Week before partial exams

Next week is our 1st partial exams. These are basically finals, except we have them four times a year. This has been a long stretch without a break for us. This is the longest partial (semester) with the fewest breaks. We will get Thanksgiving off at the end of November.

So this week we’ve been reviewing and preparing for the exams. It’s a little bit easier, because there isn’t much grading, and a lot of review can be done as games. But it’s more exhausting. When every class is a review game, I get tired! I’m also running out of ideas for how to review material. There are pros and cons.

We have had some successes or just funny things in the room lately.

Reviewing possessives (like laura’s computer or tony’s dog), I had every kid write the name of every other kid, and me, in their notebook. Then they had to go around the room and get every kid to show them something they brought to school and write it down as a possessive. Then when they were done, we wrote them on the board. It was really good practice for the apostrophe s, and I was pleased that I had just thought it up on my own! They loved asking me what I had, and I told each kid something different. They had fun with that.

Something pretty hilarious is happening in my room. I have a book box that I stock with my books or books from the library, that kids can read when they finish work early. Well, my friend Anna who was in the Philippines with me, sent me a care package with various reading material in it. One thing she sent me was the most random magazine she could find in the store (this is something we would do in the Peace Corps), and it happened to be Gold Prospector Magazine. Well, I stuck it in the book box and the kids LOVE it. They are constantly fighting over who gets to look at it. They love the pictures of cool rocks and minerals, and they ask me questions like ‘how much is $200 in Lempira?’ and ‘Miss Laura, do you have a mine in Colorado?’ It’s really funny.

I also had a good laugh today over an assignment. I was so tired after a morning of math baseball, reading jeopardy, phonics tic-tac-toe, and English races. So for science I wanted them do some kind of work in their seat, quietly. So I asked them to write a science test that I would have to take, over any of the stuff we’ve learned this year. Most of them did a pretty good job thinking of questions, and some just copied questions from their textbook, which isn’t that great, but I didn’t say they couldn’t. Diego’s test was the best though. He would sometimes come up and ask me stuff like how do you spell kangaroo? and I wasn’t sure what he was doing, because we have never talked about kangaroos in science. But his test was really as good as he could do, and I’m glad he worked hard on it. Here are some of the questions:

Is kangaroo in Australia? yes or no. Is butterfly in asia? yes or no. Is snake in Africa? yes or no. I like bear. Is bear in habitat?

My favorite is I like bear. Is that a true/false? I took his test, I hope I pass.

Then after science I had to teach art, which is not my best event. I had decided we would make Halloween pencil toppers, and though I had a vague idea how that would go, I wasn’t sure. But it turned out pretty well. I had the kids bring in craft foam, and we made jack o lanterns and stuck them on pipe cleaners that wrap around a pencil. It was a pretty good craft.

So I hope they are ready for their exams next week, cause I am tired of reviewing with them. The tests are really pretty easy, it shouldn’t be too bad.

Mudial Madness

Wow, they are really World Cup Crazy over here! Wednesday night was the deciding night to determine if Honduras would make it into the World Cup or not. Two games that night were important: Honduras had to beat El Salvador, and the U.S. had to beat Costa Rica.

Most of the teachers and I, plus one of the Peace Corps Volunteers, went to watch the game at this open-air bar that set up a big screen. The game was not thrilling. The score was 0-0 most of the game, and on the small TV showing the other game, Costa Rica was beating the U.S. 2-1 the whole time. Honduras scored a goal, and everyone was happy. But then the games were almost over, they were in their extra time at the very end, and suddenly, seconds before the end of the game, the U.S. made a goal and tied with Costa Rica! The bar exploded!!

People were screaming and jumping and cheering and hugging each other and it was pandemonium! They were ecstatic about the U.S. tie, because now they were in the Copa Mundial! It was amazing to watch. Hondurans came over and hugged me, kissed my cheeks, told me ‘thank you!! USA!! You got us in the World Cup!’ I told them it was no problem, of course, it was my pleasure. We were celebrities.

When Honduras wins, people rush out to their cars and motorcycles, and start a parade down the main highway and back up. Everyone else lines the road to cheer and watch. We walked home along the main highway, and it was incredible. Every truck cruising past was stuffed with people in the back, waving flags, screaming and cheering. When a car would pass me, I would scream and cheer and shout ‘Honduras!’ and they would shout back, ‘USA!’ and then 10 seconds later I would do the same thing with the next car. People waved at us and cheered all over. A group of about 25 motorcycles with at least 2 people on each cruised slowly along, and they gave us high 5’s as they passed. The high way is quite long when you’re walking, and it was a very exciting time.

Thursday at school, the madness continued. The director of our school stood in front of the kids and told them that today was a very special day. A day to be patriotic. She had them give three cheers for Honduras, then a cheer for the U.S., then an applause for God. (nice job, God!) She went on about how great it was for Honduras to be in the World Cup, and then they told us that the first two periods of the day would be spent playing soccer instead of having class! The teachers were nearly as excited as the kids.

They played soccer, and then had recess. Much later that afternoon, I learned that most businesses and the other private bilingual school were closed in celebration. I can’t imagine what will happen if they actually win any games during the World Cup!

Cultural Night

Our school held a cultural night last night, Friday. Students sold tickets to friends and family members, who all showed up at the local museum/cultural center for an evening of Honduran culture. Having experienced many ‘cultural programs’ in the Philippines, I wasn’t super excited about this evening, but it turned out alright. I drove there with my host family, which means we arrived 45 minutes after the ‘start time’ of the event. The first part of the program was the national anthem, a short flag ceremony, and introduction of the five nations of Central America. Although it seems weird to feature El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica in a Honduran cultural night, it’s very important to their history, because the five countries used to be one. So Honduran history is also the history of the other 4 countries.

After this, the third grade came out and said the Lord’s Prayer in English. We have been practicing this for about 2 weeks, and they had it down okay, but not great. Then when we all showed up for the cultural night, I discovered that one of my students, who knew his part and was the leader for his group (I split it into three parts to make it easier to learn), wasn’t coming. Well, when the kids got up in front of all these people, parents and guests, the Lord’s Prayer came out kind of funny, with some parts said twice, some skipped altogether, and some words changed for other words. But it was okay, they looked nice, and I don’t think their parents could really understand what they were saying anyway. But one of my girls, who made the biggest, loudest mistake was sobbing on our way off the stage because she knew she messed up. It was sad, and I tried to tell her it didn’t matter, but she was still upset.

The rest of the night was pleasant. Some of the older students did traditional dances, there was a band and a modern dancer, there was a clown/poet, and a speaker, and food. The students were told to dress in traditional clothes if they had them. For the girls, these are big colorful dresses with colorful trim. For the boys there are two ‘traje tipico’: there are bright colorful shirts and pants with the same trim as the girls’ dresses, and there is the campesino look. I think this is really cute, the boys will dress in jeans with big patches all over them, and flannel or other worker-type shirts, with cowboy hats. So this traditional clothing is the clothing of the poor farmer or cowboy.

After the cultural night, the teachers went out, and some of the peace corps volunteers joined us, as did some of our local friends.