One Week In

One week into teaching! I can hardly believe it. Part of this feels so surreal, so unlikely, and so strange.  The other part of me feels like I have always done this and I will always do this.

And so I find myself mulling over what stories or highlights to pull out of the cloud of swirling memories.

I teach 3 classes a day, except for Thursday, during which I teach all four.  This Thursday was a holiday (Ascension day) so we had no classes. That meant I had all my students three times.

My classes are all interesting. I wonder how to teach them, as I have no measuring stick. I don’t know, from my own experience, how much I can make them do. The people who are telling me what I can do, I don’t know well enough to understand what they mean with that.  I am encouraged to know that this is pretty average wherever you are, and that the freedom I have to explore the curriculum is a gift I don’t need to be afraid of using. I’m planning each day as I go and some are more interesting than others. I have some yearlong structures I need to still get into place. My 12^th grade class was introduced to the library for their first self-selected reading.

Our stove was finally fixes on Wednesday, so we’ve been able to cook in our own apartment. The relief of having a stove is beyond words.  We’ve since found out it will light itself without matches, but only after we used the back-burner that was connected to the starter. Trial and Error.

---Blog post interrupted by visit from fellow teacher and his wife. She’s just flown in and she’s from Belgium! I am excited to start speaking Dutch with her soon!---

Being that it’s now ten and I am getting pretty tired, I will leave you all with a sad substitute for real news: The bullet point list

This Week:

1)   Enjoyed a wonderful birthday party on Friday night. My team won at Kube (I made the final kill shot).  I am so blessed to be working with people who came and loved on me after only knowing me for one to two weeks.

2)   The birthday cake was in Dutch. The brownies were gluten-free. The chili was hot and the crepes were not only gluten-free but also covered in Nutella.

3)   Figuring out the online homework assignment pages in Sycamore as well as figuring out what to give, as homework is daunting.

4)   The coffee maker in the staff room doesn’t work, but I have a detachable electric teakettle in my apartment.

5)   I’ve made two treks into the mountains this week.  Forget about pictures. You’re not getting any. You need to get on a plane and come here to see them yourselves.  I kept looking up and around and saying out loud, in wonder, I GET to live here. I live here. How did I end up here? It’s beautiful

6)   Bought a Lemon balm plant (Melise) and planted my Moringa seeds. My garden has begun.

7)   My French is becoming more confident.

8)   My birthday presents (from mom, but bought by me): A Kreyol bible, a map of Haiti and the lemon balm.

9)   The elementary school principal has kindly offered to meet and pray with me on Tuesdays. She offered even before I finished asking.

10)                  I am challenged and intimidated and stimulated by my kids. This teaching thing is a pretty sweet deal.

One of my fellow teachers kindly put up pictures of the picnic and our thursday excursion on her blog
http://www.elisahannay.com/elisa-in-haiti.html
Check it out!