Week 2 down…

Week 2 of full-time teaching is over. One more to go. It has been a physically and emotionally exhausting week. Physically because I am constantly preparing, grading, teaching…emotionally because I have 16 students at all different levels of learning. I have 2 Korean students, 1 australian student, 1 American/Colombian, and the rest are Mexican. All this to say 15 out of my 16 struggle with English. My ONE student who doesn’t complained one day to her mom that she was bored in my class…not to say that I am boring, I’d like to add. I try to be as creative and out of the box as possible. We play tons of games and do hands on activities. She told some of the other students that she was bored, so of course, they followed her lead. Two parents have talked to my teacher. Can I just say? Highly embarrassing and discouraging. I am determined to take it and be better though. My teacher and I had a talk. She told me that she thinks it is my confidence level. I need to be more confident and firm in my approach, I cant let them get away with talking or speaking Spanish…AT ALL. I need to have complete control of the classroom. Remember when I said after the first day of teaching that teaching is all about confidence? Yeah! I’m still learning that! So anyway, I am determined to start this week out strong. I plan to be confident, overload my students with things to do when they are bored, and have fun. I have been sick all weekend =( but look forward to a new week and fresh start.

This week, my professor came to Guadalajara (yay for mr auld!). Lauren and I had a great lunch with him and talk with Glenn (the principal) and his wife. Friday I was quite ill with fever, sinus issues, and stomach issues. During the night, as time slowly passed and the lack of sleep bore down on me, I determined that going to the teacher conference of Friday was not an option. Sadly, I also didn’t get to take Mr. Auld to the center that afternoon either, but I did have many MANY hours of well-needed sleep. =) Saturday, we had an amazing opportunity to take a little trip to San Juan (45 minutes north of Guadalajara) with many other people from the 2 churches in Chapala and Guadalajara. There we had a little awana program for the children, children who have nothing. The people in this village lost their crops to flooding and don’t even have a market. Nothing. There were games for the children, candy, prizes, food, and a Bible lesson. Because I didn’t feel well, I just cheered from the sidelines and took pictures, but it was definitely amazing to be a part of that. It reminded me of the days of CEF and doing backyard Bible clubs. I miss being a part of ministries like that. The Lord has blessed me immensely in so many ways here. How can I ever leave?
2/27/10