaxed. After enjoying dinner we just hung out and relaxed the rest of the night. I think the meds I took countered all my symptoms for the rest of the night. Although, I’ve been fighting a stomachache all day today too—the chicken neck really didn’t help.
Along with all of this we (as in the comedor where I live) have been out of water most of the weekend. I’ve only taken one hot shower since Friday with the rest being cold-bucket showers. It’s not that big of a deal but it further makes me appreciate constant running hot water that I am spoiled with back home.
Also, because of my sickness I did not get a chance to work on my TEFL stuff at all on Saturday. So today I have locked myself inside to finish my current module. After about 4 straight hours of work this afternoon I completed Module 6, which means I am halfway through the course. In fact, I think Module 7 is the last one with a reading lecture, quizzes and assignments because Module 8 is a unit lesson plan, Module 9 is all paperwork and Module 10 is course review. So I am getting close to completing this online course and having another certification, this one in teaching English as a second or foreign language!
Anyway, I don’t want to complain more because I am still really enjoying my time down here and believe this is where I am supposed to be right now. I felt that way when I got here and I still feel that way. I feel like I have grown so much personally and professionally down here as well over the last 4 months. Its going to be interesting to see what life is like for me back in the United States before I ship off for Spain at the end of August! Craziness…
Anyway, I hope all is well back in the States and I will continue to try and stay on top of my blog entries.
Take care.
Sunday May 16, 2010
So it was a tough weekend. First, you heard about the food. Maybe its because I have been thinking more about getting some American food once I am back in the States, but between bugs and chicken neck it was rough. Not only this but something I ate on Friday (or seeing that fly on Saturday) really set my stomach off and I have been fighting a stomachache since.
Saturday afternoon Rachel and I went into town to buy food for the dinner she was making me and as we walked around Dinora (the supermarket where we grocery shop) I could barely stand up. Not only was my stomach off but I also ached all over. She told me to go sit down somewhere while she finished shopping, which I did. But I still didn’t feel much better. I went to the pharmacy and bought some Pepto, which eventually helped, but it was no fun. We eventually made it back home and I took some ibuprofen for my achy body and then passed out in bed for 2.5 hours. When I woke up my stomachache was better but now I had a pounding headache. I took some Excedrin and went up to see how Rachel was doing on dinner. She had just started and after being told to sit down and wait for dinner I just relaxed. After enjoying dinner we just hung out and relaxed the rest of the night. I think the meds I took countered all my symptoms for the rest of the night. Although, I’ve been fighting a stomachache all day today too—the chicken neck really didn’t help.
Along with all of this we (as in the comedor where I live) have been out of water most of the weekend. I’ve only taken one hot shower since Friday with the rest being cold-bucket showers. It’s not that big of a deal but it further makes me appreciate constant running hot water that I am spoiled with back home.
Also, because of my sickness I did not get a chance to work on my TEFL stuff at all on Saturday. So today I have locked myself inside to finish my current module. After about 4 straight hours of work this afternoon I completed Module 6, which means I am halfway through the course. In fact, I think Module 7 is the last one with a reading lecture, quizzes and assignments because Module 8 is a unit lesson plan, Module 9 is all paperwork and Module 10 is course review. So I am getting close to completing this online course and having another certification, this one in teaching English as a second or foreign language!
Anyway, I don’t want to complain more because I am still really enjoying my time down here and believe this is where I am supposed to be right now. I felt that way when I got here and I still feel that way. I feel like I have grown so much personally and professionally down here as well over the last 4 months. Its going to be interesting to see what life is like for me back in the United States before I ship off for Spain at the end of August! Craziness…
Anyway, I hope all is well back in the States and I will continue to try and stay on top of my blog entries.
Take care.
Sunday May 16, 2010
The week meal blog continues…
Thursday:
Breakfast: this morning I was given a more “traditional breakfast—refried beans, scrambled eggs with onion mixed in, a spicy sausage (same from last night) and 4 tortillas. I also had a loaf of that sugar bread and a cup of coffee.
Lunch: Funny how I mentioned 84 East yesterday because today at lunch we went Italian (and this time not spicy spaghetti). We had lasagna today and it was actually pretty delicious. We had had this once before a couple months ago and I was impressed with it then too.
Dinner: So I had the usual for dinner tonight—beans, scrambled eggs with onion mixed in, montequilla and tortillas. No meat or avocado tonight. Three nights in a row… but that’s okay, I was hungry and I am used to it by now.
Friday:
Breakfast: This morning I had baleadas (from Monday morning) with eggs again—three of them with some Don Julio’s (the extremely good hot sauce down here).
Lunch: I really don’t know what the things are called that we had for lunch today, but they aren’t my favorite. They are tortillas that are folded in half and are stuffed with shredded chicken (and the last two times we’ve had them, including today, I’ve bitten really hard into a bone that wasn’t taken out of the shredded chicken) refried beans and I think a little montequilla. They are then covered with a mock marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese. The ones today didn’t sit well with my stomach either. But you eat what you get and I was hungry.
Dinner: Yup, you guessed it, beans, eggs and tortillas tonight. Not much else to say about that.
Saturday:
Breakfast: I slept through it and by the time I had showered it was 11 and told them I could wait until lunch for food.
Lunch: I had spaghetti today with an unpleasant surprise—a large fly in the middle. I don’t know if it was the fly or something I ate the previous day (I am thinking lunch) but at that point my stomach went off the rest of the day.
Dinner: Since Rachel had beaten me in our NCAA Basketball brackets and I had to buy her dinner she said she would “make up” for it by making me dinner sometime. So this was the night. She made some garlic and lemon pepper baked chicken (boneless, thank goodness) with white rice and green beans and broccoli. It was delicious and was a nice change of pace from beans, eggs, and tortilla.
Sunday:
Breakfast: I was up for breakfast this morning and had a glass of orange juice and some vanilla wafer type cookies. Very delicious.
Lunch: I had rice, potatoes and chicken. Now the thing about the chicken down here, and I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, you never know what you are going to get—dark meat, white meat, both. There isn’t exactly a specific cut like there is in the US (breast, leg, wing, etc.). Well, the chicken I had today, at least part of, had to be from the “upper body” portion of the chicken because there was definitely a bone sticking out of it that looked like a neck. Pair this with my stomach still being a little off today and it wasn’t a good combo. I ate as much as I could because I hate leaving food on my plate down here, but it has not been my weekend for food service at the comedor. First a big fly and now neck-chicken. Oh well, that’s Honduras, maybe better luck next weekend!
Dinner: And again, tortillas, eggs and beans. But I got a slice of salami and half an avocado this time around.
The week meal blog continues…
Thursday:
Breakfast: this morning I was given a more “traditional breakfast—refried beans, scrambled eggs with onion mixed in, a spicy sausage (same from last night) and 4 tortillas. I also had a loaf of that sugar bread and a cup of coffee.
Lunch: Funny how I mentioned 84 East yesterday because today at lunch we went Italian (and this time not spicy spaghetti). We had lasagna today and it was actually pretty delicious. We had had this once before a couple months ago and I was impressed with it then too.
Dinner: So I had the usual for dinner tonight—beans, scrambled eggs with onion mixed in, montequilla and tortillas. No meat or avocado tonight. Three nights in a row… but that’s okay, I was hungry and I am used to it by now.
Friday:
Breakfast: This morning I had baleadas (from Monday morning) with eggs again—three of them with some Don Julio’s (the extremely good hot sauce down here).
Lunch: I really don’t know what the things are called that we had for lunch today, but they aren’t my favorite. They are tortillas that are folded in half and are stuffed with shredded chicken (and the last two times we’ve had them, including today, I’ve bitten really hard into a bone that wasn’t taken out of the shredded chicken) refried beans and I think a little montequilla. They are then covered with a mock marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese. The ones today didn’t sit well with my stomach either. But you eat what you get and I was hungry.
Dinner: Yup, you guessed it, beans, eggs and tortillas tonight. Not much else to say about that.
Saturday:
Breakfast: I slept through it and by the time I had showered it was 11 and told them I could wait until lunch for food.
Lunch: I had spaghetti today with an unpleasant surprise—a large fly in the middle. I don’t know if it was the fly or something I ate the previous day (I am thinking lunch) but at that point my stomach went off the rest of the day.
Dinner: Since Rachel had beaten me in our NCAA Basketball brackets and I had to buy her dinner she said she would “make up” for it by making me dinner sometime. So this was the night. She made some garlic and lemon pepper baked chicken (boneless, thank goodness) with white rice and green beans and broccoli. It was delicious and was a nice change of pace from beans, eggs, and tortilla.
Sunday:
Breakfast: I was up for breakfast this morning and had a glass of orange juice and some vanilla wafer type cookies. Very delicious.
Lunch: I had rice, potatoes and chicken. Now the thing about the chicken down here, and I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, you never know what you are going to get—dark meat, white meat, both. There isn’t exactly a specific cut like there is in the US (breast, leg, wing, etc.). Well, the chicken I had today, at least part of, had to be from the “upper body” portion of the chicken because there was definitely a bone sticking out of it that looked like a neck. Pair this with my stomach still being a little off today and it wasn’t a good combo. I ate as much as I could because I hate leaving food on my plate down here, but it has not been my weekend for food service at the comedor. First a big fly and now neck-chicken. Oh well, that’s Honduras, maybe better luck next weekend!
Dinner: And again, tortillas, eggs and beans. But I got a slice of salami and half an avocado this time around.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Thursday May 13, 2010
Big news coming out of Honduras today—I heard back from CIEE today and was given my teaching placement for Spain next year. I will be teaching at a secondary school (12-18 year olds) in Motril in the province of Grenada. It is right on the Mediterranean (well technically a few miles from the actual coast) and is only a 40-minute drive away from Grenada itself. Sounds like a pretty awesome place.
The beach in Motril.
A view of the town.
I am starting to learn more of the details for the program too. I need to be in Spain by August 23rd. I will then be taking a 4-week intensive Spanish learning/immersion course and will then have a one-week orientation for the teaching program after that. I officially start teaching on October 1 and will teach until May 31st. I am about halfway done with my TEFL course so that will be out of the way soon as well. Hearing my placement news today has gotten me super excited about going to Spain. Woo Hoo!!
Big news coming out of Honduras today—I heard back from CIEE today and was given my teaching placement for Spain next year. I will be teaching at a secondary school (12-18 year olds) in Motril in the province of Grenada. It is right on the Mediterranean (well technically a few miles from the actual coast) and is only a 40-minute drive away from Grenada itself. Sounds like a pretty awesome place.
The beach in Motril.
A view of the town.
I am starting to learn more of the details for the program too. I need to be in Spain by August 23rd. I will then be taking a 4-week intensive Spanish learning/immersion course and will then have a one-week orientation for the teaching program after that. I officially start teaching on October 1 and will teach until May 31st. I am about halfway done with my TEFL course so that will be out of the way soon as well. Hearing my placement news today has gotten me super excited about going to Spain. Woo Hoo!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
