No Internet All Weekend!

 

August 18, 2012

This past week wasn’t anything too exciting; we spent numerous hours at school preparing for this coming week and the arrival of the students.  I worked on a scope and sequence for my five science classes and then began planning the first 2 weeks of classes for them.  I was also able to get my classroom mostly set up.  My decorations are up and I now have desks in it.  Today it is supposed to get windows and on Tuesday the door should be put up.  I will put up some pictures once it is finally done!  The interesting thing though is that it is not really my classroom; instead it is the 10^th grade classroom, which I am the homeroom teacher of.  The teachers are actually the ones who rotate or move throughout the day while the students remain in the same classroom all day except for computers class.  This seems very backwards from what research and American customs have taught me, but it apparently works for them here.  I have made a mental note that my materials must be transportable between classrooms and that I need to get my students up and moving as much as possible including quick breaks or games during class. 

This is my first teaching job and I have no idea what to expect from the students because I have no background here.  With those things facing me, you would think that I would be freaking out knowing that I start school in two days.  Instead though, I have this unusual sense of calm about me.  I am not sure why or if it is a sign that despite the “building character” qualities of the lifestyle here in La Union, I am in the right place.  I am very aware of and have heard all the horrifying stories of first year teachers and am expecting a challenge, but I feel that being here may offer a great reward that makes everything worth it…only time will tell.  Its not that I couldn’t get such a challenge in the states or find the same reward, but that I am here for a reason, a reason that will hopefully be discovered soon. 

Last night was parent orientation night.  The primary grades started at 4 and the secondary at 5.  There are 9 tenth graders in my homeroom and I believe that I had 3 or 4 parents show up.  Since nearly all the parents speak only Spanish and many can’t even read or write Spanish all I had to do was introduce myself while one of the Honduran teachers translated for me and then she continued on with all of the important information.  After the meetings the American teachers all talked for a bit about the questions the parents were asking and came to the conclusion that the concerns of the parents were very similar to those of the American parents.  They told many stories of their children lying about homework and group projects (which we don’t ever have them do outside of the school).  No matter how different the cultures are the kids still have the same innate determination to play their parents in order to get away with things.  Imagine that!

Last night our way back from school we stopped off to eat our favorite comedor (restaurant).  I had the tacos for the first time and they were delicious! It was nice to get a really good meal in, and we had the entertainment of a storm rolling in.  The clouds were some of the darkest I had ever seen and it turned out to be quite the show of lightening.  Of course the heavy rain that accompanied it made conversation difficult as we were sitting beneath a tin roof.  Lucky for us it moved past quickly and it was only lightly raining when we made our trek home for the evening. 

Today is a nice relaxing day.  I am going to continue working on my plans since I just got a copy of the chemistry book yesterday so I have some planning left to do in that class before the week starts.  I also plan on sitting on our back porch enjoying the sun and getting some reading in.  Tonight we will come together again for game night and dinner at Jakes, which means another round of Settlers is in my near future.  I think I could get used to this.

Many people have been asking for this so here is my address.  It is actually the hotel we stayed at in Gracias, but they are accustomed to having packages sent there by the American teachers and we can just pick it up whenever we are in Gracias. The post office doesn’t actually usually deliver them anyways so we just have to go there. J

            Lori Zimmerman

            Hotel Guancascos

            Barrio San Sebastian

            Gracias, Lempira

            Honduras C.A.