Week 28

What we've been doing:  Last week we finished book #33 for I, #31 for A, and #29 for J.  The boys made Mesoamerican masks.  We celebrated St. Patrick's Day.  We laughed and failed.  It was a lovely week.

Tuesday, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day.  We had a writing contest, and a costume contest.  I told the boys to wear their best green outfit, and they really wowed me.  J came in with a straw hat, a broom stick, and a plastic container of yellow Legos for his "gold."  My mom sent me these awesome green mustaches for the boys and I to wear.  It was a fun way to celebrate the day.

Tuesday I also said goodbye to Librada, one of the maid's that worked at Rosa's house.  She was the person I was closest to at Rosa's house.  She would make me a sweet treat some afternoons while I continued working after school, or she would just sit and talk with me during lunch sometimes.  There was one day in the fall when I was really sad and missing home.  She was the only one that asked me what was wrong.  I took this picture with her on her last day.

We also made Mesoamerican masks to finish up our unit on Aztecs, Incans, and Mayans.  It was a way to connect art with history.  I wish I had the time and resources to do more art with the boys, but I just need to figure out more ways to connect it to the rest of our studies.

There's a quote I love that goes something like this...

"If you haven't failed at anything in the classroom in the past few weeks, then are you really taking any risks worth taking while teaching?"

This week I found this amazing Bible idea about Acts 1-2.  I found it here from this blog.  Watching money catch on fire, but not burn?  The boys would love it!!  The only problem?  We couldn't find 91% alcohol, and I didn't have a dollar bill.  So we used 70% alcohol and a Dominican peso.  Needless to say, the experiment/demonstration flopped.  The best part?  The boys still loved it.  Isaac was taking pictures and Andrew was filming.  Better to take a risk and try something new than to never try at all.

I also splurged and got these cute shoes!  I don't own any close-toed shoes in this country, so I figured it was time to get a pair.  Even though the weather is starting to heat up...  Plus they were less than ten bucks.

Week 29 is only a two day week for me since I leave for Costa Rica tomorrow.  I am super excited to rest and relax and take a little break from teaching.  I will still be planning like crazy while I'm there, but it won't be as stressful.  Let's just pray the boys are productive while I'm gone since I'm leaving them with work to do.  Prayers for a safe trip would be much appreciated.

Con mucho amor.

Weekend Trips

Where I've been traveling:  I have been lucky enough to go on a variety of weekend adventures lately.  They made the month fly by.  I still cannot believe it's almost April.  Here's a little overview of my trips.

TRIP #1: Cabarete

Over Independence Day weekend (Feb 27th) I went to the beach with some teacher friends from SCS.  We stayed at a cheap hotel that had AC and a nice pool.  We were right in town, so we could easily walk to wherever we needed to go.  We found a new beach, Playa Encuentro, that was basically deserted.  We hung out there on Friday and Saturday during the weekend.

I had Flat Stanley, so we took him around and got lots of pictures.  My friend Carrie participated in an ice cream eating contest which was great to watch.  We ate really great breakfast at a place called Friends.  I had bacon and french toast the first morning, and I ate a nutella banana crepe the next day.

I read a lot, and we ate yummy dinners.  Carrie also brought along glow sticks, so of course we wore them to dinner each night  We got to watch some kite surfers, which is what Cabarete is known for.  It was a relaxing weekend.

TRIP #2: San Jose de las Matas

I met Casilda and her family through a mutual friend, Gail.  Gail works at New Hope.  Casilda invited me to spent the weekend with Gail and her family at their farm in the campo.  We walked around and saw lots of cows and chickens.  I got to meet Casilda and her husband's families.  I loved being surrounded by family for the weekend, even if it wasn't my own.  Here's a picture of Oscar's dad pushing me on the swing.

We also went to Aguas Calientes.  It was a freezing river, and one pool that was filled with aguas termales.  That pool was pretty warm, but it was packed.  Gail and I were the only gringas in sight.  This crazy old guy decided he wanted to talk to me.  He kept saying, "you likeees the Republica Dominicana?"  He was speaking Spanglish, and it was practically impossible to understand him.  He asked me where in New York I live (because that's the only place in the US where people live according to some Dominicans).  It gave us a good laugh and we kept quoting him the rest of the evening.

I got to try lots of new foods.  I tried batata asado (sweet potato kind of-bottom right picture), panicio (which I loved- yuca packed together, breaded and fried-top left picture), casave con mani (cardboard tasting dry flat bread), bollo (cornish blob stuck together which I also loved), cicarron, yuca, and lots of new fruits like tamarindo (top right picture), and guayaba (bottom left picture).  Here's a picture of some of the foods.

I met Casilda's neice, Jenny, who is 26.  It was really fun to talk to her and get to know her.  Hopefully I'll get to go back to Sajoma soon.  It was such a simple way of life, and I really loved slowing down and appreciating the little things.

TRIP #3: Jarbacoa

Michelle and I were going to go to the beach, but that plan fell through.  Instead we spent Saturday, March 14th at the waterfalls of Jarbacoa.  Akari and her three daughters also came with us.  The girls swam in the river (even though it was freezing!), and we ate a picnic lunch.  It started to pour down rain, so we ran back to the little hut by the car.  Michelle and I decided we still wanted to walk to the waterfall, even though it was raining.  Akari's youngest daughter came with us, too.

I felt like I was in Oregon.  Waterfalls, "cold" weather, rain.  But then I put a plastic bag over my head, and I felt semi Dominican.

It finally stopped raining when we walked back to the car from the waterfall.  On our way back to Santiago we stopped by the colmado and got morir soñando, which means to die dreaming.  It is an orange creamsicle drink that is SO GOOD.  It's one of my favorite things to drink in this country.

I really want to take the boys on a field trip to this waterfall.  Michelle suggested we could look at water velocity, cleanliness, the dam that provides the city with electricity, etc.  We could also compare it to several other rivers in the area and see which ones are healthier.

Wonder what other trips I'll adventure on.  I love the endless opportunities to discover new treasures in this country.  

March Madness

What we've been doing: I remember all throughout middle school, high school, and even college, people talking about March Madness.  I never really got into it, but I remember it being a big deal.  Now all of my students play basketball, so I thought it would be a good way to connect with their lives.  As I set up the basic part on the board, they kept asking me what I was doing.  Even Rosa wanted to know what I was up to.  This sign to cover it peeked their curiosity even more.

The second week in March, I turned on the Pump It Up song from Spacejam nice and loud on a Monday morning.  I called the boys and told them to come into the classroom.  They walked in with big eyes, wondering what crazy thing we were going to do.

We watched this video that's an overview about the tournament.  Then, as we ate brownies, we all filled out our brackets.  Everyone voted for the first round of "games"

We did a mini tournament with a paper ball to see who could score the most points.  There was also a mini photo shoot with everything basketball related from the day.  The best part?  We got to swear jerseys and sweat pants.  Score!  Can't wait to find out the top book from the year (so far!).

Con mucho amor.

Field Trip #5: Samana

Where we have been going:  We went on our fifth field trip of the year two weeks ago.  We started learning about Samana with a KWL chart, only in Spanish.  "Saben" "Quieren saber" y "Aprendieron"  The boys really just knew that it was a beach and that tourists traveled in the providence.  Look at the far right column at all they learned!  I should have had them add even more when they were done with the field trip.  When my family was there in December I found a book about the history of Samana that I figured would be perfect to use with the boys.

It was a challenging book.  I created a graphic organizer to help with vocabulary and questions about the text.  The boys read sections by themselves, and I also read to them.  One of the sections I copied and cut up onto poster paper.  They took turns write questions and responding to their classmates questions.  If I were to redo this lesson/unit, I would have practiced this strategy first in English.  It was challenging in Spanish because they struggle with spelling.  If I had a bigger class, the pages would be much fuller, I believe.

We left bright and early on Thursday morning.  Rosa and Joy came to get me at 4:30am.  We went with another family, the Salgado's.  They are a missionary family here in Santiago.  If you're interested in supporting them or learning more about them, visit their Facebook page.  I was really excited to expand and interact with more students.  Plus, they have two girls.  It was nice to have some more estrogen around for the day.  :)

We made the normally 4 hour drive in 2.5 hours.  There was a positive for waking up at the crack of dawn.  I organized the trip with Santi, the same guy we went on excursions with.  After meeting up with the rest of the people that would travel in our group, we headed for the harbor.

The whale watching came first in the day.  It was competitive, which really surprised me.  There can only be three boats around a whale at once.  Those boats can only be there for thirty minutes.  We were around a momma whale and her baby.  One time there was four boats around the whales, and the guides started yelling at each other that one boat had to leave.  We didn't get to see them jumping or anything, which was a bit of a disappointment.  But it was pretty incredibly to be so close to the big, majestic animals.

After the whale watching we went to Cayo Levantado, an island nearby.  We swam in the ocean there for an hour.  We explored the mangroves of Los Haitises and got to see birds and crabs in the water.

At lunch the kids did ziplining.  We ate at the same place that we ate with my family back in December.  This time, however, there was a buffet.  The yummy pasta filled my stomach.  The ziplining took too long, so we weren't able to go to both of the Taino caves, which is unfortunate.

We did get to go to the cave with all the drawings and paintings on the walls.  I noticed way more than I did the first time I went.  It was fun to see the same thing with new eyes this time.

The very end of the day was spent at Cafe del Mar swimming in the pool and resting.  I was finally able to relax.  I wanted the trip to go well, so I was a little stressed throughout the day.  But it was a successful day; we got to see some new things and hang out with some new friends.

We spent the night at a hotel right in the town of Samana.  I got to have a sleepover with the girls from the other family we went with, which was so awesome.  The next morning we were going to go to Playa Rincon, which we learned about, but it started raining.  So we got pan de coco and left.  It was another tiring, but successful field trip. :)

Here are links to the boy's blog posts about the field trip.

Andrew                  Isaac                 Joseph