Time Flies

It's been a very busy couple of weeks here on the work front, hence the lack of posts.  My school sends home report cards 8 times a year and we had our first mid-term grades due 2 weeks ago.  What's crazy is the end of the partial (quarter) is now coming up and we'll have to be doing the next report card soon, too!  Grading is new to me and it took quite some time to calculate grades for 29 students in each of the 7 subjects that I teach.  This past week all of us maestros had to prepare our partial exams, too.  Yes, my little 2nd graders have to be tested in each subject and are subjected to "exam week" just like the high schoolers.  I'm a little nervous as to how they will do.  Their English has come quite a ways since the start of the year, but tests are still difficult for them!

Here's a picture of some of my kiddos that hang out with me for tutoring after school:

The little one, Josef, is the brother of Rodrigo, on the far left.  I think they are just two of the cutest brothers ever!  Then there is Anthony, he's most adorable and most frustrating, all at the same time!  Mariam is on the right, she is very smart and needs a lot of love.

A funny story about Anthony - he's one of the most distracted children I've ever met.  I have found that when removed from the classroom, he gets his work done mas rapido.  I don't even have to say anything now, just go over to his table, pick up his work and set it outside the door and he follows, but not without flashing me the cheesiest most mischievous grin ever.  One day last week I had to do it twice.  The second time I added "adios, Anthony."  The entire class erupted into laughter, as if it were the first Spanish word I muttered in their presence.  It definitely wasn't, but they were in hysterics.  They go, "Meees, you speak the Spanish!"  I had to fuel the fire so I responded, in Spanish, "yes, I speak a little Spanish, but with my students I speak English."  It was all over from there, good thing it was almost the end of the day!!  

Here's some more fun pictures from the classroom:

Notice the weak smiles?  It takes much coaxing to get any Honduran to smile for a photo.
  

This is Susan, the female version of Anthony.  She also happens to be my next door neighbor and frequently pops her head into our house.  I was playing with her and a couple other students (by the way this is perfectly acceptable and not a creepy thing to do here)at her house the other day when the power went out.  Apparently, the thing to do when the power goes out is play hide and go seek.  I can see how that is fun because it is pitch black and you can just lay down on the floor anywhere to hide!  

Here are the kids making a class collage of Nouns.  

Recently, we also had our first parent-teacher conference night.  It was very different than what I'm used to.  It was more of an open forum for parents to ask general questions all together.  And then if they had specific questions about their kid they just stayed after and asked.  

We also had Friday off for a "staff development" day.  Other teachers from the area attended, and it was a bunch of presentations by different people all day.  I happened to be one of those presenters, and it went quite well.  I talked about classroom management since it's something I noticed most of the local teachers know nothing about!  I will abstain from ranting about this, but, let's just say teachers in the US get much better training than teachers here!

On top of all that, I had my first illness.  I woke up with a high temperature one day and it was pretty miserable to have to corral my little munchkins in the heat with a fever.  At the end of the day, I went to the clinic to get some meds and clear up whatever I had as quickly as possible.  They said I had an ear infection, but that's up for debate.  Regardless, I got a shot in my rear (it kick starts the antibiotics, they give it to you for pretty much any illness).  About 4 or 5 days later I was feeling better.

On the homefront - I believe I mentioned in my last post that we got two chickens.  Well, they have been providing us with some entertainment.  They figured out how to escape our yard and go into the neighbors yard.  After it happened several times, it was suggested to us that we use some string to tie a stick around their legs.  It's basically a chicken shackle to weigh them down a little big so they can't fly.  It was quite the scene when we (ok, my roommates) chased them down and held them while the string was being tied around their legs.  

Another interesting event was going to our little friend, Lucio's, birthday party.  It's always so fascinating to see the homes here.  Most people live with not many material possessions.  I gave Lucio a little bag of a few cheap plastic animals.  He thought they were the best things ever!

And lastly, if you know me, you know I always make time for fun.  Last weekend I went to Santa Rosa with a few of the girls for a night out on the town.  On the bus ride there, we were held up for a few minutes as we passed this rally in support of the Libre party presidential candidate.  They were just riding from town to town, honking their horns and being obnoxious, in typical Honduran fashion.