from Barb

This morning I went to school, literally and figuratively. 

Makayla Fricker and I headed off to The Verbo School at 8:30 am.  Makayla had visited the school yesterday and she was invited to come back today and teach an English class…ninth grade no less.  We think that they thought she was already a classroom teacher…in reality, Makaya WANTS to be a teacher and is attending Seattle Pacific University, where she is going to be a sophomore this fall in Elementary Education…and amazingly today she taught a 90 minute English class using a government issued Teacher’s textbook (the only book in the classroom) where she had to copy down the lesson and take it home to plan! 

She was awesome.  I have many photos and videos of her amazing lesson.  What an opportunity she had today and how fortunate that the students and the teacher got to actually hear a great, creative, hands on lesson for English – in English!

* I do have to share the funniest part of the lesson planning was that the Nicaraguan Government issued English book had this as an example for the students to read while learning the proper use of could and would: “We could have a heavy snow.”

Oh really?  In Nicaragua?  I’ve never been as  hot and sweaty as I am this week here!  I was able to show a few students a picture or two of “heavy snow” in Sunriver, which I had on my phone.  I am not sure they knew what it was.

Today I was able to spend quality time with Mary, who I thought was the principal of the school, but then met the principal later, so I believe she is more like a curriculum director as we went to a First grade classroom to do a teacher observation.  She helped me understand their curriculum.  I asked about standards, but heard about a government ordered curriculum instead.  She would like to write her own curriculum and weave in their school’s seven Christian principles.  She told me this would take about five years to complete.  In the first grade classroom, I watched a lesson on rhyming words (Spanish rhyming words).  The 21 students had a tablet to write on and a pencil, well, most did, one or two had a workbook of some sort and a few had nothing, so they goofed off and smiled at me so I would take their picture.  The teacher had a whiteboard and one marker.  She spoke above the chatter and then gave a quiz.  There was a lot of laughter and fun going on.  Next door in the second grade classroom I met Brenda, who is a wonderful and loving, Spanish, English, and, I believe, Miskito speaker and interpreter.  She was singing with her students and they were having a ball – they stood on the chair of their desk and at the end of each song jumped to the floor, then got up and sang another song atop their chair.  So fun!

I learned a lot today.  I learned again how much we have and how much we take for granted.  What a joy it is to serve here in Nicaragua!