Long overdue post!

It's been too long and I know everyone is just dying to know what I have been up to half way around the world! :) Okay, maybe not but I'll let you know anyway.

Work is work. It is frustrating, wonderful, exhausting, and rewarding all at the same time. We had parent meetings a few weeks ago. This is like parent-teacher conferences back home, the parents get to come in and have a one-on-one meeting with Sheena and I. If they speak English they will talk directly to me but most don't and Sheena translates. Most of the meetings went well but one mother was not happy about the way I disciplined her child in class. No, I take that back, it wasn't the WAY I was disciplining that she didn't like, she didn't like that I disciplined him in front of the other children in class. Because then the other children talk about it. Well, I'm not exactly what she wanted me to do, and God knows she wasn't full of suggestions. Essentially she doesn't want me to discipline her child at all because then the other kids talk about how he gets in trouble and Lord knows that can't happen! It's very frustrating! I guess I'll just let him run around the class, yell all he wants, and sleep instead of do his work because he is tired! Ridiculous!

Aside from the bad, I have had some great things happening in my classes. One of my kids in Bristol used to be a major behavior problem. He would whine, cry, and not listen to anything I said. The most frustrating thing with him was that he is a very smart kid. His speaking is wonderful, as is his spelling, reading, writing and penmanship. But he would have break downs and act like a 2-year-old. But the past two weeks it's like he is a different kid! He listens, doesn't whine, doesn't cry and does all of his work. It has been such a treat to have him acting better. It makes the whole class better.

And in my Leeds class, one of my kids is really starting to grasp new concepts and understand the "hard" things in class. If you haven' been following my blogs, my Leeds class is very smart, they are the smartest kids in the school. But there is one child in my class who is just a bit below the other 7 kids. Lately though, I have really noticed improvement in his writing and he is really understanding some of the harder lessons we have in class. It's a great thing to see the smile on his face when he gets it!

The after school aspect of work has been very exhausting. I teach the "speaking" class so obviously the focus of my class is.....speaking. When the class started, the administration gave us a lesson plan. We had a theme we taught for 3 weeks then the kids did presentations on the topic. Well that crashed and burned real quick. So they changed the format for the next month, but it still crashed and burned. So now, they are completely changing the class. I am completely okay with them changing the class because it just wasn't working the way they had it, but the thing that I'm not okay with is how they are going about changing it. Instead of just asking us for our input on the matter, which I do appreciate, they are pretty much asking, no telling us, to make new lesson plans. They gave us a few options of the books we can use and asked us how we would use the books, how long we would teach a certain book, and when/if we would do presentations. Like I said, I really appreciate having a chance to give my input on the information but I don't think I should have to make an completely new lesson plan for the class. I already create and teach my Kindy classes and now they are telling me I have to do the same thing for my after-school class? That is not what I agreed to!!

When the day's over though, I have to remember where I am. Things are done so differently here and I can't expect things to be the same as they are at home nor can I expect things to change any time soon. I came here because I wanted to experience something completely new and different and I am certainly doing just that. Even though I don't agree with some of the things at school, some aspects of the culture and lifestyle here, I have already had some wonderful experiences and I have many to come!