another mixed week

It's been another mixed week. My lower grade classes, first and second, had a hard time giving me their attention. Second grade is almost always that way, but I had such a good week with first grade last week that my expectations were a little higher for them. Another thing I found challenging this week was lesson planning and getting to work. It was incredibly hard to motivate myself to work, and I think that may have contributed to lesson plans that were a little less interesting and a little less well-prepared. On the other hand, I had a teacher from the US helping me out for a couple of days. She is down here with Christ for the City and was a big encouragement to me. After being a part of a few of the classes, she commended me for my bravery (which I pointed out was not what got me here in the first place! :) ). Also, aside from a few good ideas for lesson plans, she helped me understand what was frustrating me about the curriculum that I'm using. It's not broken down very well into categories. The student textbooks do not really have clear goals, and the chapters don't seem to have a clear connection. There's no chapter summary including new vocab, etc. It also lacks a lot of examples and extra work to strengthen understanding. So it was encouraging to hear that I'm working with a difficult curriculum, and that a different curriculum could make things easier on me.

We're still working through what the schedule will be for this semester, which is quite strange after two weeks of classes. There are a several possibilities. First, we could just keep working with the same schedule; I teach grades 1-4, the other teacher takes 5-9. Second, we could follow with the changes we had from last semester; combine grades 5 and 6 (which are working on the same material), redivide the three high school grades (7, 8, 9) into two levels of English--I exchange one of those levels for my second grade class. Third, we could do a flip-flop and I would teach all of the classes that I don't teach now, and the other teacher would take my classes. You know, the third option is sounding better to me as I type this. That would mean that I only have two preps. The 5th and 6th grades use the same material, and 7th, 8th, and 9th grades all use the same materials, too. Hmm. :)

I also have been without a car for the last week. I was planning on getting some major oil leaks fixed early in the week. The valve cover was leaking slowly, but more importantly the transmission was leaking very quickly...from what looked like more than one place. Before I had a chance to fix that, my alternator went bad. Kind of strange, because the previous owner had just installed a newly rebuilt alternator. I came very close to paying C$5,300 (cordobas) to get a new one installed. That's about USD$300. It ends up I could get it repaired for C$500 instead, which made me a very happy man. By the time that was done, the oil levels were getting very low in the tranny, and it was starting to make a little bit of noise, so I parked it at the school. I was told to fix the leaks would be right around C$1700 (USD$100). When I picked up the car it was only C$1500. So there was something else to be pleased about. And that was a big job--it involved taking apart the transmission to replace two seals.

Please continue to pray for all of these things, especially relatig to school. Apparently someone just donated some money towards cieling fans for the classrooms. When they are installed we will have two per room. This will be an amazing blessing! Currently there is only one fan in one room. Catch you later. Thanks for reading.

P.S. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. First there are a few from the field day, which happened the same week as Mother's Day. Next are a couple of pictures I took this week. There was a group from the US a while back that left some jump ropes. The students have been enjoying them and the first graders have been tirelessly trying to figure them out! I don't know why they don't give up. If only they would work that hard at English!