First Week Down

Well friends.... I finished my first full week of teaching alive : )

Monday went very well. I finished the day in awe of how the Lord gave me the strength I needed and the patience.

The rest of the week did not pass with quite the same novelty, but went well. The students have been adjusting to me, and have begun to test my authority a little bit, which was defintely the most difficult aspect of my week. I loved the teaching, but the challenge was to react appropriately to the students in unexpected situations, in a way that not showed them that I am the teacher, and that was consistent with the way I treat the rest of the students. I am always hearing "consistency is the key" for classroom management, and now I believe it, but also recognize the difficulty in it. O boy. Just pray that I will be firm, but show the kids that I love them (while being consistent!).


The hilghlight for me was teaching the kids about rhyming words and then writing a little poem about the weather together. I gave them the first line of the poem, "I like to see a ____ day" (they had to fill in the type of weather they would like to see) and then we wrote the second line together. They were allowed some variation, but they all evloved around the word "play" (like, "I like to go outside to play"). I think they enjoyed writing them, and I enjoyed their creativity.


Another highlight was teaching Bible on Monday. I taught them about God coming to Mount Sinai before the 10 commandments. One girl asked about how if the Israelites could not touch the mountain because of their sin, can we come to God? I then had the great priveledge of reminding them about how Jesus died to take away all the bad things we do so that we would be able to come to Him!


The highlight of the week for the students, I'm sure, was the Valentine's Day party on Friday. Even though they don't celebrate Valentine's Day here in Bolivia, we celebrate it in first grade because it ties in with the theme of loving God and loving others. For the past two weeks the students have been making cards for one another (they had to make one for their neighbors on either side of their desks, so everyone would get at least two... only one boy ended up getting only one...). For the last twenty minutes or so of the day on Friday, I distributed their cards and they ate jell-o jiggler and brownie hearts (mine and Mrs. Steele's valentine).

So, that was my first week as a teacher in a nut shell.
Today, because of Carnival (a holiday that involves throwing water/water balloons at innocent pedestrians), we (the teachers who live around me) had our own little Sunday morning service, with a delicious feasty breakfast, singing, and a downloaded sermon. It was nice to all be together.

Well, I am going to go work some more before the Valentine's party tonight. I hope you all are doing well!

In His grace,
KP

p.s. I have included a couple of pictures from last weekend, a Saturday of SIM orientation, but mostly visiting a cabin in the beautiful outskirts of the city. I got to canoe on the lake (!), we went for a walk, had a cook-out dinner, and roasted marshmallows. It was great!

The group (mostly short-termers, a couple who are coming long-term).

What a wonderful Creator!!

Life

Hello friends!

Tonight will be a short update, but I just wanted to fill you in on how life has been going.

Right now I am sitting in my apartment, (it's almost 9 Ohio time, but almost 10 Cochabamba time), listening to the soccer game that is going on at the stadium downtown. Don't be fooled - I don't live right next to the stadium, but... I can hear a play-by-play on the Bolivian radio that is travelling through my wall, coupled with the fireworks that go off every five minutes or so. Ha! Someone told me soon after I arrived that their family's first newsletter was about the noises that they had to learn. Well, I can certainly attest to that! It's probably a good thing most of it is in Spanish so I can't understand it all :).

Anyway, teaching is going well. For last week and this week I have been teaching Math (telling time), and today I started teaching a science unit on Weather. Next week I start teaching Bible (Moses and the Ten Commandments) and Reading: that means I will be teaching everything, "full time". Please pray that the transition goes smoothly, especially for the kids (which can drastically affect their behavior). I am now taking over the afternoons, and they keep asking me, "Where is Mrs. Steele?"

To provide a little glimpse into the joys and special moments of teaching, I will tell you about an event that occured today while I was reading them a story after lunch. A little boy (who is often making noises and can hardly ever sit still) passed some gas, rather loudly. Of course the little first graders all thought it was hilarious and burst into a fit of giggles. What could I do but let them laugh it out for a couple of minutes, and try to calm them down. We talked about how passing gas is something that we all do, especially when our body is digesting food and sendind it to where our body needs it. Thankfully, they had just finished a unit all about their bodies, so they understood. Oh they are so funny.

Well, I need to get to bed. See Meredith? Finally I manage to make it to bed before 11:00!! It just took me moving to another country and living by myself, ha.

I hope you all are doing well! Know that I am praying for you all back in the states, and not a day goes by that I don't think about the snow that you are having. I miss the snow a little, but the mountains make up for it :).

Here is a picture of the week: my students (minus one).

In His Grace,

KP