day 11

here is the absolute latest picture of your's truly...

two days down as an official teacher...i am currently teaching the 1st, 2nd and preschool and kindergarten class english all on my own. except for the pre-k and kinder classes are both together at the same time, so me and a native english teacher, johan, are trying to tackle this. it is very difficult. the first grade class works hard and does well. yesterday was the first day that the smallest ones had seen or been around me, so they just sat there, terrified. looking at me like i was an alien giant that had a fur bearing animal growing on my face and their dark brown, almost black, little eyeballs were piercing me like tiny needles. today proved to be much better with them. we learned the hokey pokey and they really liked that.

did i mention that there grades are actually one age group younger here than back in the states. so the pre-k class are actually 3 year olds, the kindergarten are 4, 1st are 5, and 2nd graders are 6 years old. the second grade class is goin to be the one where i need the most prayer for. one- they don't understand anything that i say. two-they can't read yet, not even spanish. three-apart from 2-3 students, i kind of get the feeling that none of them really care to learn english, and the 4th problem is they have english for the last hour of the day tuesday-friday, so the thing that causes them to use their minds more than any other class is the last thing that they are doing. so, my job is to find a way to motivate and enthuse their opinions on english, overcome the language barier, and try and figure out a way to hold 15 six year olds attention and still teach them something at the end of the day.

i love it...

it's definitely stretching me and teaching me a lot about teachers, obviously. and i get to use my creative side of my mind to think of off the wall ways to keep the kids happy while still being productive.

i also, really love it here. the people are nice. the town is small and i'm starting to see people in the streets. i've got like 4 new facebook friends from down here. life is grand.