I Owe Alele a Ton

May 29, 2013. Holy @$#! I did it. Haha Today, a teacher wasn't there because she had "something to do."  The director wrote some stuff on the board for the students to do and then left me and a younger girl (maybe my age but she looked younger) with the kids for the rest of the day. It was getting crazy, of course, and the voice inside my head was screaming, "JUST DO IT." So. I walked around and had the kids write their name in my notebook. Then I told them that I was going to give points to those students who worked hard all day and the student with the most points at the end will get a prize on Friday (not my favorite method for various reasons but I didn't have materials or time to prepare for this so yea). But it worked.  They weren't perfect but oh my god it was incredible. I also erased points if necessary which was effective too.  The boys are especially troublesome in that class but I noticed that the ones who are normally the worst, completely turned their behavior around in the hopes of getting a point. Next, the other girl wrote math problems and they did well then too (I learned that Genesis who can't read anything (they're in 3rd grade by the way) is amazing at math!). She then tried to have one student at a time go up and read from a book (that no other student had). Ugh, painful even for me lol. But they mostly stayed in their seats. Then the girl kinda just left. I decided the kids deserved a break (since the director said they were skipping recess and ending a half hour early today. But even so, working for 3 hours straight is too much). The kids read, ate, played, whatever. I let them go for a bit so there was some fighting but it was in other classrooms where other teachers should have handled it lol. Then. My Dinámica. I gathered the kiddos back up, put them in the middle of the room and did a dínamica with them called "Alele." It's one of my favorites and the kids LOVED it. We ended up doing it twice and after they begged for more, I promised we could do it again at the end of the day. I then wrote a paragraph on the board with lots of blanks for certain letters. I've noticed a pattern with the students and what letters they miss when they free write (like the n in tengo or the s in every word possible lol). So, they had to write the paragraph and fill in the blanks with the missing letters. I had to help a bit but they got it and seemed to enjoy it. Then I wrote their homework on the board (totally making this all up by the way cuz I don't know much quite yet what they have or haven't learned and that girl was still gone lol). I made up math problems that they had to solve using drawings. Continuing with the point system, they finished pretty quick :). After, the dínamica again (the girl came back and joined lol) and announcing the winners. There were three top ones so I'll get something bigger for them and then something small for the rest because they really did so well. Ah, I did have a problem with Sandi because something happened during the break and he wouldn't talk to me or participate for almost the rest of the day. But he popped back in at the end so I guess he just needed time. 

Oh man I was on such a high lol. Sorry if I am sounding super conceited :/ I'm just so pumped. I went home for lunch, played cards with Samuel and Mayelin (of course), and made a lunch date with Greg and Lula for tomorrow in Villa because we don't have class (Día de Fiesta!)!  Around 1, my host mom yelled at the kids to leave me be so I could rest since I had to go back to school. I kinda felt bad but loved her a lot for that lol. 

At 2, I headed out and passed out the muffins and milk (my new job by the way). Then the teacher of the pre-escolar (five year olds) had to leave for a minute. "Vengo ahora" she said which means, "I'll be right back" but that always actually means in like an hour lol. So who was the teacher? Yup. Me. Oh god. We sang Alele again and they loved it. Then I started to write the alphabet. They knew a but not b. so I tried the vowels. And they knew them all. Perfect. So I wrote those, we repeated them louder, softer, faster, slower, in order, out of order. Then I drew pictures of things that started with those vowels and wrote the words. In their notebooks, I wrote the vowels, the words, and had them copy below and then draw the pictures themselves. Some could write, others could not. Again, totally making this up with no preparation and with chalk, a board, and their notebooks so I know it's not great. I helped those that couldn't write to trace my letters. Then let them free draw (again, some couldn't). Kendris, one of my precious favorites (brother of Mayelin) was a pain in my @$!.  He screamed, got up, drew on every other page but his, fought, threw things. Lol yea. Just towards the end, the teacher returned and I looked at her and said, "Oh here!" and went to hand her the chalk. She hurries in, grabs something and goes, "No! You're doing great! Continue!" And leaves me. Ha.

As they were finishing up, I found a book in the room that was called something like, "What Can You Make With 10 Dots?"  The first page had one dot and a picture was made with one dot. The next had two and another picture. Etc until 10. I read it and then gave each child a number which was the number of dots they had to create a picture with. I put an example on the board with a tree and 8 dots as manzanas (apples). They drew, some used the dots, some didn't Lol Oh well. Then I let them play. Kendris drove me nuts and was absolutely wild but the others responded well to positive feedback... After what felt like hours, the teacher came back as I was preparing to do something else in workbooks that I had found. I ran out as fast as I could lol. 

The director said I could observe in pre-escolar so I returned and she was cleaning and organizing the room... Haha. Linda then said she had something for me and took me to her house. I'm so happy she did that too because I've wanted to visit her, she lives down a road I hadn't been to yet, and there are much more houses that way that I didn't know about. And she gave me mangoes! Quadruple win :D. When I returned, the teacher was still cleaning. Then, however, she showed me some songs that they know with movements. Super cute. The one girl begged me to show the teacher Alele so we did it. Twice. She joined us and loved it too :D. Man, I owe Alele a ton.

Classes let out a half hour early and the teachers started teaching me to dance Merengue and Bachata in the office :). And made plans for me to visit all of them at some point. I'm pretty sure there are 2 teachers total from both schools that actually live in the community here :/ Crazy. No wonder there's no community or parent involvement when the teachers all peace out as soon as classes end...

I headed home, and we had a game playing party on the porch. My Dominoes were out and two sets of cards were going at once. I was still on my high so I managed to play games for the next 3 hours haha. I did learn a new game you can play with Dominoes though! Love it. We had no luz for most of the night so I was able to say we couldn't play with my iPad since it needed to charge (and there was no luz to do so) :P Oops. Huevos y víveres greeted me for dinner, llegó el agua (!! Literally-The water arrived!), I showered (love not having to bucket shower and being able to flush the toilet normally!) and now I'm waiting for Nate to call me back. I've gotta remember this day for sure cuz it felt so good. My Spanish wasn't perfect, but I talked more. I wasn't prepared para nada for teaching today but the kiddos worked and maybe (?) learned a little. The teachers didn't really see anything that I did but the director took notice that the class was managed well and the kiddos attack hugged me a few times at the end (after all, they're who I care about most). I'm having major stomach issues (to spare the details) but I don't have a fever so it's not Dengue! Hahaha oh god I'm done, I promise. Buenas noches.