When the going gets tough...

Sorry for not posting for a while, things are just moving so fast now. The last two weeks have simply flown past, now that I feel I’ve found my rhythm.

Activities has continued to be awesome. After finishing up Italian cooking with 7^th grade (they LOVED making pasta alfredo) we moved on to Thailand and made Pad Thai (astoundingly, you can get ALL the ingredients for the dish at almost any store!) This week will be China for vegi stir fry, and then we get to Indian cooking (with a brief layover in France for crepes the week of Fat Tuesday.) The kids are really getting into it, even badgering me outside of class about what we are going to cook next.

7^th Grade art has been likewise a huge success, now that I am doing different projects from the 8^th grade art class. The 3 Object drawing project turned out great, and now we are working on hot/cold colors and organic/geometric shapes (very modern art looking drawings, but the kids enjoy it, and it challenges their visual thinking!)

Alas, 8^th grade has not been quite as successful, mainly because nobody has been bringing in their materials. In art we just finished a creative color wheel painting, and now are (theoretically) working on a four color scheme painting. I think the kids would like the project, if only they would bring in a picture to paint from. Likewise, the Chinese New Year dragon puppets we are doing in activities SHOULD be almost half way finished, but most students haven’t even started! I am truly at a loss as to how to get them to start bringing in their materials.

On the plus side, I really feel like I’ve got this teaching thing down now…well, at least the classroom management part. Many of the students actually seem to respect me, and know when I mean business. True by US standards my classroom is still a “three ring circus”, but that is a step up from “riot of killer clowns”.

However, there are still a few “killer clowns” lurking in the high trapeze, and taming them is proving problematic. Certain drama queens will just dig their heels in and find ANY excuse to argue and complain about the class at hand. I actually had to scream at one class today (something I try to NOT have to do very often) when they were on the verge of rioting. I had given them another group project, only this time they had assigned groups (dun dun DUUUUUUUUUN!!!!!!)

The  way some of them reacted you would think I had just told them I was going to shave their heads and send them to boot camp…hmm, now that I think of it, that’s not such a bad idea…

Oh, and here is a little video one of the other volunteers found. It's been my motivation during some of the more trying classes:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wRkzCW5qI

Getting Up to Date...Almost

This week can be described in three words: Three Ring Circus. Monday was relatively calm, with the teachers mostly just going over plans for the third semester. I reviewed the materials the kids would need for Art and Activities, which was more work than I had anticipated, as I have made different lesson plans for each grade this quarter. This means that I am now having to juggle what equates to five different classes (World History, 7^th grade Activities, 7^th grade art, 8^th grade activities, and 8^th grade art…but who’s counting?) I guess it’s really more like four, since I decided to make 8^th grade activities a part of their world history class this time. It gives me a great deal more direction with their projects, rather than giving the kids random assignments to do.

Tuesday was Day of the Woman. This is a Honduran tradition which I can only describe as something between Mother’s Day and Veteran’s Day. This, I discovered, was why Maki had wanted to take the girls aside and talk about stuff with them. I’m glad things went well for them, because it make the headache I got from babysitting the boys somewhat worth it. None the less, I was ready to throw some of the boys out for their behavior and attitude that day. I really need to accept the fact that I am teaching at what, in the States, would be considered a school of behavioral problems and troubled youths.

I should have known the day would be rough when, on the ride to school, I saw the monkey with the lollypop. Um…I should probably explain that. You see, on the way to school, there is one house that has a pet monkey. It will sometimes sit on the roof in the morning, and we have be using it to “predicted” what sort of day we are going to have (goofy I know, but it makes the bus ride a little more bearable). If the monkey is sitting and looking about cheerfully, it’s going to be a good day. If the monkey shows us its butt, it’s gonna’ be a…well, you know. This day however, the monkey was sitting there, licking a lollypop. I kid you not. I figured this could only mean one of two things. Today would be “sweet”, or we were F@$!#&. Alas, it was the latter.

We (tried) to watch the movie “Into the Wild”, and discuss themes like growing up and what really matters in life. The only question the guys really put any effort into was the one regarding sex…and their responses weren’t exactly encouraging. We asked “why did Chris (the main character of the movie) choose not to have sex with the girl in the trailer park (see movie for details)? One kid actually got up and said, in all seriousness, that “any guy who passes up an opportunity to have sex with a woman is gay.” That would have been the end of a very unpleasant day, had little Jose Carlos not stood up and countered the other boy, saying that “he (the main character) had chosen not to have sex with the girl, because she was young, and he didn’t want to mess up her life.” I guess there is some hope for our kids.

Wednesday and Thursday continued to go downhill, the students slowly getting more and more hormonal and ornery. I’m pretty sure that in the States a student would have been expelled, or at least suspended, for the disrespect some of these ones show to their teachers. To make matters worse, we the teachers saw almost nothing of our fearless leader, Maki, who has been embroiled in meeting after meeting with irate parents and deranged students.

Friday was actually a little better…at least the school didn’t burn down during my cooking class! I’m doing Italian with the seventh graders in Activities, and we made ravioli from scratch (yup, even the pasta.) The kids even cleaned up after themselves (with minimal “encouragement”.) Of course, 7B then lied to me later in the day, in order to sneak out of my art class and run amuck in the halls (I thought they had to go to a choir rehearsal).

Friday was also the last day we had Michael. You remember Michael, our blind student? Well his mother has finally decided that it would be better for him to be in an all-Spanish-speaking school, so he is transferring out. It’s kind of sad to see him go (no, that was not a pun, I’m not that mean), but I can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. That’s one less lesson plan I have to worry about.