Hard Work That's Worth It

It amazes me I have been living in Honduras 84 days now, and in only 47 days until I fly home for Christmas. Time has gone so quickly, and yet I feel as though I have learned so much since my first week as a 3^rd grade teacher.

Finally I am starting to get into a routine. The first month or so I was staying up at the school until 5 or 6 every single night, and would continue doing school work until my eyes couldn’t be forced open any longer. Considering school starts at 7:20 and ends at 2:40, I sort of felt like a crazy person. I have gotten better at managing my time and being more efficient with organizing materials. In the states I prided myself with my organization skills; things change when you only have 8 manila folders to put all your supplies/materials in.

I was very excited last week, my curriculum for my language class FINALLY came in the mail! Since day 1 I had been making all of my own units for language. Now each student has their own language book that they are able to write in. SO nice that they can actually write in these workbooks—it is the only workbook they are allowed to write in. All the other workbooks they have to copy the problems down on a separate piece of paper. Talk about time consuming.

I am still making my own curriculum for reading, math, ESL, and science class. Also after looking through the language curriculum, I’m not a huge fan of everything so I am still making all my own activities and tests. It is a lot of work to make up your own curriculum for every single class! I was able to use the math curriculum for the first month, BUT then it started introducing division to my students when they hadn’t even learned the multiples of 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 yet. I got permission to take a different route and to make up my own worksheets, homework, and tests. I still struggle with what to do in my reading class. I give my students the most BASIC one page stories and only a handful of them could answer the comprehension questions correctly. Anyone have good ideas? Send them my way!

Although making this all up on my own can be stressful, it is so worth it. I see the benefits of it daily! Whenever I use their workbook or textbook to try and explain concepts or a new topic, over half of my class will be confused and/or bored. Whenever I create hands-on activities that get all of my students involved, by the end of the period ¾ of my class understands. Just shows a little bit of time and effort can go a long ways, and can make ALL the difference in a child’s learning.  A couple weeks ago a student told me, “Miss in 2^nd grade I no understanding multiplication. But with you, I understanding.” It warms my heart to know I am getting through to them. This week I calculated my grades for the past quarter—it was amazing to see how some students were literally getting 20-50 percent on all their assignments and now they are getting 80-90 percent. Now if only their English would improve that much in such a short time… :)

Some days I feel like I don’t even know how to speak English! I find myself thinking, “wait..which is the correct way to say this?!” I am around so many students who speak broken English, I feel like my English is lowering to a kindergarten level. But to be honest, their broken English makes them all the cuter—PLUS it makes for a great laugh. I had one of my sweetest girls, Ana, raise her hand the other day. In her tiny, meek voice she said to me, “Give me your markers.” At first I looked at her and thought, GIVE you my markers? That is no way to ask your teacher! It took me a second and then I realized, she has no idea how to ask me for my markers. So I taught them, “May I have your markers, please?” They love practicing that phrase.

One day my students happened to see the background picture of my computer, and it just so happened that I was in a bathing suit. Just to clarify: Hondurans do NOT wear bathing suits. Instead they wear a t-shirt and shorts whenever they go to a pool, ocean, hot springs, etc. My students saw me and they all screamed “MISS VAN DYKE IN A BIKINI!!! SHE HAS A BIKINI!!!” The boys were pretending to faint while the girls started to model pose pretending to wear a bikini. I was absolutely mortified! A week later I became mortified to the max when one little boy raised his hand and told me “Miss, last night I dream of you in a bikini.” The whole class thought it was absolutely hilarious, while I quickly tried to change the subject! A time when I wish I could push the backspace button; lets re-do my background picture!

Love letters are always a favorite of mine. I get at least 1 or 2 a week. The latest one from Jicxon went on for a few lines about “how some beautiful” I am. I’m guessing he was trying to say “so beautiful”.  Whenever I teach a new song to my students I usually will have a boy raise his hand and tell me, “Your voice is most beautiful.” They really know how to butter me up!

 My most favorite thing is saying goodbye to all of my students at the end of the day. When I was in grade school I loved giving my teachers a hug goodbye, I couldn’t wait to be on the teacher side of it. Well in Honduras, when you say hello or goodbye you always give each other a kiss on the cheek. Every day when the bell rings at 2:40 I get a kiss on the cheek and a hug from all of my students. Well, most of my students. Some of my boys pretend that they are too shy and embarrassed; I make a point to chase them down and give them a huge bear hug.

So, as you can see, I obviously have grown a deep love for all of my students. They make everything worth it. It is such a joy to have a class that I love, and students that love me back. I could not be more blessed! I just want I could take them all with me to the United States and have you meet them. Wishful thinking. Even though all of them ask daily, “Can I go with you to the United States?” If you think of a good way to answer that question, let me know.

P.S.- In the next few days I’m hoping to upload pictures of all of my students….stay tuned!