Crazy Kids

I've been really into taking pictures lately. I busted out Photobooth on my laptop today after our exams. I managed to get a group shot (minus 1 girl) and then it turned into chaos as they mobbed my comp to take pictures, got some funny shots out of it though. Without further ado, here are my precious alumnos:

My Babies.

I love them. 

Look at these crazies. 

chaos. 

Precious. 

Oh man, do I love these kids, even though they drive me crazy most days, they are precious. We are starting a new quarter next week and I'm getting excited to get things going. I feel a lot more confident as a teacher and feel like I have a better idea of how I want things to move. So hopefully we'll have a very productive 2nd quarter!

Weekend Update

Hello blog world out there, I apologize for my lack of posts lately. Not too much exciting has happened the last two weeks. We have exams coming up this week, which is quite insane because it means I have been teaching for 10 weeks now! It's still pretty UNREAL to me. This last week I spent most of it reviewing with my kids. Here are some pictures of them walking around and "gathering data" for a pictograph. They looked so cute and studious walking around the classroom with their notebooks asking each other what their favorite fruit was. So presh!

I'm pretty nervous about the exams and am hoping my kids will be able to get through them alright!

In other news we had a great weekend. Our planned beach day got rained out on Saturday so we mainly hung our around the apartment and went and walked around the mall for a little bit. That night our band was in a band competition in Las Fuertes so we journeyed our way over there. There were 5 bands in the competition along with 2 other bands playing for our listening pleasure. The whole thing was pretty intense and felt like a high school football game. The bands were quite impressive elaborate. Our band placed 3rd, which is really great for them, so proud!

Today, we decided to do a little church prayer time of our own at the apartments. It was a really sweet time of encouragement and fellowship. We then made our way to Parrot Tree (the resort closest to us) and hung out in the water for a while. Then made our way to this little horse ranch up the street from our house to go horseback riding! It was kind of random but so much fun! We rode through the mountains and go to see all the greenery and an awesome view. I was actually pretty nervous the whole time, I've never really ridden a horse and was apparently the only one who hadn't. Luckily one of the men just basically walked my horse the whole time haha.

T'was fun. Always an adventure here on the island! Well, I think that's all for now, until next time.

Friday Art

So, Friday afternoons is our Art time. I found some easy and fun drawing guides on this blog, decided to do the snake and chameleon with my kiddies.  We had tons of fun drawing these crazy creatures and coloring them in. I had them all pose together with their pictures and it all just turned into madness, but we had fun and the kids cranked out some awesome drawings.

First Days of School

Oy vey, what a week it has been! We just finished our first week of school and it was a doozy, and they were just half days :/ haha. Well, where to begin? I started school on Wednesday and I have 10 students, although 1 more just got added to my class today. So my number is now at 11, 4 girls and 7 boys. They are the cutest kids ever. They are all very sweet and great, but man they are WILD. They have a lot of energy and it's been a bit difficult for me to try and figure out how to manage it all in the classroom. I have a lot to learn and I'm realizing that that is totally normal, so I'm trying to have a bit of grace on myself and not be too hard on myself. But there's a lot for me to think about and figure out with classroom management, but I'm sure it will all come with time. I'm not going to lie, it was a bit rough this week. I feel like I'm a horrible teacher and I have no idea what I'm doing, but I know it's just going to take time and that I just need to trust God. On a more of a positive note, I am really so thankful for this time and these kids. Difficulties aside, God is always good and these children are sweet and beautiful and it's a privilege to be able to teach them.

Here's some pictures of them, they are quite the hams, so excited to take pictures:

working hard or hardly working?

My kids

The boys. 

I have a couple ideas rumbling in my head for re-organizing the desks to create stations for them. Have a lot to think about and figure out, slowly but surely. It's definitely going to be a challenging and stretching year, but I'm excited to grow as a teacher and to watch these kids grow.

Please pray for me and my fellow teachers, next week will be our first full week and although it is exciting, it's a bit daunting at the same time. A lot of us were a bit overwhelmed. Thanks for all your love and support!


On another totally unrelated note, I just found this picture from a couple weeks ago when we found this huge bug in our apartment and thought I'd share. Oh the island life.

Open House

Friday night was Open House, equivalent to Meet the Teacher Night in the states. There was a small talk, all the teachers introduced themselves, then we went into our classrooms to await meeting our parents. It was a bit of a slow turn out. Right now, I only have 5 students registered and only 2 registered students/parents came. But I also had 3-4 not yet registered, but going to register, students come through, so I will definitely have more than 5 students! Am definitely getting a bit nervous, some of the parents don't speak English, which is a bit scary, but I guess it'll force me to practice and work even harder at my Spanish. A lot of the kids seemed pretty shy, but were super cute and I'm looking forward to having them in my class.

I just barely got my room finished before Open House. I feel pretty good about it. I still have some things I need to do, but overall I feel pretty good about it. My kids don't start school until Wednesday next week, and it's all half-days so it should be good.

Here are some pictures of my class, it's starting from the back and moving counter-clockwise. 

My back wall

Reading corner, I need more books. 

Pretty excited about this Math Wall. 

Also just want to say that I love our staff so much. Everyone from the office to the cleaning lady are seriously incredible. The back pack rack on my back wall was made by Umberto, our maintenance/misc. does it all guy. He does a lot of things around the school and is overall awesome. He nailed the blocks of wood into the wall, painted the blocks, then put the hooks on, felt super blessed and I'm super stoked about it.

Back Pack rack. 

It was quite a relief to be done with Open House. I'm feeling a bit nervous about the year, but getting excited at the same time. Just gotta keep reminding myself that I'm prepared and that God's going to take real good care of me.

Here are also some pictures of us teachers:

The teachers who live in the apartments (plus Fernando)

At the school. Lovely bunch! 

Room 118

Today was a very very long long day. Lots of information to soak up. I got to get started working in my classroom. It is quite overwhelming to start off with a blank slate and try to figure out how to fill up all the white walls. But it's exciting and everything is feeling more and more REAL each day. Here are some pictures of my classroom:

My door

I have quite a bit of work to do, but it's been fun, exhausting but fun.

In other news, Roatan has done something to me. I have now willingly gone on 2 runs. For those of you who know me, know what a big deal this is, haha. It's kind of a challenge because there are no sidewalks but all of us teachers have been doing it and it's kind of a peace time in a odd way. I'm trying to work on my self-discipline and to keep at it even though I'm already pretty over it. I made the mistake of sharing that with the other teachers so now they're keeping me accountable to keep at it, which is good, but ya know kind of a pain.

I really am losing track of all the days, it's hard to believe that we're just now ending our first week. Today was quite exhausting and I felt a bit defeated today, but I'm learning to pick myself up and stay in a place of joy. It really has been an incredible time. I have really fallen in love with this place and these people. Yesterday was the first time all the teachers (foreign and local) teachers got together. We had a sweet time of worship and a devotion led by a local pastor. All the teacher then gave a short testimony of what brought them to CPBS. It was fun to hear everyone's story and to get to know each other better. Everyone has such beautiful servant hearts, it's pretty amazing. I really do feel like they are my family here and it's a sweet feeling. I have also grown a love for the Spanish language and I'm dying to know more so I can communicate better with the teachers that don't speak English. It's so fun to sing worship songs in Spanish and during our meetings Ms. Nina (the school administrator) is always saying everything is Spanish and English, it's pretty cool.

Well, I think that's all for now, PLEASE feel free to pass on any suggestions or ideas for my classroom, I'd love to hear them!!