Now what you might know or not know is I graduated with a culinary degree in May!! With that being said this past week I have been a 1st and 2nd grade teacher!! Yes you read that right a elementary school teacher and graduated as a chef from college!!!
Now normally in Honduras when a teacher is out other teachers on there off times just help in that classroom.. but this week since there were 7 amazing world racers ready to help them we were the substitute teachers!!
If you would like to hear about children dancing on tables, not understanding English and also the school day ending at 11 am head over to my teammates Daniel’s blog!! He wrote a great explanation about our classroom that day!!
On Tuesday we arrived and the principal informed us that many teachers were absent that day and that almost everyone was going to be in a different classroom!! The classroom I was assigned to was 1D!! Now I was excited about this because this was not the first time that I had been in this classroom it was my 4th time !!
So I jumped right into the classroom and was ready for the day!!! I started the day with the good old song Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and then the day started!!! Well since I was not there normal teacher the students first pretended that they did not understand any English and there response to everything I said was “no te entiendo” (I don’t understand you)!! But finally when I got everyone to sit down I told them what the day was going to look like!!
I spoke Spanglish (a mix of English and Spanish) to get my point across to the class!! Also I do not speak Spanish so it was interesting to say the least!!!! After our conversation there was an understanding between 16, 6 year olds and 1, 22 year old (ME) of how the day was going to go!!! And boy did the day turn around in a POSITIVE way!!!
I am going to tell you two short stories from the amazing day that I had!!!
The first was with a little girl named Ruth!! Now me and Ruth met the first day that I was in this classroom the first week hat we were in Honduras!! Ruth is feisty and plays very hard to get when you want her to be your friend!!! Ruth also has a very short attention span so if you do not keep on her to do her work she will not!!
So this day I was in the classroom by myself I was a little worried because the last time I was in the classroom Ruth really did a great job listening and became my friend and I did not want that to change!!! And he beat part of the day is that Ruth was so great and was one of the best listeners and helpers that day!!! At the end of the day she drew me a picture that she wanted me to keep and it is something that I will always keep!!!! I have learned this month that taking the time to love someone that is hard to love like Ruth is so powerful and can change your prospective on everything!!!
The second story I want to tell you about is about a little boy named Angel!! So when I walk in the classroom of 1D this week I saw a new child in the classroom but I did not think anything of it !!! I thought that the child must have been sick the past week so he was not in the class!! So when I was having my opening discussion with my class there was this new child that looked completely lost!!
Now at this time the entire class still was saying that they did not know what I was saying and so I was just guessing that Angel was doing the same thing!! Well as the day went on Angels favorite pastime was to breakdance on the floor in the back of the classroom!!! At the beginning of the day I would look back at him and say Angel sit down and he would not even look up so eventually I would say “siéntate” and he would sit down!! Then religion class came and the nun entered the room and to my surprise she called out Angel and asked him who he was and how long he had been coming to school???
His answer was 2 days!!!! 2 Days no wonder why he was not answering me he does not speak ENGLISH OR UNDERSTAND ENGLISH!!! So my entire day changed from that point on with Angel !! After I would explain what we were doing to the entire class I would go and sit with Angel and take the time with a lot of broken Spanish and explain what we were doing!!! You could see the joy on his face with the time I was taking with him and at the end of the day when everyone was leaving he said to me “tu es me amiga”!! Now if my heart could melt it did right there!!! He was so sweet and again the time you take it important and it means a lot!!!
Well that is it for this week!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!! Julia 🙂
