It's been way too long since I've updated the blog, so here's a little glimpse at what my life has looked like over the past couple months! Since I got back to the DR after my time at home for Christmas, a lot has changed and life has been a little chaotic. The English teacher at ANIJA left at the beginning of January with very little notice, so I was given the job of teaching english to all of the students from 4th to 8th grade. 159 students in all. After getting a Bachelors Degree in Education, I thought I had a faint idea of what it meant to be a teacher. After working in some low income schools in Oregon I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. Let me just tell you, I had zero idea what was about to hit me.
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| View from the third level of ANIJA. |
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| Making family trees after learning about family members. |
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| One of my students showing some Cougar Pride! |
The kids at ANIJA are coming from home situations that are far from ideal, whether that involves abuse, neglect, or extreme poverty. Every student has their own story and they bring so many issues with them to school every day. It would be easy if they could just leave those issues at the door when they walked in the classroom, but that isn't the case. There are so many factors that influence who they are every minute of the day and that doesn't stop while they are in school. Dealing with these discipline issues would be difficult enough for me in English, but trying to correct behavior and explain my reasoning is nearly impossible in Spanish. A few weeks ago, another girl from the US arrived and she has been teaching English with me. We have decided to start celebrating the small victories every day. A few days ago I walked into one of the 7th grade classrooms and everyone sat down when I asked. Can you even believe that?! It was a pretty exciting moment that might have only lasted for a few seconds, but we're making progress! Overall this has been a very valuable experience for me and I'm hoping it just makes it that much easier to teach in the U.S. in English!
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This boy knows how to brighten my day!
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| Just a little modeling session during our lunchtime chat. |
Since English classes are only three days a week, I have also been doing Sponsorship work for ANIJA. This involves sending all the information about new students and departing students to the Kids Alive home office so they can update their sponsors. All of the kids at every site send projects to their sponsors four times a year, so I was able to help them with their Easter projects that will be sent out in a few weeks. This is one of my favorite parts of the job because it really shows how grateful the kids are to have people sponsoring them. I am often blown away with some of the things the students want to share with their sponsors and how they want to express their gratitude. We are all very grateful for all of you that are sponsoring a child!
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| Working on sponsorship Easter projects at the Ark. |
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| More Easter projects! |
I have also been able to spend a lot of time at the Ark and I've gone on a few house visits which are very eye opening. I'm a strong believer that it's so important to go visit students outside of school occasionally in order to see where they are coming from and build a relationship with them in a different context. It is so easy to get frustrated about students not doing their homework or not concentrating in class, but after seeing their home conditions it allows you to have more compassion and grace for the students. Of course they didn't do their homework; they live with 8 other people in a one bedroom house without a light. No wonder they can't concentrate in class; they are hungry and didn't get much sleep last night. Uniforms make it look like everyone is the same at school, but the reality is they are all coming from tough situations, all different from one another. Without seeing that, it would be impossible to give each student the help they need.
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| Play time at the Ark. |
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| Barrio where some of my students live. |
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| One of my fourth graders (left) in his neighborhood. |
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| Brothers at the Ark. |
Thanks to the donations of some of you, I was able to reward some of my students with ice cream for their success on our most recent test. They loved the experience and it is helping to increase motivation in the classroom!
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| 7th grade ice cream trip! |
