Week 1

After waiting for what seemed like a lifetime, Sarah and I FINALLY got to go to school this week! This is the view from our house when we leave in the morning. :)

I am in fourth grade at La Escuela de Excelencia los Geranios where I almost instantly fell in love with 22 children in such a short time. Each of my students already has a special place in my heart. Sarah hit it spot on when she said this is closest we'll ever be to famous. The second I step out of my room there is a circle around me of children of all ages. I love their curiosity, but sometimes they ask questions at the same time and they're super excited, so I have to remind them that I'm still learning so they have to talk one at a time and S-L-O-W-L-Y! haha "What's the United States like?" Well the United States is a really big country, so every state is different. There is a lot of snow where I live, though. "WHOA! What's snow like? Is it really cold?" Snow is amazing AND so much fun to play in (yes, I miss snow) and it's under zero degrees sometimes! "WHOA! What kind of stuff do you play? Is it pretty? Have you ever been to Nueva York (New York)? Have you ever been to Miami? Do you have kids? Are you married? Are you 26? (That one cracked me up. Such a random number!) Why aren't you married? Do you have a boyfriend? Is he in the United States?..." I could fill this whole page up with their questions, but you get the picture. It's adorable. 

We needed a "First Day of School" picture! Sarah and I were so nervous going in, because we knew that a lot of things would be different and we didn't know where anything was besides our classroom. I hadn't even met my teacher yet! Like I said, the kids are phenomenal. They are so caring along with their curiosity. We are constantly being given stickers, cookies, and even a rice tortilla thing one time. My teacher is really nice, too. I haven't gotten to talk to her too much yet, though, because she is sick with dengue fever (that's honestly my biggest fear here, because I'm covered in mosquito bites). How the school day goes is totally different from what we're used to, but it is a different culture so I knew it would be. I just feel so bad for the kids because there isn't very much interaction.

On a normal school day, the teachers arrive ten minutes before school and leave shortly after the children leave. The school must not have access to resources, because my walls are bare in my classroom. In the corner by the window there is a map of Costa Rica and some plants, but that's about it. What really breaks my heart is that I have yet to see a book that isn't the teacher's edition of some textbook. They don't teach reading or writing until high school from what I understand.That really 

surprised me, because that's 

what we focus on at home. 

During the school day, there are four 80 minute blocks with a break in between each. They eat lunch in ten minutes and aren't able to talk during that time, which I thought was very interesting. In class, the teacher copies things from the textbook onto the chalkboard and the students copy it. Some is information and some of it is questions to answer. This breaks my heart. They are in 4th grade and they are learning like I did when I was in high school.

I have been helping one of my girls with writing things from the board, because her right arm is broken. She couldn't figure out how to subtact 8 from 17 without writing 17 marks and subtracting 8, so I tried to show her the 9 thing, but that didn't work, so I showed her how to count up. The look on her face reminded me why I'm here. I want to be a teacher and I can't wait, all because of that light bulb look. What broke my heart is how serious she was when she 

thanked me for explaining 

how to do it, because 

no one took the 

time to before. 

Now I am going to leave you all with a little song that I like to call "A Tooty Ta". For those of you who don't know it, it's super fun to do in preschool, but I think it's even more fun to do in fourth grade. My kids are OBSESSED with it and it's so cute when they say the words in English, because none of them know more than the basic hello, goodbye, my name is...kind of thing. Yesterday, they started doing the dance with me, too. It's been in my head for two days now, so I apologize if you join me! Until next time, hasta luego amigos!