Here`s what Emily has to say about her day:
Waking to the sound of pouring rain, couldn't damper my excitement for today....because it was LESSON DAY! We started the morning with one of our favorite Belizean foods - flat jacks; these delicious fluffy-doughy biscuits are always the perfect wat to start any morning. Heading to the schools was as normal as it could be with the bumpy roads as we weaved in-and-out of traffic. But on arrival into my classroom, I came to the realization there was something different.....VERY different. Well let me start with what my normal day in the classroom looks like first. I'm in standard 4, which is like 6th grade in the States. After my first day, my feet ached. I stood in the back of they room as my CT lectured for the rest of the school day, which was only a half-day due to parent conferences in the afternoon. My second day was much better...I got my a very own chair!!! I was still in the back of the room in my "little corner" with little interaction with my students except for occasional mingling during breaks. After my first two days. I can least say I was a little discouraged. My CT didn't seem to want to engage with me and because the students switched classes, my time with them was very limited with little interaction. My heart ached. I knew I had a class to be here and I wanted God to use me, but with my human perspective, I was at a lost for how He was going to do that.
As time passed, I was able to connect more and more with my CT and I was starting to learn my students' names by the time I gave my first lesson, after that, little by little I was gaining more and more responsibilities within the classroom. My CT would hand me the lesson plan for the period and day and say, "go for it" with little to no prep time. He was gaining in confidence with my teaching skills and my confidence in myself was being reassured. By my second lesson, I had my own "teacher" pen for checking and grading homework, supervising the computer lab, and tutoring students who needed extra help. And about my second lesson....Guess what I had to teach on, and I don't use the words "had to" lightly.....I got to share with my students all about AIDS/HIV. Well...at least I officially get to say that I had the chance to embarrass half a dozen 8-14 year old boys by some white girl talkng about sex. :)
Well....getting back to today. I walked into the classoom to my students too eagerly informing me both of the standard 4 teachers were sick and there was only one sub coming. I would be on my own for the day. My emotions were running crazy as excitement, fear, nervosness, and confidence ran through my head. The students aren't the most behaved for my CT. The room is always filled with chatter and noises - even during lectures. Individual work never gets done. Most of the students simply refuse to do it but rather spend the time talking to one another. This was going to be a challege for me. During my lessons, I could bribe/threaten losing break as incentives to complete work, but this only worked for a small amount of time. The morning was spent with a game of heads-up seven-up, spelling hangman (girls vs boys of course), writing the week's memory verse, and I handed their Language Arts homework back from the previous week......to say at least I was thinking off the top of my head with no classroom resources. The extra time spent on the homework seemed very valuable. The students hadn't done well and with the extra practice they seemed to better understand the concept. By the time we were leaving for lunch, the principal brought me the lesson plans for the day....FINALLY some form of organization for the afternoon. After lunch (Brad and Jean took us out for lunch and a quaint little home restaurant....which was DELICIOUUS!!!) I headed back into the classroom with more nerves than ever. At the end of the day Jean would be coming in to observe my lesson and my students weren`t on their best behavior for the morning, and the afternoon was only going to be worse. The students were beyond hyper throughout the whole afternoon and were hard to manage. I was expecting more from them than they had ever been expected to give before. By the end of the day I was exhausted and ready for bed by 5pm. BUT overall, I gained some great experience from today. I know the importantance of eastablishing proper classroom management (thanks Mrs.Shiverdecker :)) and the fact that I can survive a full day of teaching on my own.....and so did the students :)
Night!!!!!
Here are devotionals from Elizabeth:
With people having to work on lesson plans, devotions were short tonight. I didn't know what I wanted to talk about for devotions. I had taught my last lesson today, and during it I had begun to think about Joshua 1:9, "Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." If you think about it, this verse plays a huge part for this trip. God has been with us through this whole time and with God, we can get through anything. We ended devotions with a stellar prayer from Jackie.
Goodnight everyone!!!
There you have it. A wonderful Monday of being almost a "real" teacher.
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