Teaching near the end of second term

This week has been a pretty good week for teaching – only one day off school – for the national sports day. Next week I’ll be missing two days of school – one for elections and one for a Peace Corps Meeting. It seems every Peace Corps meeting conflicts with something going on. This time I will miss the Lenten Retreat for the teachers, as we are in a Catholic School.

Friday afternoon this week was mock elections and the students were happy to show that they voted.

Voting complete with the ink on the finger to show that they voted

Don't touch the camera

There has been some adjustments in when I’m working with the kids. I now work with some 4th and 5th grade students on Monday and Tuesday and I’m in class with the 1st through 3rd grade students on Wednesday and Thursday. I still have library hours Monday through Thursday but as we get to the end of the term the teachers are trying to pack in the lessons so students have been sparse at library.

Students working on written exercises

During break I'll normally sit on the bench - this little guy is commonly hanging on me

Or wiping his dirty hands on my paints

So to get more time with the students I’ve started to spend time in the library during our hour lunch period. In the last 30 minutes I normally have a room full of kids playing some literacy game. They are particularly fond of a word bingo so we have extra activities with that most of the time – “use the word in a sentence”, “say another word that starts with the same letter”.…

I’m also going to be stay after school for a short time to provide some one on one support to a student. This may happen more next term as we are just about done with this one.

In some of my other time I’m working on a variation of Little Red Riding Hood for third graders. I’m trying to make a “chose your adventure book” format so the student will read a little bit and then decide if the character does this or that – so sometimes the wolf will eat the grandmother and sometimes not. I just about have the story fleshed out for the reading level – but I need to get pictures and I’m not artistic at all so that is a bit of a challenge – hello clipart. I’ll provide an update if I complete it.

I’m also going to try to fix my old computer so students can use it for literacy skill building activities. I’m really not sure if I can get it to work. First, it had keyboard problems – which I think is related to the cable connection. It’s a laptop so getting it apart, trying to fix the keyboard, and then back together will be a bit of a challenge and I’m hesitant to start. It also went through Maria – so there might be some other issues. But, I’ll be off for two weeks for Easter break so I need something to occupy my time.


Budget update


I know I droned on about budget last week – but I have just a couple of updates. First, we have been sharpening pencils with the little plastic sharpeners. When I was in elementary school and at home we had the old fashion manual pencil sharpeners. So I went to my favorite store for such things – Mrs. Ali’s – and she was able to find one for about $70 EC, or about $26 USD – more than twice the price in the states.  Higher prices is typical on the island with transportation and a 15% VAT (value added tax) - luckily most things don't seem to be double the price.

 Still, part of my reason for under spending my living allowance was to be able to buy extra things from time to time when I want.

Anyway – the pencil sharpener has been a hit with the kids. A little too much – the teachers report that students are breaking their pencil points so they can sharper it again. I dumped the shavings three times the first day I put it up. I’m hoping the novelty wears soon – some teachers are not thrilled with the distraction.

Seems to be a well made sharpener

Not sure how many hands are required to sharpen a pencil

Nice grip on the pencil

I am also increase my food purchases. For example, I bought some bacon. And when I buy bacon it has to be streaky bacon – because really what other kind is there?”


Until next week.

 Love always,
John

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