Thoughts of the First Two Days

August 21, 2012

I have now completed 2 full days of school and am ready to head straight to bed except for the fact that I have to get everything ready for all 5 of my science classes tomorrow.  Today and yesterday both went well though and I am enjoying getting to know my students, I definitely have some real characters.  I have realized more differences in American and Honduran schools/students though.  The first being that in the states even the smart and driven students hate doing extra work and aren’t welcoming to the idea of school.  Here though in the upper levels, the students who do well and have dreams of studying at universities in the states or other countries love coming to school, respect you for helping them reach their goal and welcome the chance to study.  This makes me think back to the days I spent in school and realize how much I took advantage of the opportunities handed me.  It wasn’t as big of a deal to go to college, in fact it was just expected of me and so I did what I had to in order to get there.  I didn’t really enjoy the process of learning though and was always depressed at the thought of a new school year.  I find this about not only myself but I can see it in many of my friends too.  It is crazy that something as simple as education can be a reward here, when many consider it a punishment in the states. 

Working in a bilingual school presents even more issues than I would have expected.  After talking with all my fellow teachers it seems that we have all come to the same realization that our students’ English is not as great as expected.  Basically the 10^th and 11^th grade students have decent English and the rest are below what I was expecting.  Because of this I am already rewriting a lot of my plans and lessons take longer because I often have to stop to explain words that they do not yet know.  My other difficulty is in the fact that when I turn my back the students instantly start speaking Spanish and I have no idea if they are talking about the subject matter or something completely unrelated.  This makes it hard to keep them on track and even more difficult to connect with them.  I am used to using the bits of information I hear about their personal lives as a way of connecting and reinforcing relationships with the students.  A bilingual school setting is probably most effective if all teachers-and administrators- speak both languages that the school uses.  Which brings me to another point, the administration and secretaries speak only Spanish, and so I have difficulty getting information from them and always need to have someone around to translate for me.  Being here though is providing me with a lot of ideas about the schools I would like to work for in the states and even potential ideas for work towards my masters or doctorate.  

Since school has started I have also acquired someone who will cook lunch for me.  I pay her 35 Lemps a day ($1.75ish) and she brings me a hot lunch to school at noon.  I am so happy about this because 1. I don’t have to eat PB&J and 2. Her food is delicious.  Yesterday she brought us grilled chicken with rice, potatoes, veggies and mora juice (its like a blackberry flavoring) and today she brought rice, potato salad, tortillas and slow cooked beef in sauce with lemonade.   This guarantees me 1 great meal throughout the day and means I am less hungry at dinnertime and don’t have to worry about cooking anything too extravagant. 

Here’s to hoping that the week ends quickly so I can rest up for another :)