¡Por fin!
Finally! I had a good morning class today! They actually behaved themselves, were engaged in the lesson and participated!! I´m not entirely sure why, but I´m not about to question it. We talked about the climate in various environments, the animals and plants that live in those environments, and why they´re able to live there. They were all about it. Awesome. Even José, Manuel and Melvin Gustavo behaved themselves. Priti was there for part of it and she said it was a really good lesson - apparently I have a good command of the language and they can learn a lot from me. That was nice to hear. :)
Both classes were good today. We decided to split the classes into groups based on ability levels and I had the more advanced (and more well-behaved, ha) group, and I taught them to add numbers where you have to carry the 1 to the next column. Most of them understood fairly easily and I was able to help the others 1-on-1 to get it later. I like teaching - especially on days like this when they behave themselves.
One of the incentives for families who participate in this school is that GVI gives a bunch of food to the kids´grandparents. Food´s not easy to come by, and usually the grandparents are the ones who go hungry. So, every 3 months, GVI distributes a bunch of rice, sugar, cereal and something else to the kids´grandparents along with 2 saplings of trees that grow a kind of fruit and a vegetable. This means they have more food to go around and they don´t feel like such a drain on the rest of their families simply by being alive (which has to suck a LOT). I helped hand it out for awhile today and the grandmas who came were lovely and extremely appreciative. I´m constantly amazed at the different way of life here in Guatemala and how much we have in the US that we don´t appreciate. I´m glad I´m in school to be an international social worker.
Tomorrow should be fun. It´s a Friday, which is craft day and therefore awesome, and we´re also celebrating the July birthdays with hugs and piñatas.
Both classes were good today. We decided to split the classes into groups based on ability levels and I had the more advanced (and more well-behaved, ha) group, and I taught them to add numbers where you have to carry the 1 to the next column. Most of them understood fairly easily and I was able to help the others 1-on-1 to get it later. I like teaching - especially on days like this when they behave themselves.
One of the incentives for families who participate in this school is that GVI gives a bunch of food to the kids´grandparents. Food´s not easy to come by, and usually the grandparents are the ones who go hungry. So, every 3 months, GVI distributes a bunch of rice, sugar, cereal and something else to the kids´grandparents along with 2 saplings of trees that grow a kind of fruit and a vegetable. This means they have more food to go around and they don´t feel like such a drain on the rest of their families simply by being alive (which has to suck a LOT). I helped hand it out for awhile today and the grandmas who came were lovely and extremely appreciative. I´m constantly amazed at the different way of life here in Guatemala and how much we have in the US that we don´t appreciate. I´m glad I´m in school to be an international social worker.
Tomorrow should be fun. It´s a Friday, which is craft day and therefore awesome, and we´re also celebrating the July birthdays with hugs and piñatas.