life in the fast lane...

Life is flying by here in the DR. It seems like yesterday I was stepping off the plane after returning from Christmas break and now we have 3 and a half more weeks of school left. I am going to try to update this more regularly, but here is a little update from some things going on at school.

Expedition Night

So after my kids spent lots and lots of hard work studying their Australian Animals they were overly excited for their final project on expedition night. They all arrived to school early and on time (which is unlike the Dominican culture). Myself and Erin (the art teacher) began pinning on tails, putting on ears, and painting faces. My 2nd graders were beaming. They were so proud of themselves and of course so was their teacher! We started the night by singing a song we had learned called the "Boomerang Express." So we invited parents and people from the community to "board the train" and take a look around the zoo. My students scurried off to find their place in the zoo. (Through studying about their animals they each learned about their animals specific habitat. One assignment was for them to find a place in our schools garden area that had all the things their animal needed.) So once they were in place the zoo came to life and they began acting as their animals and even answered lots of questions asked by their friends and family. Here are some pictures for you to check out! They also worked really hard on drawing their animals and I have included a few for you to see. I was blown away. These were done by 2nd graders and they were not traced.

Slatwater Crocodile by: Daniel Herrera

Platypus by: Keyrol

I didn't know it, but I had answered some questions from a young Dominican man that I didn't know and come to find out he was from the local newspaper. Our expedition was highlighted in the local newspaper!

Why I do what I do.

This next week is Math Madness. Grades 6th-12th each have a team of four people to compete and then the elementary school grades are paired with a team to cheer them on and they each have a color to represent their team. So 2nd grade was paired with 9th grade and our color is purple! My kids were super excited to make up a chant, learn how to do some simple cheerleading stunts, and make posters to hang around school. (I really do have the best class at Doulos.) That morning at recess I saw one of my sweet little boys running up to a girl on the yellow team who was carrying a big bouquet of yellow balloons. He had a pencil in hand and went straight to popping the balloons! I laughed on the inside, but then when he turned and saw me watching him he immediately ran off. I went and found him and asked him if that was a kind thing to do. (We have been talking about being kind and what it means to be a witness to others.) He said no and went back and apologized. Later that day after school he ran up to me and began to tell me how the girls in our class where tearing down signs from the yellow team and ripping them up. I told him thanks for telling me and that we would talk about it during devotions the next day. So the next day rolled around and one of my sweet little girls (who had been tearing down the other team's signs) came in with a bunch of posters to hang up for the purple team. She asked me for tape and I told her that I needed the signs that we couldn't hang them up until later because we needed to talk about something. She handed over the posters with a scowl on her face and walked outside and began telling all her little other friends. (I felt like I was being the mean teacher, but knew there was a lesson to be learned here.) So after flag we came back to class and my students turned in their folders, got their bible notebooks and found their seats. A few people mentioned their prayer request, we made our circle and prayed for our day. The same normal routine we have every morning. After prayer I asked if anyone needed to tell me something they had done yesterday that was not being a good witness or being kind. I explained to them what it means to confess and that this is what God wants us to do. One little girl (the one who brought in all the posters) raised her hand with her head down and said, "I tore down a bunch of posters yesterday." Tears began to well up in her eyes. Two other girls raised their hands and admitted the same thing. For the rest of devotionals it was a beautiful time of them talking about and realizing how we are to confess when we do wrong, apologize and ask for forgiveness. So these three girls (and the little boy who popped the balloons) walked with me to the 7th grade class room (the yellow team) to apologize and ask for forgiveness. I found tears beginning to well up in my eyes and I realized that times like these are why I do what I do.