Ponderings (that is what blogging is for isn’t it?)

Last week, I had music clips of different instruments for some of my music classes to listen to. We've been studying the difference between winds, percussion, brass.... So, I used some music for the kids to hear the differences between the instruments. One song was "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic (proud, Flake?) .... It has some good flute at the beginning and the kids like the song so I thought, "Why not?" :) I played my different clips for the sixth graders and one girl, Angelica ((ahn-hel-ee-kah) said, "Miss, I don't like this song." When I asked her why, she told me that it was her and her dad's song- he had been in a car accident and didn't know if he'd make it out of surgery, so he told Angelica that would be their song. Now.... I'm sure many of you remember the Titanic craze... I was in 6th-ish grade (so the grade of my kids!) and I remember some of my friends going seeing it 13 times in the movie theater. I ... wasn't allowed to see it at all. :) It may conjure up images of a super sappy love story or a ridiculously over-romanticized Leonardo DiCaprio but... if you actually listen to the words of the song, especially right after your student told you this story and that her father had indeed died... you might get a little choked up. Not only did she tell me about her dad, but Angelica then asked Leonela (Lay-oh-nay-la) if both her parents were still alive. Leonela said, "My mom, yes. My dad... I don't know. We don' tknow where he is" to which Azucena (Ah-su-say-nah) responded, "Yeah, my dad moved to the United States and stopped answering our phone calls and changed his number." This conversation went on in the same week that the father of one of our third graders was shot and killed because of his huge involvment in drugs. Basically, Titanic ruined my week.

What awful places and homes our students come from! Every single one of my students has had a family member die and for most of them, it's way more than one. The amount of crap they deal with is so, so terrible to hear. I'm beginning to learn that most of the students are not setn to the school because it is a Christian school, and, being from strong Christian families the parents want their children to grow spiritually. Instead, it's because it is a prestigious school and you can make a lot more money if you can speak English. Ahhhhh. cute.

However, I can at least say that that is not the intent of the school and its administration. I think God can definitely use twisted philosophies to further HIS philosophies.... I pray that my students are learning something from me besides English.

My students have been memorizing verses in song form. Some of the songs are definitely ones I made up, some are from VBS, some are random songs I know from church, and some are from STeve Green (I love him. I don't care that all my music selections are from the 90s!) The songs might have a few words missing or a few added, but the content is there. These are the verses we know so far.... how many do you recognize?

Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lamentations 3:22-23
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning- great is Thy faithfulness.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Numbers 6:24-26
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and give peace.
Jeremiah 32:27
Ah, Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power. Ah Lord God, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thine outstretched arms. Nothing is too difficult for Thee- great and mighty God, great in council and mighty in deeds.
Psalm 34:13
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!
Philippians 2:14-15
Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may be called blameless and pure children of God.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Matthew 7:12
Do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law of the Prophets.
II Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.k
I John 4:7-8
Beloved, let us love one another for love comes from God and anyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, loveth not God for God is love.

k that's all I can remember right now- but look, I know them too! There's lots and lots of verses on love.... a few on how to behave in class.... ;) I am decorating my door for Valentine's Day and using ....
I Corinthians 4:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in good. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

I really, really love these verses and have always meant to memorize them but... haven't. SO. I think I'll make up a song and teach it to my kids and that will be the next one we learn. Just in time for the day of LOVE!!!!!

ok. Sorry this is full of lots of extra readin this time... pray for my kids, their families, all that. Enjoy your week!

I love my life.

This weekend was a nice, relaxing time at home. Since getting internet at our house we don't have to go to town so much and if we do, we don't have to stay for 5 hours while trying to catch up with everything! We also are getting a ride up and down from our house right after school on Wednesdays to grab groceries which is really nice because we don't have to take a mototaxi back up and/or stay for a long time. This Saturday we ended up walking to town just for fun but we didn't bring anything ... backpacks, computers, etc. We just walked! I even got a little sunburn! (The weather has been mostly warmer so that's nice). Saturday night we had church and hung out with friends. We have a new teacher here - Tad Vanden Brink from Michigan. He'll be helping at our school with the ESL program as well as teaching some Social Studies classes!

Sunday morning I went to the comedor and hung out with our neighbors. Abi and I spent about half an hour outside chasing hens and little chickens around - it was so great! Then we went inside and Abi did my hair and make-up - it was so beautiful! Luis Enoc also joined in on the fun but this was after he'd eaten a bunch of cookies so I had make up, glitter, knots and cookie crumbs in my head. Perfect Sunday morning/afternoon :) Since I was over, the neighbors made me stay for lunch- we had Yuca con chicarron. Yuca is kind of like potato or yam and chicarron is really good fried pork. Sonya had put some spices on the pork and it was SO SO SO good.

I had a dream last night that I was in Half-Price books picking out books for my kids. When I woke up I got so sad! I've been doing DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) for the first ten minutes of my reading class with the kids and we use books from the school library, but there aren't a lot of books that work for my kid's English reading level and are interesting. So after waking up from this dream, I layed in bed for a little while (well, obviously I stayed in bed, it was like 1 am :)) but I stayed up and thought for awhile and this is what I came up with.... if anyone is interested in donating books.... wouldn't that be so cool? You could put a little note in it and my kids could have some interaction with people from where I'm from! Anyway..... just a thought, I love books so so much I want my kids to like reading too! I think their reading level is about 2-4 grade so... Boxcar Children, those Great Illustrated Classic books, anything that has to do with soccer.... anyway. so if you want to send something.... that would be SO GREAT!

LBVP
guancascos
gracias, lempira, honduras.

ok. anyway, that has been my weekend! Today at school was great. I thought of a fun treat for my fellow teachers- teach the kids the Lamb Chop song. If you were a child, parent or teacher in the 90s, you probably know this song but if you don't .... here are the lyrics:

This is the song that never ends
Yes it goes on and on my friends
Some people started singing it, not knowin what it was
And they'll continue singing it forever just because (repeat.... forever)

What? I had to teach that repeat didn't always just mean two times! So now there are 2nd through 4th graders in Honduras that can sing that song. And my friends are.... really happy with me :) Ah.... the freedom of beinga teacher without curriculum. ;)


Not a lot elso going on. Hope everyone is having a great week! (how's the weather)

back again.

I remember the one reason I liked snowy cold weather (and there is only one reason) - all the bugs are dead. The first week back I quickly acquired 17 new bug bites- 3 on my face, one right under my eye which proceeded to puff up and make me feel like I was squinting at people for about 4 days :) But other than that, I'm pretty happy to be back. I thought I'd be thrilled to be back, which I am, but it was a little bittersweet realizing how long it's going to be before I'm home again. For those of you wondering... yes Emily's wedding was beautiful. I only cried a little bit :)

When I left Honduras it was 70 degrees. When I came back, it was FREEZING. Okay, so relatively freezing. It's between 40-50 degrees which sounds like it could be decent but.... it's windy and cloudy and gray and we can't escape from it ever. Our houses and schools are completely open so I just dress in lots and lots of layers :) Hopefully it gets back to being nice and sunny and WARM!

School has been about as good as can be expected for the first week back. My kids are wild and goofy and don't want to work! I bought a gumball machine while at home with lots and lots of gumballs to use for incentive with my class. The first day I had it at school, I (yes of course it was me!) knocked it on the floor and since it only cost a dollar it definitely broke... right after I filled it all the way up with gumballs. I instantly had 21 sixth graders crawling on the floor trying to grab all of them. awesome :)

I have actually felt really out-of-sorts since being here and I don't if it's from lack of sleep over break or just getting back into daily routine. Saturday, we were walking down the mountain and I turned my head to make fun of one of my friends (two lessons here: 1) never make fun of your friends 2) never, ever stop looking at the road when you are walking on a mountain). I tripped, fumbled around in the air for a little bit, and then landed on my hands and knees and skidded for a second. It was great! I think my palms will heal but... kind of sucked while it was happening!

Part two of feeling out of sorts was Sunday morning. We usually try to make pancakes over the weekend because we actually have time to have a long breakfast. I thought I'd be helpful and cook that morning.... pancakes from a mix- easy right? It should be .... but for some reason I could not make pancakes. Plus I was knocking things off shelves all over the place- in my defense we have a very small kitchen without any counters but still- I felt very uncoordinated and ridiculous. After scraping 4 pancakes into the trash, I burst into tears and told my roommates I just couldn't do it! Looking back now.... it's funny. Crying over pancakes? hilarious right? :) But I really did feel highly incompetent and stupid so it was kind of a bummer. Anyway, I think I've mostly gotten over my more-than-usual uncoordination but .... we'll see :)

OH. I forgot. I'm typing this from my house. We got internet on the mountain :)

Enjoy your week!