First Week of School

Well, I survived. I’m exhausted. I’ve already changed since coming here. No longer a night owl. That 5 o’clock alarm has been putting me to bed every night around 9:00 and at 9:30 on a Friday night. Maybe once I get back into the swing of teaching, I’ll be up later and back to my night owl ways, we’ll see.

Tuesday was my first day of school. It was the most difficult day of teaching I’ve had that hasn’t involved some extraneous student behavior/issue. There were so many points during the day where I stopped and coached myself along. Saying things like, “Shoot, Sarah you just said to sit in your chair 50,000 times, and you said it in the same even, calm voice for time 1 and time 49,999. Where did you get this patience? Keep it up” “If this is how everyday of school goes, in 10 months I will have survived the most difficult teaching experience ever.” “How will I ever do this everyday?” “How will I maintain this level of patience?” “This is insanity?” “Have these kids ever learned a word of English?!?!?!?”

But, despite all the frustrations, I was able to find some positives in the day as well. It’s just crazy because they are only 1^st graders so they can’t read or write well yet, in any language. They’ve just spent a whole summer without English, so they’re very rusty (at least I hope since they really didn’t seem to be able to answer any questions. Even something as simple as What is your name? What do you write with, a p, pe, pen, penc, penci? And then finally I would just end up saying pencil) They didn’t understand the words sit down, don’t touch, stop, no talking, listen, line up, recess, etc. Despite, my incredibly animated gestures and artistic pictures, they still struggled. I definitely think I could win an Academy Award for acting after watching the show I put on my classroom. It provides me with such humor as I run and skip and dance, in front of the kids to get them to listen and understand me. In addition to these obvious language barriers, there are cultural barriers too. In their Spanish classroom, the students are allowed to leave the classroom at will, talk when they want, get up and go wherever they desire in the classroom. They don’t raise their hands, they just yell things out. So not only do my kids not understand my English, but they aren’t used to the classroom management, routines, and structure of my classroom either.

On the first day, I had my kids do an activity where they wrote their name and something they like. I went around and helped each kid learn how to say what he or she liked in English. Then we attempted to share them. But, they couldn’t do it. I got so frustrated. I was like My name is __________. And the kids wouldn’t even repeat that or fill in the blank with their name. AHHHH. Let alone, say I like ______. But with my help we made it through. It was also frustrating because they weren’t listening when it was somebody else’s share turn. Normally I would have stopped the activity, discussed their behavior with them, and given a consequence, but I didn’t know what to do because they don’t understand the word stop. So I was like, I don’t know how to make them understand that they shouldn’t behave this way. It got very frustrating. But than Juan Enrique, such a cutie, shared his star. And he said perfectly, “My name is Juan Enrique and I like c-a-t, cat!” and on his star he drew and wrote the word cat. Made my day!

The rest of the week got better. Already on Tuesday I felt like they understood more and more of my English. They understood rules and everything explained only in English. My aid Fanny said that she was listening and felt like they understood me and didn’t need a translation, so that was positive! It was funny teaching them the rules with all these gestures so that they understand it. They are just so cute, that even though I am super frustrated with the fact that they don’t understand me, listen, their chatty, and that they never participate, they always make me smile. A boy Felix came in during his recess the other day and I was like what do you need? No response (very typical). But he kept inching closer to me. Until finally he practically just jumped into my arms for a long hug and then ran out of the room. And then there’s Edward who rides my bus and lights up every time he sees me and just gets up out of his seat to give me a hug while I’m teaching.

They get so excited about random things and when they talk I just have to laugh. They got so excited when I introduced the stars that they can earn to them. Maybe I was just such a great actress, I don’t know, but they definitely wanted a star! Except that they don’t quite understand the rules behind the stars yet. When I catch a kid doing something well and give them a star, then the other kids just start yelling out, but I want one too! Well, see, you have to be quiet and listening to get a star, but they’ll learn.

I also got the chance to participate in my first Honduran play this week. Thursday was Flag Day and every week on Monday we have this thing called Acto Civico. One value each week is chosen and the grade level teachers present on it in both Spanish and English. I’m not sure why, but apparently first grade (despite being on the struggle bus) always goes first. So Rosa and I prepared our presentation for the value of Civismo. My challenge was to explain this value in English, which was an interesting task since civismo has no translation in English. It’s not citizenship or patriotism or public spirit, but like a mix of all 3, I guess? Anyways, I came up with some sort of spiel that worked find. Our presentation in total however lasted an hour. It was complete with several poems from each grade level, songs, dances, and a play! I was in the play. The play was a quick representation of how we need to respect the flag. For the play the only male teacher, Aquiles dressed as a soldier complete with a very, very large gun. Yup, definitely not in the states anymore when there is a large gun in a school play. Anyways he guarded a flag and we would walk by and try to distract him or disrespect the flag. My job was to walk by and eat something, get my hands dirty, and try to wipe them on the flag. It was definitely interesting. Later some other volunteers dressed as Indians and did a very stereotypical Indian dance. All very Honduran, very different, very over the top, and very interesting.

I’ve already learned a lot in my first week teaching:

1. I’ve got some major space cadets that are constantly on a separate planet.

2. I’ve got some real challenges (2 autistic boys, 1 girl from the orphanage, kids with learning disabilities, kids with no family in Honduras as their parents have gone to the US, etc.)

3. When they say, “May I go to the bathroom please or May I drink water please?” I get the biggest smile.

4. I need to celebrate the real small victories and enjoy the moments in which they make me smile. I know there are going to be challenges, but I also know that these small joys will make it worthwhile!

"Let the beauty you love be what you do. There are a thousand ways to kiss the earth."

-Rumi