Pageant, Anniversary, therapy, oh and school

Its been almost a month since I have been teaching at the bilingual school. I still love it, love my students and my co-workers. Today was parent- teacher meetings. It is always a pleasure for me to meet parents. They are the foundation for the formation of children. Unfortunately, like many teachers and those who work with children may have experienced, it is exactly the youth who need most help who do not have parents that show up to meetings. Parents may be living far away, separated, busy working or even deceased. In either case children show distress due to a sense of abandonment and often use school as the place to display their frustrations. Usually a child will not come straight out and verbalize this frustration but once you dig a little deeper and earn their trust they are willing to spill the beans.
     This month will be one of activities and less of education. The school has an annual anniversary pageant which I am helping coordinate. Amongst other activities that are taking place during the school's anniversary week, I have been teaching class, correcting final exams, discipling and helping the school with some psychological issues that have come up. There is more work than there is time for me to do it all. I've been sick for a week now and it is without doubt my overworked body that has not had time to recuperate.
    Hopefully, this month's hard work will pay off and all the activities at school will be a grand hit! For Father's day, which will be celebrated tomorrow, March 16th, my class decided that they would say "Happy Father's Day" in different languages as part of the celebration that is taking place here at school. One of the students in my class came up with the idea. I was so proud of her for thinking outside the box. Let's see how it turns out. Til next time. I'm always open for new ideas.
    

School

As I had mentioned before, I am working at a school. It is a bilingual school so there are classes taught in English and Spanish. I teach all my classes in English and rarely speak to my students in Spanish. This is a lot different to Peace Corps where I spoke mostly Spanish and only English to PCVs (Peace Corps volunteers).
I love my new job! In order to be happy in life, I believe, you must love what you do. Luckily, I work at a nice school with friendly staff that get along and with students who, just like any other at their age, have their struggles and growing pains. I am the 8th grade homeroom teacher but I teach classes in 2nd grade, 7th grade, 8th grade and 9th grade. Teaching primary and secondary grades all together presents an interesting twist to my work. It keeps me on my toes and pushes me to find creative ways to teach all grades.

Teaching is not my only job. I help out at the school with some disciplinary issues and with kids who are struggling with their work. Why did I get assigned this task? Well simply put, because I have a degree in Psychology therefore the school turns to me for professional help. I do love this aspect of my job but being a teacher is more than a full time job so balancing both jobs and wearing two hats all the time can be exhausting!

If anyone who is a teacher has any ideas for the following subjects I would love to get your input! send it my way please. I am always looking for fun and innovative was to teach my students.

Classes I teach:
2nd grade: Reading and Science
7th grade: English
8th grade: U.S. History, English, Spelling and Literature
9th grade: World History

Thanks everyone!

Honduras Again!

In July 2011, after almost two years of a long and arduous process I was finally invited  to serve in Peace Corps -Honduras. Sadly, seven month later Peace Corps Honduras was officially shut down due to increased violence throughout the country. While I was only in country as a volunteer for a rather short period of time, relative to the normal 27 months commitment volunteers serve abroad, I was able to create strong ties with the Peace Corps staff, Honduran nationals, and both host families I lived with, whom I dearly love .

Despite the increasing crime and the dangers of living in Honduras in 2012, I decided to come back. I was blessed to have lived in towns where it seemed more of an oasis than the "murder capital" of the world. For the third time here in Honduras, I will be living in a completely different zone. Each area has its beauty and its setbacks.

I now live in a small city with 70,000 inhabitants. It has nice grocery stores, a few restaurants, hotels, cafes and a gym! These are luxuries that certainly cannot be found in a "normal" town.

Before I left Honduras, I tried to find a way to stay in country through some other organization. With such little time to prepare before being evacuated by the Peace Corps, I could only hope that someone from the few places I applied to would call me back. Well it seems Honduras wanted me back. After a week of being back in the U.S., I received a call from a director of school looking for a teacher to start immediately. This was my lucky day! This school, which was in a totally different part of the country from where I was living, had found me through a mutual friend who mentioned me, liked my resume and offered me a job on the spot through the phone.

Needless to say God works in mysterious ways. I am now back in action!

 More to come as the adventure continues.