Well, hello everyone! Un fuerte abrazo a todos. Or, a big hug to all. I’m happy to be reporting live from Cofradía, where the 2011-2012 teaching team is finally complete! With the arrival of our two returning teachers earlier this week, we are officially one big happy BECA family! And we could not be more excited for this upcoming year.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Sarah, and I’ll be teaching the 4th grade here at San Jeronimo Bilingual School. You’ll probably be hearing from me a lot. I’m originally from South Texas, my favorite animal is a dog, and if I could be a flavor of ice cream, it would be mint chocolate chip.
So, now that you know a little bit about me (à lá ice breakers), let me tell you a little bit about what our exciting past month has been like down here:
Our first week here we had orientation, where we learned all about the school, took a walking tour of Cofradía, and got to know our other teammates. After orientation, Summer Institute training began, which was a two-week period in which we learned vital teaching skills, discussed strategies of bilingual education, and sometimes had competitions to see who could sweat the most. In addition to our trainers here with us in Cofradía, two visiting teachers from Tegucigalpa came in to help. Having so many experienced teachers available during Institute training was such a valuable and instrumental part to our own development as new teachers.
After Institute, we had one last weekend with our host families until we could move into our permanent housing assignments. I was very sad to leave my host family. I had so much fun with them, and they were such a joy to live with. Living with a host family for my first two and a half weeks here really helped me feel like part of this wonderful community from the moment my plane landed. Fortunately, they are still right across the main square from me, so I visit them frequently. Oh, and we also go to Zumba 3 nights a week together (yes, that’s right folks: there is a Zumba class here in Cofradia!).
Next was Summer Academy, another 2-week period in which we took our talents to the classroom and co-taught English / Language Arts, Science, and Math to a mixed group of students. A couple of additional visiting teachers came down to help watch us in the classroom, give us feedback on our teaching, and model certain lesson plans as we sat and observed. This particular experience for me was so eye-opening. Each day I learned something new – not just from training, but from the kids themselves. With all their creativity, intelligence, and zest for life, they consistently surprised. I’m really lucky to be working with such an exceptional and wonderful student body.
I guess you could say that last Monday was my first official day in the classroom … and here I am, the following Friday on the last day of Summer Academy: alive, excited, and with 2 weeks of teaching under my belt! As a bonus, some of my kids have even taken a liking to me! I’ve gotten several big hugs at the end of class, and during a letter-writing activity, two of my kids from next year addressed their letters to me. It looks like I have already fulfilled both girls’ hopes that I will be beautiful (this was literally the only thing that my my entire class had hoped for when they wrote about what they wanted their 4th grade teacher to be like). And one of the girls even wrote, “I love you. I am very lucky because you will be my teacher in the 4th grade.”
With a heart-warming start like that, how could I not be excited for this upcoming year?
So, that brings us to today: It’s the last day of Summer Academy, the team is getting ready for a weekend retreat at the lake, and the last of the wonderful people who’ve been training us for the last month are preparing for their departure. We’re all very sad to see them go, but we’re all very grateful for everything that everyone here has done for us. With them gone, it’ll be just us. On our own. Going out into the wild world of teaching and beginning the next chapter of our year here in Cofradía.
Stay tuned for what’s sure to be an exciting, thrilling, and adventure-filled year!
