On Wednesday, the secondary and primary students arrived to school for the opening ceremonies. This included a few speeches from prominent people in Gracias and a special presentation of a dance by the American teachers. We did a little dance to the ABC song by Jackson 5. The crowd loved us! Then, it was time to meet the students. Luckily, one of the recent graduates of Minerva was in my classroom to help communication between the parents and I. I met all 14 of my students, and even had a chance to read a few books with some of them. They have been speaking Spanish all summer, so they were a little nervous to speak English. It was great to not only meet them, but also speak to them so I could get an idea of how much English they do know. The first few weeks we will be re learning how to greet our friends, colors, numbers, months, days of the week, shapes, and basic sight words. Most importantly, we will be practicing classroom routines, guidelines, and routines!
I've tried to write detailed plans for the first week, but I know that most likely they will change... which is ok. If any one reading this has words of general advice for starting the school year, I would appreciate it!
Today, Beth (1A teacher) and I ventured into Gracias to locate the mysterious house with books. The Minerva school driver took us to the house on the other side of Gracias. The books are being stored in a room for now, until the school year gets started, and then our goal is to be sure they are brought back to the school for use. It was heart breaking to see all those books shoved in boxes away from the students. Hopefully we can see them returned to the school very soon.Once that happens, we will really be able to go through and see what we need. To everyone who has offered to send us supplies, we greatly appreciate the offer. If there are any library sales going on near you, we do need quality picture books, easy readers, and really any quality literature. Please contact me with details. I will be working tomorrow with Sara to talk to the administration about what else the school may need. In addition to books, we've discussed an attempt to fund a new computer lab. The current computer lab is only good for teaching the students the parts of computers. We need about 35 computers, and I would appreciate any ideas for how to raise money or who to purchase them from. Luckily, we work well as a group so I have high hopes for how we will leave our mark after we leave Minerva.
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| View of Prepa, 1A, Pre Kinder from my door. Notice the Honduran flag pillars |
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| The rest of the school. All dolled up for opening ceremonies! |
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| Richelle, Nina, Amy, Emily and I practice our part of the dance |
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| Ready to meet the students! |
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| #OWU best friends |
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| Planning first two weeks. I've been writing down the plan for every minute for the first week. LOTS of post its. And coffee :) |
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