Lesson Plans

Lesson planning is hard and I have a new found respect for all of my friends who are teachers! Today I worked on lesson plans because the first week of school is a week of observations for me. The teachers and administrators at the parish school here (the Colegio) recently attended a conference in the capital about education. One of the main themes of this conference was the importance of early childhood education. Knowing my love of young kids, I was given the opportunity to teach three grades (pre-k, k, and first) two to three times a week in the Colegio. School schedules are very different here than the block scheduling we are used to in the state, but I will get to be an assistant teacher for these three grades and for an hour each day, per grade, I will get to take over and teach a lesson of my choice. Today I started planning...OH MY! I think it's hard to begin with but the fact that you are planning without resources (thank you third world country haha) makes it a little bit harder. So teachers out there- thank you for all that you do! So far I plan to link up my two hours (per grade) each week by dividing them between creative hours and intellectual hours. For example, Wednesday would be an intellectual hour so I would begin by reading them a story (think first grade story time) and get them to about the story. The stories will be about virtous but easy themes like giving, thankfulness, kindness, and respect that will help them grow as an individual as well. The following day the hour will be a creative one, and I will lead the class in an hour of crafts or coloring or games  that has to do with the story theme of the day before. I'll also be leading girls youth groups here called "Magdelenas" and teaching catechism classes to the students who want to make their first communion in the "campos" outside of town with four Dominican college students who are helping out.

Keeton, the Peace Corps volunteer who is working here as well is working on lesson plans with me. She is working on a reading and writing program so we are putting our heads together to make the most of what we have here. It's great to be able to speak English every once in a while!

That's all for now! Go thank a teacher today (I am not a teacher haha I am just an assistant teacher - but there are tons of teachers around you)!

Ps - The hurricane did not hit us! We got a bit of rain and there is a nice breeze outside but that's about it...it's sad that the hurricane will touch down somewhere...but there are SO many people here that like in houses made of clay or sticks that it would be so devastating to see.