The Battle of He Said, She Said

Did you know that the average 5th grader has 5 writing utensils on his desk at any given time?
Did you know that a pencil must be sharp enough to kill a small rodent or it is not suitable for writing?
Did you know that touching another man's eraser deserves corporal punishment? (no, that is not a euphemism)
Did you know that jumping rope is a full contact sport?
Did you know that white-out flows like water in Cofradía? God forbid someone have a documented mistake.
Did you know that a student must visit his backpack at least twice an hour for him to retain ownership over it? I swear, it is like dogs marking their territory...over and over again.
Did you know that tattling is the only from of recourse against a fellow classmate?

I really don't understand why 5th graders care about the most inconsequential things. My class has become a battle of "he said, she said." 

I am pretty sure I hear the phrase, "Don Josh, she is bothering me" about 20 times a day. But bothering has a very broad definition here at San Jeronimo Bilingual School. It could be touching someone else's pencil or calling each other names. Fifth graders cannot simply leave each other alone. The pencil thing is what kills me.

I have put little glass jars on all of my tables so that students do not have to return to their backpack for every little thing. The beginning of the day is the artful stuffing of every possible writing utensil into this jar. But no one else is allowed to touch anyone's pen, pencil, eraser, pencil sharpener, or white-out. Some of my students bring 5 pens a day. If the person next to them does not have a pen, sharing is not seen a viable option. This is just crazy that of the 5 pens, a 5th grader feels he or she must use all 5 at once. Using it without permission might as well mean calling in the national guard, or worse execution on the spot. 

I really just don't get it. When I was in fifth grade did I really care about who touched my pencil or if someone put his arm on my side of the desk. But really the question is: did I tell the teacher about it every time it happened? 

I honestly do not remember. I do not remember caring so much about what someone else was doing unless I ended up bleeding or hurt. What really gets to me is the name-calling.

Almost all of my students feel the best way to retaliate is by calling another one a name. This problem has gotten so bad that I have had to resort to giving out falta menores for every incident. A falta menor is  like a pink slip. Enough of them and you get suspended. Needless to say the amount of name calling has gone down. I have one student in particular who gets picked on the most. He is larger than the rest, smells pretty bad, and cannot speak English that well. He gets called plenty of names, but instead of telling me about it or ignoring the other students, he uses size to try and intimidate the other students and often responds by calling more names. This is the point where I notice this is all happening. He is out of his seat and calling others names.

He now feels that I always punish him and that I am being unfair. I do not know what to do. I know the other kids pick on him, but I never see it. I only ever see him retaliate. What would you do if his actions are disrupting the class even if he was provoked? Our relationship has become tense and it does not help that this students has also failed to turn in many assignments. 

I have become a mediator for a bunch of ten-year-olds who care about the most meaningless stuff. Sometimes I just want to shake them and scream "MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS." But that would not go over so well and they wouldn't listen anyway.

Economic Guidepost: The use of scarce resources is always costly

This afternoon we were standing around the copier as we always do discussing some interesting stories from the day. You see, the copier is like our water cooler. The only difference is the water cooler doesn't take forever to produce what you want and generally provides relief, as opposed to the copier which brings frustration.  For anyone who has not yet celebrated their 40th birthday it is hard to imagine a copier that does not do double sided printing, let alone collating and stapling. So we do indeed spend many minutes at copier re-feeding paper to print double sided and then sorting back in the classroom.

The reason I was at the copier this afternoon and not this morning like I normally do is because for the past two days, the electricity has been out at school for the majority of the day. Since this occurred two days in a row, I decided to stay late today and make as many copies as I could in the event I show up tomorrow and there again is no electricity.

I was there with Norah, the Kinder/Prepa teacher, and Ashley, 2nd grade, and we were humorously comparing handouts. I was copying math worksheets and a "design your own experiment" project packet, while Norah was copying lunch-bag-puppet cut-outs. (Do you see the humor in this difference?) Ashley was copying a math worksheet somewhere in between academically challenging and visually appealing.

As we compared papers, we started talking about how none of us should really be waiting in line and how the loss of electricity totally changes the game plan. It happens with sudden realization that you cannot pass out the homework and your students will not be able to practice at home generally causes the WTF face and subsequent damage control game plan strategizing. But I digress.

We were discussing how simply having a class set of textbooks would be so much more beneficial. Almost all of the math classes 3rd-9th grade use worksheets to do as homework. That is a ton of paper that could be better used for any number of things. The other downside is that it teaches students a bad way to use their notes. Since 1st grade these students are required to bring a folder to transport homework to and from school. While this facilitates keeping track of their homework, they often leave their notebooks at school and just bring home their homework folders. How do you expect to succeed at homework if you do not have examples to use? Having a textbook would allow me to use the problems already printed in the pages and the students would be able to write their homework directly alongside their notes. To summarize, I am using more paper, more toner, and more time than is necessary if I only had a class set of used textbooks from which my students could work. Paper and toner are very scarce (costly) here in Honduras. They keep telling me time is abundant, but I have yet to hold that to be true.

But this is only Math class. The middle school English teacher often spends his morning, when there is electricity, copying pages of a novel he is reading with his students. Imagine just having copies of the novel. Paper, toner, and time saved.

I am not shocked or angered by this. I have come to use the phrase, "Honduras: embrace it...or it will crush you." Yes, there are hand motions that go along with this.

But this is just to give you a little glimpse into the scarcity, and therefore costly nature of what we do here at BECA. One of my goals this year is to develop a better system of donations so that we can get the resources that are best suited for the volunteers on the ground. I am having a hard time deciding which should be first...a better copier or more books.

Independence Day...this time for real

The past week and two days has been a tough one in my classroom. But, as part of the SJBS we hold weekly upper school meetings to discuss any classroom problems we have or any other thing that should concern us all. This week I brought some concerns about controlling my classroom and the best suggestion I got was to vote on a set of classroom rules that the students come up with and that way they will feel connected to them, and in theory follow them more closely. The trick to all of this is to subversively get the rules you, as the teacher, want in there.

I presented the classroom meeting as such:

I asked the students to all sit on the floor in a circle and raise their hands if they were ever frustrated in school, and if this frustration prevented them from learning.  They all raised their hands. (I am cackling inside because my plan is working.) I asked them what bothers them in class. Then I told them we were going to make our own classroom rules and come up with them together. We brainstormed on the board about potential rules and then voted on the best and combined some because they were redundant.

It just so happens that tomorrow we do not have school. Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the day on which Honduras gained its independence from Spain: Honduran Independence Day. However, it seems only fitting, and entirely coincidental, that today, September 14, 2010 the Republic of Don Josh (This is what my classroom is called. I mean, after all, we do have our own currency.) we wrote our classroom constitution. It reads as follows:

We the people of the Republic of Don Josh, in order to build a more perfect classroom, establish the following rules:

I. Treat people the way you want to be treated.
II. Respect people's ideas, decisions, and things.
III. Take responsibility for yourself.
IV. Ask permission before taking.
V.No pushing in line.
VI. No tattle telling.
VII. No complaining.
VIII. No name calling.

All the signatures.


Can't wait to find out how my newly autonomous classroom will function.

Happy Honduran Independence Day.

Traveling Abroad...in the same country

About 20 minutes ago I returned from a brief trip to the capital city of Tegucigalpa (known as "Tegus" to the natives). September is a month full of celebrations all in preparation for this Wednesday's Honduran Independence Day. And as such, September is filled with strange holidays that give us strange time off. This past Friday was día del niño which meant a half day at school and a chance for us to try an do something fun this weekend. Our Honduran friends who happen to be in a band were playing in a free concert in Tegus so we decided to make a trip out of it and see the capital.

Tegucigalpa is like being in a different country. There is nightlife, there is good food, there is actually some culture, and it is significantly cooler so we were not sweating the entire time. Generally it has more of a Latin feel to it, what I had originally expected when coming to Honduras.

Our vacation was relatively brief considering we spent close to 10 hours in transport and only one complete day in Tegus, but it felt like much longer. The honest truth is that it was great to get out of Cofradía and San Pedro. Though life here has become routine and normal, the constant strain of the heat and lack of social outlets can be very taxing both mentally and physically. The heat we experience in Cofradía weighs heavily on one's desire to do active things, not to mention your comfortability while sleeping.

Tegus was very much the opposite. The climate is comfortable enough to wear pants and not sweat and there is a life about the city that does not exist even in a city the size of San Pedro Sula (2nd largest behind Tegus).  Walking around the city was very enjoyable and you could easily notice how much more developed it was than Cofradía and the difference in the daily schedule. For example, businesses on the weekends here start up around 7 AM and close around 5 PM and even earlier on Sunday. A few of us were out of bed and in the city by 8:30 this weekend and we struggled to find an open coffee shop or place to get breakfast. But finding a good place to eat dinner was no struggle. In Cofradía, finding a place that sells dinner is like pulling teeth.

It was a great escape but a dangerous one. Being away from the normal can be fun and refreshing, but it also makes the return a little more difficult. It is hard to believe that I am in the same country when these two cities are so different.

I will post pictures soon after I get a chance to finish some work I have. I ended up becoming the ad-hoc photographer for our band-friends and was back/on stage taking pictures of them which I will post soon enough.

Back to normal...planning.

Perfection...does not exist here

The oven in the apartment has this little quirk where the door does not stay open by itself. You can literally hang the most minuscule dish rag on it and it will stay open. Try to push it down and leave it, no chance in..Honduras (Yeah, that was really cheesy).

Tonight my cooking team and I attempted the never-before-done PIZZA. That's right. Good, hearty, american style pizza with home-made dough; I used Mellow Mushroom as my inspiration. I have to admit it seemed near impossible but we had to try. You see, the team has been craving pizza for a few weeks now. The ironic part of it all is that this past weekend we all went and got pizza in San Pedro Sula--we did this in 3 separate groups.

Nonetheless, we set out on friday to do pizza on Monday and so we carried out plan through until the end. We strategically collected all of the ingredients at a super-awesome super market in San Pedro, and moseyed around the Sunday Market here in Cofradía to pick out the remaining vegetables and cheese. We even made the dough the night before so that we could execute in a timely fashion.

The dough had risen and smelled appetizing, the sauce was stewing on the stove, we had sliced all the toppings and we began constructing. We were doing it! It smelled wonderful. There was flour all over the apartment, but we didn't we were successfully making pizza.

We pulled the first one out, and the comments starting coming, mouths started watering, needless to say, I was starting to feel pretty proud of my efforts so far. People were all eating and we were finishing up the second round of pizza.

We made a total of 6 pizzas. Numbers 1-4 were devoured in minutes and came out looking delicious. I even added a little touch I learned from "the Mellow" and added parmesan cheese on the crust with a little olive oil to make it stick. We were feasting. Then it happened.

We were pulling out the 5th pizza, our second margarita, to put the basil on for some final touches. Upon re-entry into the oven I let the oven door go. In an instant, the door came flying up and Giulio had no choice, drop the pizza or burn a hand. He dropped the pizza. Our beautiful tomato-basil creation landed face down on the floor of the oven. Admittedly, this was all my fault as I was the one who let go of the oven door.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I am in Honduras. This means that we do not waste. Yes, I scraped  the remnants off the bottom of the oven and smeared them on the bottom of our pizza. The failure was in digestion in a matter of moments. WE ate the whole thing...it the DU DU.

The pizza was still good. Number 6 came out right, but a silly, insignificant, faulty oven door kept me from delivering perfection at the dinner table. Honduras, I will get you back.

Aggghhh F!
(our new favorite phrase when something goes wrong)

If you are interested in donating a new oven door, please contact Laurence Birdsey at BECA.*

*Not a serious request, unless you are feeling super generous. We would much prefer velcro.

Demoralized!

This one will be short.

Today during lunch I was on playground duty. This is mainly to make sure that one kills anyone else while fighting over control of the soccer ball and/or soccer field. Anyway back to my story...I was on duty on the playground when one of my students pulls up some pavement next to me. It was her birthday and I thought that I was making it a good day for her, when she tells me, "Mr. Tim was more good than you."

And he takes one to the stomach!

One of my students blatantly comes out and confesses her desire to have her old teacher back. I was not too offended considering they had him for two years and probably do not remember the first two weeks of 3rd grade when he sucked too. But still, that sucked to hear.

I asked her why he was better, to which she replied that he helped her with his homework and he let them play soccer. THIS GIRL DOESN'T EVEN PLAY SOCCER! The helping with homework thing I understand. So I responded, "Ashley, have you asked me for help on your homework?" She hadn't. So I told her all she had to do when she needed help was ask and I will be there for her.

5 minutes later another student comes up to me and clears the whole thing up.

"Mr. Tim did everything for Ashley. She never did anything herself. Mr. Tim was not perfect."

I feel much better. Mr. Tim was not perfect, but amongst BECA teachers, he did do his job well and connected with the students. If Mr. Tim wasn't perfect, I'm alright not being perfect.

Note: Mr. Tim has been tremendously helpful to me in these first few weeks. He has been my steady email correspondent. Much praises to Tim, except for the part where he left me a turtle without so much as a note.

Taming the Beast

I am losing my voice. I have to recharge my patience at night, but I almost lost that a few times. I am pretty sure I have lost a few student papers already. Luckily, though, I have not lost my sanity.

I am past "hump-day" of my second week and I am quickly learning that everyday is different and you must easily try to put the bad behind you. Do not let it linger. It will eat you alive. Teaching 5th grade is exhausting and the students have let the grace period slide so their personalities are starting to come out, all the good with the bad.

-I have one students who always hums or taps on the table while other people are talking. How can he not se that this is annoying?
-I have one student who has invented her own language...tattle telling.
-I have another student who takes severe offense to any breach of his personal space or insult to his pride. (He also uses his hands to force people to do what he wants all the time. I like to think of him as a frustrating oxymoron. If you have any suggestions on how to teach these kids to speak what they feel instead of using their force, please leave a comment.)
-I have one students who finds the sky incredibly entertaining. Or maybe he just has ADD and looks at the same spot when he is checked out.
-I have one student has not done any of her homework yet.
-I have one student who has a weird obsession with her back pack and touching things on my desk.

-I also have a student who sits next to one of the least motivated, distracting students and resiliently never gets involved in bad behavior and always does her work...well, very well.
-I also have a student who is amazing at soccer and a math/english genious.
-I also have a student who loves to share every detail about her everyday life.
-I also have a student who participates in PE regardless of the activity. Did I mention he has a broken arm.
-I also have a student who always tries his best and is not afraid to ask questions.

So you see there are two sides to it all. Even when things look like they are going to come crashing down on my head, a student surprises me with excellent work or shows me that humanity does exist in 5th grade in Honduras.

I have always been amazed when children speak a foreign language. It's is truly one of the funny/interesting-for-no-reason things that always surprises you when you see it. Today on the way home, I saw something that topped that:

Two of my students (Johny and Ramón) live on the route to and from school. I generally walk home with these two and talk to them about everything. Today some other teachers accompanied us. As we were walking the Johny and Ramón lagged behind because they were deep in conversation, remembering all the cool things they used to do when they were kids...you know, like in 4th grade. I didn't realize until we were half way home, but the entire conversation was in English. These are two native Spanish speakers having a conversation with each other in their second language. That, my friends, is way cooler than seeing little kids speak a foreign language. It just put a smile on my face to know that because of what I am doing here, and the people who have done it before me, will help these kids actually be successful in a 3rd world country. The only reason: they are bilingual.

I think my students finally realize that I am here to stay. Let's hope the beast finally settles in to school life and I can ease up a bit.

Small victories.