Teaching and learning in Peru

So I did my coursework at Millersville. I did my student teaching. I did all my field placements. I graduated with a certification to teach. Yet, nothing can quite prepare you for your first year of teaching. I'm guessing those of you who are teachers know what I'm talking about and are probably chuckling to yourselves. Let me catch you up to speed on where I'm at personally, now that I've been teaching for two months.
I have gained a new appreciation and awareness of God's grace since March 3, the first day of school. Every day, it seems, I do things that I wish I would or could have done better. Every day there are frustrations. Every day, I realize again that I am not perfect! (Humbling thought). Every day, I realize that I am in a process and haven't arrived yet. (This is very aggravating for my perfectionistic tendencies.) Every morning, I need God's grace to start over afresh and anew and love my students all over again. Teaching so far has been the most intensely frustrating, fun and rewarding experience of my life, I think. Despite the frustrations, I love teaching and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. So this is a little bit of where I am at right now.
I have 33 students - 20 third graders and 13 fourth graders. They are great kids. My third graders are quite mischievous and energetic. They don't have a lot of self-control and are also great tattletales. But they can also be fun and really sweet. Fourth grade is very enthusiastic about learning English. They do well with the activities I plan and can usually understand what I'm saying when I'm speaking in English (which is most of the time, or at least I try to make it that way). They come from many different backgrounds - both Christian and non-Christian homes. They come from the country and from the city of Cusco itself (and anywhere in between). They come from a great variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Some of their parents can help them with their English homework. Others are barely literate themselves. There is a lot of family instability in this culture. I don't know all the family situations yet, but I do know that several of my students come from single-parent families. Others carry keys with them and are home alone after school, basically raising themselves. Still others have parents who are very involved. Some have difficulty in school. For others, school is easy. They all need love. Lots of it. And encouragement. That is not something that's frequently given to children by adults in this culture. So I try to give it as much as possible. Encouragement and hugs. Getting to know my students, praying for them, encouraging them, holding them when they're crying, seeing their faces every morning, watching their hands shoot up when they know the answer, seeing their enthusiasm...those are some of my favorite parts of my job.
And then there's the grunt work. Depending on the day and the class, I have either 45 minutes or an hour and a half to work with the students. And let me tell you, the time flies! Trying to collect homework, squeeze in spelling, keep everyone engaged and on task, teach, and everything else is definitely enough to fill up my time, no problem. I keep thinking I'd love to do this and that, but there never seems to be enough time to do so. Before I know it, class is over and we're only half way through where I wanted to be. I keep trying to figure out what is the most important and focus on it. But the lack of time to do all I'd love to do is frustrating, yes. I'm trying to figure out as well what I think about the curriculum the school's been using. Much of the time, it seems too hard. But I'm working with it and adapting it as well as I can, adding things to it and teaching things in different contexts sometimes. All of these things make teaching a continual balancing act for me in many ways.
But I'm learning...a lot. I'm learning a lot about God's truth. I am definitely a perfectionist, at least as far as my own self goes. So being imperfect and being in the process of learning is frustrating at times. Just this morning, as I spoke with God, He reminded me to listen to His truth and His voice, not any other voice or any other "truth". That was a powerful reminder. One I needed. I find that I tend to get discouraged with myself before getting encouraged with God. Really, it should be the other way around. No, I'm not perfect, but I'm loved anyway and empowered with God's power. Now that is something to be encouraged about! No matter what, I am still loved unconditionally and He has a purpose in my life.
And I'm learning how to work with my kids. Little by little, I'm getting ideas for fun things to do with them and how to best teach them. I've found that lots of review (to the point where I feel like I'm becoming redundant) is necessary and that going over something only once is a waste of time because they won't remember it.
So yes, I am often frustrated. But I am also often filled with joy and love for my kids as I am in the classroom. They're my kids. They're precious. And through them God is teaching me about His grace.
So that's a little bit of where I'm at right now personally. Blessings to each one of you. Thank you for your prayers! They are much appreciated.

Feliz Cumpleaños!

So how do they celebrate birthdays in Peru?
Glad you asked. Let me tell you how I celebrated mine. The day began like any other. Wake up at 5, eat breakfast, get ready for school. But from there, it was a little different. I walked in the door at school just in time to see Wendy scurry around the corner, looking guilty. I walked in to the office to use the copier, just in time to see Damaris leave the office, looking guilty. And since everyone else was busy looking guilty, I got to use the copier without standing in line! (The copier is quite a popular place to be at PROMESA at about 7:15 in the morning). Pretty soon, I found out the reason why everyone was looking guilty. They were all waiting around the corner with cupcakes, drink, and other fun surprises. I felt very blessed by each one of my coworkers. They blessed me with a beautiful bag from Cusco that works very nicely as a teacher bag and is a lot easier to take with me on combis (public transportation...that's another blog entry for another day) than my backpack!
As soon as I left the school building to go upstairs to do something, I ran in to Isaac, one of my third graders, who greeted me with a big hug and "Feliz cumpleaños!".
mid-section and many more greetings of "Feliz cumpleaños profe! (teacher)". Kids definitely have a way of making one feel loved... We began the day, as we do every Wednesday morning, with a group devotional time with all the grades. Before going upstairs, Ron called me up front and everyone sang to me (Yes, they have "Happy Birthday" in Spanish). As I was goingI came downstairs again only to have many more enthusiastic sets of little arms thrown around my back to my seat, I got mobbed by most of the third and fourth graders. When I say mobbed, I mean as in I couldn't walk and I was trying not to fall over and squish anybody. Literally.
The day proceeded uneventfully until just before recess/snack time, when Chrisnna, one of my fourth graders, started complaining of a stomachache. So I took her to the office to give her some Pepto-Bismol. On our way back up to fourth grade (after being mobbed again in the hallway en route to find the keys for the office), Alejandra (from third grade) called down to me from the railing at the top of the stairs. "Profe, come to our room!" For a few minutes I became a human tug of war rope as Chrisnna pulled on one arm and Alejandra on the other. Fourth grade eventually won (first come, first serve), but only with the promise that I would be right over to third grade. The fourth grade room doesn't have a door yet, so as I stepped through the curtain that serves as a makeshift door, I was promptly showered with confetti from all directions and shouts of "Feliz cumpleaños!". Again, I was surrounded by fourth graders. Have I mentioned that kids have a way of making one feel very loved? A package was thrust in my hand and immediately the entire fourth grade began chanting "Que lo abre! Que lo abre! Que lo abre! (Open it!)" Inside, I found a ch'ullo (a traditional hat with ear flaps from Cusco, which is actually becoming popular worldwide
) My kids continue to amaze, surprise and bless me. The girls in both grades were way into writing notes to me, so I have lots of little notes on Peruvian notebook paper decorated in gel pens (quite a popular item among the girls in both of my classes) and colored pencils. I have to say...I love my kids. So then I went in to third grade and they all sang to me too and gave me hugs and encouraging words (and more notes). It's been a while since I've gotten that many hugs and felt that loved all in one day!
Side note: then I went back to fourth grade and found out that Chrisnna's "stomachache" was really an excuse to get me to go down to the office...)
After school, I went home for lunch. Lomo saltado....probably my favorite food here. I had invited my friend Juana and my host mom, Mama Zenaida for lunch. Including my friend Marga (who works in our house), my roommates and I, we were 6. I walked in the door and was greeted by my roommate Carrie thrusting a crazy balloon hat on my head. Apparently, one of her friends is from Switzerland and there is a Swiss tradition that single girls celebrating 25 years of life must wear a crazy hat. I happen to live with Carrie, who, for several months of her life, got paid to make balloon animals. So...I got a beautiful balloon hat, complete with a flower! :)
I felt very blessed at lunch by my roommates and my friends. We had fun fellowshipping together and enjoying each other's company. (In the pictures, Mama Zenaida, is in the black, Juana in pink and Marga is wearing blue, in case anyone's curious). I definitely feel like I am surrounded by family here and am very loved.
And after lunch, there came the cake. Chocolate cake with peanut butter icing (yes, we have enough American peanut butter that we can splurge on things such as peanut butter icing at the moment). Very rich, but even yummier! And I was sung to again.
There's this Peruvian tradition involving birthday cakes. After one blows out one's birthday candles, everyone starts chanting "Que muerda la torta! Que muerda la torta! (Bite the cake! Bite the cake!)" If you're unfortunate enough to have anyone behind you, you might get your face shoved in the cake in the process. But if you're lucky, it's a simple process of taking a bite out of the cake with your mouth. Then you get the piece you bit and the cake is cut up and served to everyone. As you can see from the picture, I obviously need more practice. But the cake was ceremoniously bit, cut, served and enjoyed by all.
After lunch, Juana stayed a while and we ended up talking and playing Dutch Blitz with Carrie and Shannon till Juana had to leave to catch the bus back to Huacarpay.
My friend Hilda (Juana's sister) called me later that night, promising to call again on Friday night to set up a time that we could get together today. So this morning I met her and we went downtown for the day. We just had fun walking around, looking at the

Qorikancha museum (I love the fact that I can get in for free with my residence card!) and climbing up the giant statue of Inka Pachakutec that gives you a great view of the city of Cusco. Before we went to get lunch, we stopped at Pukllay Kancha (Quechua for play place) where there is a giant slide that makes you feel like a kid no matter what your age. Great stress reliever and laugh inducer! I have decided that if I ever miss sledding while I am here, I will pay the $0.35 or so entrance fee and slide down the slide a few times. It's really a lot of fun! The last time, Hilda and I went down back to back our arms twisted together, and had quite the laugh when we tipped over and got tangled up at the bottom, laughing too hard to get ourselves untangled for quite a while.
The other great part of my birthday was hearing from many of you over the course of the last few weeks. I felt very blessed by each one of you and greatly enjoyed going to the post office and checking the mailbox there. I have cards hanging on the side of my desk in my room and have filled up the entire side of the desk. Thank you to everyone who helped to make my birthday special. I felt more special, loved, blessed, missed, appreciated and welcomed by people (both here and there) this week than I have in a while.
I seriously think this was one of my favorite birthdays so far. Muchas gracias!
Thank you so much!

Thank you!

Many thanks to all who remembered my birthday in various ways over the last few weeks - packages, cards, emails, thoughts, prayers... I've greatly enjoyed going to the post office lately! It seems that the box always has something fun in it right now. :) Same for my email inbox.
I felt very loved and appreciated by each one of you. Thank you for helping to make my birthday so special. I don't have time at the moment to post an update about my day, but I will do so hopefully this weekend and I'm working on responding to emails. Blessings to each one of you!

Safety 101

Fourth grade, in one of their Spanish classes today, was learning about safety and accident prevention. Miss Nancy, the fourth grade teacher, sent them out in groups of about 3 to share with the other grades for a few minutes what they were learning. Andre, Sara and Katy came in to our third grade math class to share some very important and practical tips, such as "Don't run in the hallways" and "Don't slide down the banisters" (a very important one at PROMESA, considering the number of steps and banisters we have!).
My favorite one, however, was Andre's lesson on street crossing. In all seriousness and with a sense of maturity coming from being in fourth grade, he told the third graders: "Before you cross the street you should look both ways. Otherwise a car could come and hit you. Y eso no es muy agradable! (and that's not a very pleasant thing!)"
It was all I could do to contain myself...

The adventure of fourth grade vaccinations

Yesterday was a day met with great trepidation by the students of PROMESA because, like kids everywhere, they generally hate shots. And the health department of San Jeronimo was scheduled to come yesterday and give mandatory hepatitis B vaccinations to all students who hadn't had them. Unfortunately for me, the fourth grade vaccinations just happened to be during English class, which fell during the last two periods of the day. Translation: the kids had all day to think about their impending vaccinations and let their stress level rise accordingly. Before English class, that was the hot topic of conversation and speculation. And then, just as we started saying the date, the nurse popped her head in and cheerfully announced that she was here to give vaccinations. Any concentration they had had for English class evaporated like water on a hot summer pavement.
The announcement was met with a mixture of tears, indifference, trepidation and bravery. I'm not really sure how much anyone really was concentrating on English, even though they were answering questions. The sight of their classmates coming back into the room holding cotton balls to vaccinated arms was just too enticing, nerve-wracking, and fascinatingly scary. And then, just that quickly, it was over. Finally, I thought, time to do some serious English class work!
This proved to be, however, nothing more than a fleeting dream. The level of relief in the wake of the vaccinations was seemingly just as great as the level of stress in the anticipation of them. Oh my goodness, I don't think I have ever heard that much laughter for that long in a classroom before in my life! They couldn't control themselves and even had me laughing.
I thought I'd impart a little humor into your life by sharing a few of the laugh moments...

Me: Okay, guys, I could understand before the vaccinations why you were all distracted and couldn't concentrate. But now they're over and you're still talking. I don't understand!
Magna: (raises her hand and when I call on her says, in all seriousness) Should I explain it to you?
At this point I lost it!

Andre: I think when they gave us the shot for hepatitis, they gave us a laughing shot too without us even realizing it!
And I lost it again...

For whatever reason, Ada Sol decided to drip a few drops of glue into Josua's hair. Josua raised his hand to ask for permission to go wash it out. As he was leaving, he commented "I'm going gray!", since the glue made his hair a whitish color.

Sometimes, I realized yesterday, you have a choice. You can be grumpy and frustrated, hanging on to your precious plans, and miss out on the joy or you can laugh along with everyone else and then work to get them under control and do part of what needs to be done. I think I can guess what Jesus would choose...

Munani yachay runasimita

I want to learn Quechua. Munani yachay runasimita. That's been my line the last few months. I'd love to learn enough to understand Pastor Celestino's messages without my friend Juana having to translate everything. I'd love to be able to have a conversation in it, in which I don't sound like a two year old trying to string together words without really knowing what I'm doing. I'd love to actually understand it.
God showed me the other day that He has given me this tremendous blessing in learning Quechua. Quechua classes (after being here a little while) interested me when I got here, but other missionaries told me that maybe it would be better to concentrate on Spanish for a while and then work on Quechua. But I still wanted to learn Quechua. I was a little disappointed that that didn't seem like it was going to work out.
Okay, so I'm officially not taking classes. But unofficially...
My Quechua vocabulary has been growing by leaps and bounds (which is not that impressive because it wasn't that big to start with). I've been learning Quechua in the best way - from the people who God has placed around me. And I've realized that that is a tremendous blessing! Not only am I learning words, but I'm also making memories and building relationships in the process.
Like the other day when our friend Uri came over. The original purpose of his visit was to learn English, but he ended up teaching me instead. End result...I learned three words and the meaning of a suffix (Quechua is a patching together of one word and a bazillion suffixes, creating crazy long words). And I built a memory and my vocabulary.
Or yesterday, when my friend Marga taught me another three words and a suffix as we were drying dishes and hanging out wash together.
And on Sunday, Juana taught me another word as we were walking together after church.
And Saturday, Rene, Ines and I were cracking up as they taught me how to say "I'm full" and
tried to distinguish it from "I'm pregnant" (apparently, one Quechua word for full can also mean pregnant). Don't worry...I won't be using that phrase any time soon!
I've picked up words from so many people as I've built relationships over the past few months. And it's been a huge blessing. So no, my learning of Quechua might not be exactly like I thought it might be, but really, it's even better. God has given me the gift of friends and family around me to help me, to love me and to teach me. And I am reminded again that His ways are higher than mine and His love is deeper than mine.

Just as an interesting side note, here is the Quechua translation of John 3:16, in case you've ever lain awake at night wondering... :)
Diosqa anchatapunin runakunata munakurqan, chaymi sapan Churinta kachamurqan pipas paypi iñiqqa ama wañunanpaq, aswanpas wiñay kawsayniyoq kananpaq.

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.