Third grade to a T

I borrowed one of the school's cameras tonight because Luz had taken some pictures with it that I wanted to put on my computer. I saw this picture and it made me laugh because it's really a very good look at third grade at any given time. Observe carefully all that is going on in this picture and all the expressions on the kids' faces. Oh yes, they're a really distractible group. I really do enjoy them, though. So I thought I'd share the picture with you so you could see some of my students and what they are like.














Far tables from left: Shally, Caleb, Diana, Sarai, Bethany, Sharith, Jonatan, Yuli
Front table: Ibet, Lucero

Pets with six legs

I had an experience today that made me laugh and run for my camera, so I thought I'd share it. It was recess time in fourth grade and suddenly, Alicia came back with this bug crawling on her hand, wanting to show it to Miss Nancy (the fourth grade teacher) and I. It was about the size of a ladybug, but sporting stripes instead of spots. She wanted to know what kind it was. Of course, being the great bug aficionado I am, I knew right away. Not! Actually, I didn't really think much of it. I thought she'd found it on the floor. Then I saw someone else with a similar-looking bug and I began to wonder. And then I saw Magna fishing them out of the bottom of her backpack. Upon further investigation, I found out she caught them in her yard, thought they were pretty cool looking, and decided to make pets of them. So she found a small box, put grass in it, and stuck it in her backpack. She spent a few minutes fishing little bugs out of the bottom of her backpack pocket and putting them back in their home. Well, this was just too interesting to resist and pretty soon the vast majority of fourth grade was involved in the unfolding drama of the bugs. These tiny six-legged pets (some even had names!) were definitely the choice entertainment for the half-hour recess time. I think maybe one or two of the students actually went out to recess. Most of the rest of them were sitting watching the antics of Magna's new pets as they crawled around and kicked their little feet in the air when they got flipped on their backs. They were, in fact, so engrossed in watching this miniature entertainment that they didn't even seem to notice when I got out my camera and started taking pictures. The hilarity of the whole situation cracked me up, so I thought I'd share it.
Shannon suggested maybe I bring a box of bugs to school in my backpack as back up in case I need a backup plan in the middle of class. Hmmm...not a bad idea!

Trout with Wings

Before you think I'm turning all evolutionist on you and thinking I found a winged trout, the missing link, let me explain myself. Saturday was another instance when things didn't turn out the way we expected - something that seems to happen quite frequently. We ended up eating trout with wings.
Several weeks ago, we were invited to go on an outing with some of the youth from Huacarpay. The plan was to hike out beyond Lucre, see some beautiful scenery and catch some fish, fry them, eat them, play some games, eat some capuli, then hike back. But you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men...

We arrived at the house of our friends the Puma sisters in Huacarpay at 8 AM on a sunny Saturday morning, as was planned. We spent some time getting things together for the outing - things like pots and pans, knives and laundry detergent to wash hands and dishes. All the important stuff. 5 of us (Carrie, Shannon and I and Juana and Rosa Puma, who is pictured at left) left around 8:30 in a taxi to go to the place in Lucre where we were all going to meet. The plan was to go to a fish farm owned by Sixto, one of the men from the church in Lucre. We were going to get some fish from him and take them with us, in case we couldn't catch any fish (or not enough to feed all of us). We were also going to meet the other youth from Huacarpay who were planning on coming with us. When we got to the predetermined destination, there was no one there. So we walked to Sixto's house to see if he had seen everyone else and if they had already gotten fish from him. Turns out he had no idea about the goings-on; neither did he have any trout big enough to sell us. He did, however, have some gigantic pears he sold us. On the left, you can see Vilma and I with them. So we were back to square one, still not sure where the rest of the youth were or what we were going to do. Juana, ever organized, took charge and we walked back through Lucre, meeting her sister Vilma and her boyfriend along the way. We were rather in a rush, but, in typical Peruvian fashion, took time to visit the parents of one of the women from the Lucre church. Of course we couldn't leave emptyhanded, so they gave us a bag of capuli (a Peruvian fruit kind of like a cherry) to take with us. By this time, we were thinking that buying some kind of meat other than fish was looking like a pretty good option, but weren't sure where to find it. We were told there was no meat where we were, but only in the market. So Juana and I decided to go get meat and leave everyone else at the meeting place, just in case anyone else should show up. Thankfully, God sent Pastor Eloy of the Lucre church along just in time to show us where there was some chicken very close. We bought chicken and met up with everyone else. We still had no idea where the other youth were, but, assuming they were ahead of us somewhere, hopefully fishing, we started out. On the way, we met up with another one of the women from the church who agreed to sell us some choclo (corn). We sent two of our group with her to get the choclo, then kept going, past the fish farm on the other side of Lucre, where we waited for the choclo-gatherers to rejoin us. While waiting, we suddenly realized we had no matches to start a fire, so even if we did have meat, it didn't really do us much good anyway. So Juana and I went back down to the fish farm, where we asked for matches from the man there. God's grace was great and he gave us about half a box of matches. Now, well-stocked, we continued our hike.
The actual hike part lasted about an hour or so. The weather was beautiful and it was great walking along all together, carrying everything, talking, enjoying the scenery, even if it was really hot. We finally got to the place where we were going to spend the day, sporting jeans wet to the knee from having crossed two small rivers. Upon arriving, my friend Juana and I cut up the chicken and Vilma started the fire, both of which you can see in the pictures. We began cooking lunch, since we were all really hungry by now. Shortly after we arrived, the other group of three youth arrived. We dispatched them to go fishing and some of the others to go find some capuli, while we started boiling the chicken. When we all reconvened, there was still no fish, but there was boiled chicken and a little capuli. We continued looking for capuli while the chicken finished cooking and the choclo got boiled. Another one of the youth from Lucre arrived just in time for lunch, bearing mote (corn off the cob - the kernels are about the size of your thumbnail). So we had chicken - hence the trout with wings - and mote for lunch. We ate at the perfect time, apparently, since right after we were done and were washing off our greasy fingers and dishes with laundry detergent in the stream, the clouds began menacing the sun. Instead of playing games, as we were planning, we decided we didn't want to walk in the rain, so we'd start heading back.
We didn't want to cross the water again and get all wet for our trip back, so Alicia, who is from Lucre, led us on a tiny little deer path along the mountain. After a while, we stopped in the grove of capuli trees below, where, like monkeys, Fredy, Andre, Jean and Alicia scampered up the trunks and we all began to unburden the branches of their load of fruit. Carrie was enjoying a branch full of capuli in the picture below. The clouds decided to leave the sun alone, so we figured it was a good time to stop and play games. The game of choice was spoons, played with sticks in the absence of spoons. After playing for a while, the clouds suddenly decided to make an encore appearance, so we decided it was God telling us that we should probably head back to Lucre before dark. We booked it along the rest of the deer path and arrived back in Lucre just in time to catch a taxi back to Huacarpay, jamming 10 of us in a station wagon for the 10-minute ride.
We arrived home, tired but content, having enjoyed our trout with wings and our time with our friends. It didn't turn out exactly
like we expected, but
we saw God's faithfulness throughout the whole day. It was a good reminder to me to look for His hand in everything, even the very smallest things, to find reasons to praise in every moment. And that is a beautiful thing.

Cultural experiences in the Peruvian educational system

Well, thanks to God and His amazing grace, school started with all the windows intact and the classrooms done enough to house kids, though the plaster on the walls is still slightly damp and fourth grade has no door and third grade's door doesn't close properly. But all of those things are minor details which will get ironed out over the next few weeks (Lord willing). The last few weeks have been a series of cultural experiences and a tremendous growth spurt of my learning curve. So let me back up about three weeks and start from there. (Translation: this will be a long post!)
The 10 teachers and staff in the school started teacher meetings on February 18, meeting from 9-1 every day. In addition, there are two helpers who work in preschool and kindergarten. This picture shows most of the teachers. We were discussing and figuring out all the details of how to hand in grades and lesson plans and unit plans and everything and what we were going to teach when and all the practical details of running a school. My learning curve began its tremendous growth spurt during that week, as I had never really learned this in English, let alone Spanish. It was an experience that tended to breed some insecurity in me, since I had a million and one questions, trying to make sure I was doing everything correctly.
Last week we were working mostly on getting things ready for our rooms. That in itself was a cultural experience. Let me just say that I will never again take for granted a school supply catalog, in more than one way. We at PROMESA have been blessed in many ways by those who have sent down everything from bulletin board borders to stickers to Ziplock bags to books to sticky notes to index cards to construction paper. Some things are available here, but it's not like the States. I do believe that we have more resources than most schools here, but...well...things are different. I really began to see that when we started working on making decorations for our rooms. Yes, you read that correctly. Everything in the classrooms, except for bulletin board border, is handmade. Sometime in years past, from some unknown source, PROMESA got some pages from a school supply catalog. These served as the inspiration for many projects over the course of the week. Carrie and Damaris chose a zoo theme for their preschool/kindergarten class, so all week, Carrie was painting hippos and giraffes and lions and things, making attendance charts, behavior charts, welcome signs, and room decorations. The first day we were making things, Gwendy sat down and made 5 bugs for classroom decorations, just by looking at a miniscule picture on one of the pages of said school supply catalog. I was very impressed. Luz and I made a quote for our walls in English and in Spanish by printing out all the letters on the computer, cutting them out, and gluing them to heavy paper. That went for pretty much any words we made. Nancy had made a lot of decorations for her other classroom out of Corospun, which is a more durable cousin of those thin little foam sheets you can get in the States. She cut out all the pieces, assembled them, and painted them. Honestly, I had to ask her if she'd made them. I wasn't sure. They are amazing. Nancy and I also made a calendar and I spent several hours one night coloring in the names of the months in English and Spanish, which we printed out on the computer.
And then there's Vinifan, Contact Paper, which is the closest thing we have to lamination. I think I'm addicted to the stuff. Hm...do I want this to last beyond the end of the year? Might this be something that I want to reuse? Do I want to make this stronger? Do I want to be able to write on it and erase it? Cover it with Vinifan! It takes longer and is significantly more frustrating than sticking things in a laminating machine, but it works. I spent a long time cutting things out of Vinifan.
I also spent many hours printing things out on the computer for people. I began to feel as though I were quite computer literate (at least in Microsoft Word), as I kept hearing "Betania, puedes pasarme esto a la computadora, por favor?" (Betania, can you please type this up on the computer and print it out for me?). Apparently, someone sometime somehow got the idea that I was the computer girl. Go figure. I'm glad I've had lots of practice with Word in English, which makes it much easier to learn it in Spanish.
I must say, I am amazed and impressed by the creativity of Peruvian teachers. It seems to be boundless. People here are generally more creative and artistic, I think (maybe it comes from having nothing and needing to make things. I don't know). My artistic skills are sadly lacking. I really like Google Image Search, personally. :) I wish I had the ability to look at something and make it, but God hasn't blessed me with that one yet, unfortunately.
The hours passed rapidly, the table and floor littered with multi-colored scraps of papers: cartulina, cartulina plastificada, Corospun, vinifan, Canson - all of which I was introduced to that week (that was another part of my learning curve). All too soon it was time to actually put things in our rooms (2 days before the beginning of school). No such thing as putting staples in the wall here. I'm not quite sure why, to be honest. But nope. Cinta masking (masking tape) to the rescue. I think I'm addicted to that stuff too. Thanks to my junior block cooperating teacher, who taught me to always use more masking tape than I think I'll need. Maybe we should invest in stock... That was the day when the windows still were not in the third grade room and the walls were still damp, so masking tape didn't stick. Chinches (thumb tacks) to the rescue. Yes, our classroom decorations are currently held together with masking tape, thumb tacks, and a little bit of sticky tack and hot glue (which, interestingly enough, is the same word in Spanish as caulk, causing some mental distress for me too as I tried to figure out how and why we were going to caulk things to the walls).
But when we left that day, there were at least some things on some walls and we felt somewhat ready for the arrival of Monday and bouncy, lively little bodies full of energy and enthusiasm. Monday morning at 5 AM came very quickly and finally it was D-Day. I got to school early to put a quote up on the third grade room wall so the room wasn't totally bare, since the windows didn't get in till after I'd left on Saturday and I couldn't get in to put things on the walls on Sunday after church. All too soon, it felt like, the kids came and there was then no more time to do anything.
I have a total of 31 students in third and fourth grades. The third grade class is very talkative, but I am beginning to know how to work with them and teach them. Fourth grade, though they're talkative to an extent, is much more mature. I enjoy both classes in their own way, though they can both be frustrating as well. It's been weird because I've just, within the last 2 weeks, reached the point of speaking Spanish as my default language and now I'm supposed to be teaching English and speaking English as much as possible. I definitely mix the two, probably more than I should. Sometimes I feel like I'm speaking sign language too because I try to do a lot with my hands to help them understand what I'm saying when I speak English. Normally, it works pretty well. I have kids in both classes who I'm beginning to realize are my trusty translators.
The biggest cultural experience for me this week is the Peruvian style of teaching. Normally, in Peruvian schools, kids don't have textbooks, so their notebooks become the next best thing and are really works of art. The first page is their caratula (which really has no translation and basically is like a title page where they put their name, course, school, teacher, grade, etc and decorate it). Much Peruvian education is in the form of dictation, so the kids get really good at hearing things and writing them down. The teachers also draw a lot on the board (I tell you, they're really artistic!) and the kids are expected to copy it all down, exactly as it's written or drawn. If they don't, or if they make a mistake, they either have to erase it with a pen eraser or use white out. The teachers are really sticklers for all of this and it really takes forever and is not really a good use of time. Plus the fact that they use both red and blue pens. The red pen is for capital letters and punctuation (don't ask me why) and the blue pen is pretty much for everything else. It's interesting to hear a teacher dictating and to hear all the blue pens hit the desks when she says "comma", then to hear the red pens hit the desks after the comma is written. They are expected to do everything perfectly in their notebooks.
And along comes Miss Bethany, who figured that notebooks would be a good idea, so they could write things down and have everything in one place. I didn't count on the fact that these kids are so ingrained in the Peruvian way of doing things that they have no concept of just writing something down on a notebook page. I can't tell you how much time I spent yesterday (the first day I used notebooks) answering questions like "Should I write this in cursive or in print? Should I put it here or here? Should I do it in blue pen or red? Should I draw this? Where should I put this drawing?". I started out the day saying "I don't really care" (wondering, what does it really matter?), but finally decided that for the mental well-being of both students and teacher, it might behoove me to begin to care, or at least to pretend I care. So today I became a little more Peruvian and told them how to do it. That worked better. And it took forever. I'm learning...slowly but surely.
But through it all, despite notebooks and trying to figure out how to teach in another culture and short nights and talkative students, it's so rewarding to see my fourth graders' hands shoot up when I ask for a volunteer to put a bead on our quipu (it's an Incan way of keeping track of numbers and I decided to make my own to keep track of how many days we've been in school). And it was rewarding when the third graders wanted me to be a part of their circle time during Christian Education this morning. Or when Andre comes up and gives me a kiss on the cheek and greets me. Or when Mabelin's hand shoots up because she knows the answer to a question. Or when Ibet figures out what I'm saying and translates it correctly. Or when Noemi is excited to learn English. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, I get frustrated. Yeah, I've been tired. No, I don't like waking up at 5 AM. Yeah, I'm glad it's the weekend and I have some more time to sleep and to get ready for next week. But it's so good too. And teaching is so rewarding. I'm glad I'm here.