una cuenta

Every Friday, my students read a book to the pre-k/kindergarten class. This is often my favorite time of the week.

This past Friday, they read a book about a scavenger hunt and then planned one for the little kids. To my dismay, my students were really dragging that morning. They lethargically stood up in front of the little kids to being reading. (I thought it was going to be impossible for them to keep the kids’ attention.) Then, all of a sudden, they spun around so we could not see their faces. They appeared to be scheming. Then next thing we knew, they jumped and spun back around with grinning, excited faces. (Sometimes I really love them!)

After the story---the hunt began!

You can almost feel their excitement, can't you?

Saúl is searching really hard for the next clue!

When they had found the last clue and eaten the prize, they decided to work together to create a scavenger hunt for Kristian and Judy.

After all that fun we enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with the ladies from Palmas Community Church.  It was the first of what will be at least 5 Thanksgivings that we'll have.

On Saturday, Jen and I were geared up to do a 5K (my first ever) at Parque Central in San Juan.  It was a beautiful day.  Sunny and clear, warm and breezy.  We punched the race address into Garmin, and an hour later we arrived at our destination: Parque Central...de los Niños.  We quickly realized that this was not the Parque Central that we wanted--this was a kid's park!  After driving around searching for some other central park in the city, the start time for the race came and went.  So what were we to do but got out for Chinese food?

My first 5K was so easy--maybe next time I'll do a 10K!

la suerte

Some days my kids drive me crazy and I wonder what I'm doing in a room of teenagers.

But on days like today--when I spent the majority of my afternoon laughing and singing with my students--I consider myself very lucky to call this my job!

gracias

Here's another reason I love my job:

This morning my kids were in some kind of funk. I could see it in their faces that it was going to be a rough day. So after chapel, I jokingly said to Betsy (the teacher in the room next to me--and the principal), "Let's switch kids today."

And she said, "Okay!"

A half-hour later when I returned to my class, my children were sitting quietly with smiles on their faces and with their vocabulary notebooks open and ready on their desks.

So, this post is for you, Betsy. Thank you for coming to my rescue in a moment of desperation, for lending me your sweet and smiling children, and most of all--for straightening out my hormonal teenagers so that we could have a smooth day.

la lluvia

Today was the first sunny day in what feels like two weeks (maybe I’m exaggerating), but what I know for sure is that we’re all looking a little pale. Who would have thought you could get seasonal depression in Puerto Rico!

Hopefully we can go to the beach tomorrow!

noviembre

I had a mini-crisis on Monday when I realized that it was already the beginning of November.—Where has the time gone? I am nowhere near where I thought I’d be with the kids by now.—As I counted the days we will have off this month and remembered that most of December is filled with bell practices and performances, I realized that I have less than a month left to teach this semester. Since I had just begun a big research project with my kids, I felt that my feelings of crisis were perfectly justified.

After some pep talks from my colleagues, some tweaking of the research project’s parameters, and lots of prayer, I decided that it might be possible for my students to complete their reports in time. Needless to say, I spent every morning this week sitting next to and standing over my kids as they searched the internet for information on their topics. I made it very clear that there was no time for playing around. (How appropriate that one of our vocabulary words this week was concentrate.) We all worked hard, and by Friday, they had each finished taking notes! Phase one: complete.

Our week ended with a lovely performance by the ladies in our community sign language class. The class is led by the mother of one of our students. She picked out a beautiful song for the group to sign called Tú Eres Mi Rey (You Are My King). At the end of chapel time, the ladies (including two mothers and one grandmother of our kids) filed on to the stage as the children watched with grinning faces. It was so wonderful to see these women praising God in a language that the children understand.