post about school

I had written this in my last few weeks of teaching as a fulfillment of the item on my to-do list: "blog post about school" (thus the title). At this point, I was still planning on teaching one more unit before spring break and Ivory's birth, and wanted to give an update on how things were going in the classroom. I decided to go ahead and post it anyway, just to give you another glimpse into life in the English room at Colegio de las Americas and to remind you to keep praying for an English teacher for next school year! Thank you!

In the past few weeks, school has become much more manageable somehow. The grace of God is playing a big part. I also think part of it is due to the fact that in order to get through the material I want to finish before the baby comes, I've had to really focus in on exactly what I want them to learn and teach them to that end - there's not a lot of time to experiment with lots of fun activities or extra material that the book isn't covering.

Nevertheless, we've still had a little time to do some out-of-the-ordinary stuff, and most of it has worked really well and everyone, including me, has enjoyed it. Here's a little glimpse into the classroom this week:

First Grade - Since everyone seemed to enjoy the "Five Little Monkeys", I thought I'd post their most recent song, "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". It has also been a very fun song and greatly contributed to their learning of face vocabulary. Although, I should point out that 8 months pregnant isn't the best time to teach this song since, well, I can't really see, much less touch, my toes. But anyway, as always, they are very enthusiastic little singers. This one is kind of long; the version that they are learning goes through lots of times. I think my favorite parts are really the in-between parts - they like to bounce around like the characters on the screen. :)

Also, to help us learn the body parts, I tried an idea I had seen online - having them stick post-it notes on their arms, legs, etc. They loved it!

Second Grade - We're learning how to say where something lives, which they're loving because they really like animals. :) A few activities from the other day...

Third Grade - We did some skits the other day, which I took videos of. They didn't get into it too much, but they did do it right - "Are you going to...?" plus vocabulary is what we're learning. 

Fourth Grade - We just learned a few words for drinks, like "soda", "coffee", "juice", etc. so on Thursday I did taste-testing with them. I pour it, they drink it, and then decide what drink it was. There was some plugging noses, but overall they enjoyed the activity. :)

Please continue to pray for these students and the ministry that goes on within these classroom walls. The school serves an important outreach function here as a way for the church to go into the community and instill Biblical teachings and values into the youngest members of society. The English program is a very attractive aspect of the school for parents, who are paying tuition for their children to attend. Pray for Ixtlan's future English teacher - that he or she could feel God's call and take the step of faith to come. Pray also for those of us here, that we as a missionary team could be waiting with arms open wide to support someone new. And pray for the students, who will be adjusting to a new classroom routine in the fall. Because they, after all, are the reason Colegio de las Americas exists.