my first weeks in review

It has been three and a half weeks since i have arrived in Port and I've only been teaching two and half weeks.  I am learning so much, mostly about myself and being a teacher, but also about those around me; my colleagues, students and neighbors.  I have been inspired, humbled, challenged, and frustrated in some degree or another every single day.  I have also been absolutely filled with joy on numerous occasions.

My first week here at Quisqueya Christian school I spent my time with my roommate, Amber, wandering campus familiarizing myself with the facilities here, and trying not to think about the fact that I had no idea what I was doing.  I didn't begin teaching until the wednesday after I arrived, which gave me almost an entire week to act like I was preparing, without actually knowing what that would look like.  I found out the resources available to me here are much more than I had believed, causing my great joy and also giving me something to do, as most of those resources were absolutely filthy.  I was awarded an office amongst my resources and even a desk all my own!  It was a momentous occasion for me (o:

As Wednesday approached I found myself feeling more and more like, "Ok, here goes nothing!"  I have not pretended to know the first thing about teaching, and was very clear about my lack of teaching experience when I applied to QCS, but our director Steve Hersey said something that made me confident he was comfortable with my skill level when he said he had prayed for weeks over the decision to hire me or not.  And I have every aspiration to become the best teacher I can possibly be.  So far I have been consistently surprised with my ability to fill thirty minutes of time with relevant, skill level appropriate material.  It's been very encouraging and surprisingly exhilarating!  Here is my weekly schedule as it was given to me:

Monday begins at 7:15 with an elementary/high school staff meeting.  At 8 I grade papers for the 6th grade teacher Mrs. Mattenley and at 9 I help with Miss Rutz's low readers in her 2nd grade class.  I teach my first class at 12:30, 5th grade for a half hour.  There are 23 students in the 5th grade. Then I have the 6th grade class for a half hour at 2, and there are 25 of them. My scheduled day ends at 2:30.
Tuesday is my biggest day.  I start at 8 again helping in 6th grade, and then at 9 in 2nd grade.  My first music class is at 11:15, I have kindergarten (19 of them!) for a half hour.  I then scoot on over to 4th grade at 12:15 and teach the 18 of them for a half hour (so far my best behaved class and so eager to learn!). At 1:30 I have 2nd grade (25 students), and at 2 I have the 1st grade class (17 of them).  My day again ends at 2:30.
Wednesday is a light day, beginning at 7:15 with the elementary staff meeting and my two classes I help out, but it isn't until 1:15 that I have my first class of my own.  5th grade has another half hour music class, followed very closely by a half hour with 1st grade, and my day is over, once again, at 2:30.
Thursday finds me heading to chapel at 8:15, then helping in Miss. Rutz's 2nd grade class, and then grading for 6th and beginning teaching my own classes at 1 straight through until 2:55.  This is my least favorite schedule simply because of the closeness of the classes, it seems that my last class of the day is always shorted at least 5 sometimes ten minutes of their lesson because it is often difficult to get out of the first two classes on time.  Thursdays I have 2nd and 6th grade each for a half hour, and then I get to spend about 55 minutes with the 18 3rd graders.
And then of course Friday closes out my week with by far my easiest day.  We have our 7:15 staff devotional time and then I'm off to 6th grade to help out, but usually 2nd grade doesn't need me, so I'm free until 11:15 when I have the pre-k class (all 11 of them) for a half hour.  Then at 12:15 I have 5th grade for their second half hour slot for the week, and I am finished with my work week at 12:45, allowing me plenty of evaluation and prep time for the week and the next week approaching.

My biggest challenge has been learning students' names.  I came about 6 weeks after the year began and need to learn the names of some 156 students' names, not to mention that next semester I will be teaching high school choir as well, which will add at least another hundred students to my list of names to memorize.  I would give quite a bit for a large poster with pictures and names of all the students for me to study in all my free time!  Other than this I have been quite pleased with how things are going.  Every single one of my classes has a majority of students that are thrilled to have music.  There are quite a few who are so thrilled they sometimes forget to speak at reasonable decibels, or to ever cease speaking, but eagerness is a shame to squelch (o;

Aside from school I have many other things going on.  There is a bible study available everyday it seems.  I currently attend one on Wednesday, one on Thursday, and have contemplated taking up a second thursday evening one, if the scheduling allows.  I think I have found a church to attend, along with what I would like to be monthly visits to Park Chretien Methodist Libre, but transportation is difficult with that one, and I prefer to go to the 6am service over the insanely hot 9am service, so that makes transportation even more difficult as I know few people willing to get up at 5am to sit hip-to-hip with strangers while listening to a French and Creole service for three hours... so we will see how often I make it to that church.

I have had many adventures, hikes, beach trips, tap-tap rides (Haiti's local transportation, which is often a pickup truck with the bed of the truck remodeled to provide passenger seating and some sort of canopy so one is not at the mercy of the elements) and many opportunities for frisbee and volleyball.

There is also an unwanted house guest in our apartment who we have attempted to poison a few times but who seems reluctant to perish.  I saw him scurry across the floor from the bathroom into the kitchen about twenty minutes ago.