Day 3: Tuesday, May 25

Today was the first time that I helped teach classes.  It was quite an interesting experience, though for today it was mostly observation.  As the days go on I think I’ll be more involved in helping teach, but for now I was just watching and learning.  The teacher I’m working with is named Reina.  I’m not sure how long she’s been teaching, she seems to know what she’s doing pretty well, but she’s also pretty young, though most of the teachers are. 

Classes started at 7am and went until 12 noon.  It’s an early start, but it also makes for an early end to the school day.  Today we taught 2 Bible classes, and 2 English classes.  To be honest I’m not sure how valuable the English classes are.   We spent some time talking about classroom objects, and modes of transportation, but most of the conversation is still in Spanish.

As I’m writing this, I’m being interrupted by Holly, he’s one of the boys who recently began living with Daniel.  They have three boys who have been living with them now for four months.  This morning at breakfast Daniel was asking them if they wanted to change their last name to Aragon, which is Daniel’s last name. 

Now back to the classroom.  All the kids wore uniforms, blue pants (or skirts for the girls), with white button down shirts tucked in.  They all refer to every teacher as “Profe” never once mentioning the teacher’s name.  I was somewhat surprised to see that the school, called Escuela Cristiana Monte Hermon, had a decent sized library.  Most of the books are for teachers to check out to use during class, such as dictionaries, Bibles, etc.  As we (the teacher and I) entered the classroom all the students stood up to greet us.  One thing I was happy to see was that in class the teacher would give instruction, and then proceed to have the students review/practice what they had learned in groups.  When we were in the Dominican Republic last year it seemed as if most of the instruction we saw was simply the teacher feeding information, and the students copying it down.  Seeing Reina get her students practicing what they were learning, and then showing it through various activities was encouraging. 

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this almost makes me want to move to a place like this and be a teacher.  Reina at one point had a group of students convinced that I was helping her for a few weeks and then going to be a new teacher.  Now that would be a crazy experience. 

I don’t think there is anything going on between now and classes at night.  I’ll probably take a nap sometime tonight (this heat makes me tired) and then write more after classes.

Preséntate tú en todo como ejemplo de buenas obras; en la enseñanza, mostrando integridad, seriedad, palabra sana e irreprochable, de modo que el adversario se averguence y no tenga nada malo que decir de vosotros.

-Tito 2:7-8