First Days...

Monday was our first day at San Ambrosio. It is a private Catholic school of a little over 300 students from pre-k through high school. I´m working with pre-k to second graders... and they are some challenging kids. As with any class there are some students who are really trying their best to pay attention and learn and understand the english we are teaching. Others... not so much. On Monday the second graders were awful and I felt like I was yelling at them the whole period, telling them to stop that and be quiet and taking toys away from them. They don´t show as much respect for their teachers as students in the U.S. do.

We are basically in charge of teaching the English curriculum while we are here which consists of reading from the teacher´s book word-for-word. Hopefully we´ll be able to manage the classes a little better so we can try different activities with the kids to keep them engaged. Today, the second day, was much better with the second graders. They showed more respect and were more attentive when I was teaching. With the pre-k and kinders today, we had an open house where all the parents came in for the school day to see what the lessons were like. For English class with them we just sang songs and I read a book.

Tuesdays through Thursdays I am done teaching at lunch time. Today I was able to relax and reflect on the day, but I think later on I will be helping some students one-on-one with their English. One of the things I have really noticed about the classes here is the lack of classroom management. It is like the students do not care and I think it had a lot to do with how the teachers interact with them. They seem to just let the students get away with some of their behavior. They have not had much training in that area though, so it is somewhat understandable. I hope to have respectful students by the time I leave!

Tomorrow (11/4) the power is supposed to be out from about 7 am to 2 pm here in Nicoya. That being said, we do not have classes tomorrow!! Instead of hanging out in a power-less town tomorrow, Kayla, Jerry and I have decided to take a day trip to the beach at Samara. I am very much looking forward to a day to be a tourist and then relax on the beach!

I will try to get pictures up as soon as I can.. the computer we´re using at Karla´s house doesn´t recognize my camera so I will have to wait for the internet cafe or until we get a wireless system set up in the house!

I hope all is well back home!


Cristy - please tell the kids that I miss them and will do my best to get my 2nd graders here to write back! Right now it is not looking very promising, but we will see!