No worries

Please don't worry, everything is fine. The riots did not get close to Dowal School so we were not affected. The police showed up a little later with the water tanks and sprayed the rioters. So all was solved with (thankfully) no violence. Only two more school days left! I am going to miss my students here, but I am so excited to see my students back in the states!

Good luck West Jacksonville!

My students at West Jacksonville have been taking the FCAT this week. Some of my students from Dowal wanted to help me in wishing my students at WJ good luck. 

As you may notice, I only have five students today. This is because of some riots that are going on today out in Tegucigalpa. Teachers in the public schools have decided that they are no longer going to work. As I type this, they are out in the streets blocking roads with burning tires. It has not become violent yet, but once the police show-up, it will be. In the past, they have burned down buildings and at one point they were throwing home-made bombs at cars. It is hard to understand why they are doing this. But as it has been explained, it is because they are not happy with how the government has managed their pension funds. Is that an excuse to cause violence? NO! This is another incident that makes me very thankful for the U.S.A. Please keep the people of Tegucigalpa in your thoughts today and lets hope that no one is injured. I am very thankful to be an educator in the states. I think that we (educators in the states) forget how good we have it. I know times are hard, but we should be thankful for the jobs we have, the supplies that we are given, and the administration that keeps us together! I may not get a job teaching because of the budget crisis, but I will still be grateful to be a future educator in the states.

As promised, the plays!!!

The students preformed the plays today. We had three groups who performed their play. This is group ones play, well part of it!

 

I could only post one portion of the videos because the internet is not working very well. Sorry! Here are the Osc-Stars!! They are all stars, but only one can recive the Osc-Star!

Enjoy and sorry I could not post all of the videos. I hope you all have a good weekend!!

Thursday

Sorry I am a day late. Yesterday we were able to go to the Science lab for an experiment.

We have been learning about how exercise can affect your breathing. So to begin we had the students get three plastic cups  with one cup of water in each, put one drop of food coloring in each, and place a straw in each cup.

After they stired the food coloring in, one student then had to preform an exercise and then come back and blow in the cup. The first exercise was walking, second was jogging, and the last was jumping jacks. After each exercise they blew through the straw into the cup.

(Sorry it is sideways)

(Once again sideways, sorry)

Here is one of the results. If you look at the bottom of the cup, it is a lighter color, almost cloudy. This is because they are blowing carbon dioxide into the cup. The lighter layer at the bottom varied after each exercise. Can you guess which exercise had the biggest layer at the bottom?

Hump day, hump day!!

So far the week of teaching has gone smoothly! In reading we have been reading a play from the textbook. There are three groups of 10, and each student has a part in the play. One of the students gets to be the director for their group since there were only 9 parts. Tomorrow we are rehearsing and on Friday, we will be acting!! I promise to post a video of the plays!! I am so excited to see how they do. We are also holding a contest, the students who are the best actors (they use emotions and expressions) will win an Oscar (a pencil and baseball silly band)! They are very excited, so the plays should be awesome!! We have our spelling test tomorrow on homophones! Whew is that hard, some of them even get me mixed up. For example- stationary and stationery, I can never remember! Imagine how hard it is for them because they are ELL's. But we have been working hard this week! Yesterday the students made illustrations of the spelling words and Monday they made their own crossword puzzles and then traded them to fill it in. So I think they have it, but I know I will be doing a lot of acting when I am giving the spelling test :0)

Other than that, everything else is great. We went to a Museum in downtown this afternoon. It was The Museum of Honduran National Identity. I am a nerd and love museums, so it was very interesting. We learned a lot about Honduran history. Did you know that for 20 years Honduras was the main exporter of bananas? Well if you did, you are special because I didn't! Now the main export is coffee (cafe) and it is some of the best coffee that I have ever had! Also the museum was created to help instill a since of pride in Hondurans for their country and for them to see where they have come from. Hence the name... So if you are ever in Tegucigalpa, stop by the museum ;)

I want to give a special shout out to my 4th graders back at West Jacksonville Elementary! I know y'all have been reading (Mrs. A. told me), and I miss yall sooooooooooo much! So, next week is the big ol FCAT that you have been waiting for and guess what.... YOU GOT THIS!!!!!!!!! I know how hard you have worked, trust me I watched each one of you try your hardest to prepare. I'm sorry that I wont be there with you during the test, but you don't need me! You have Mrs. A, Mrs. Reid, and you have your brain! That's all you need! So get lots of rest this weekend, so that you come on Monday with your game face on. And if you get nervous just remember that face that I give you when you are mad at me! It always makes you SMILE!!! I miss y'all a bunch and I cant wait to see your beautiful faces soon! Anyways... remember YOU GOT THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. watch out for a video of Muah next week :0) You know I have to PUMP YOU UP

Buenos noches mi amores

Spelling Baseball

Today we played a fun educational version of baseball. We called it Spelling Baseball! To play, the pitcher (either Mr. Ariel or me) would say a spelling word to the student at bat. The student would then spell and then say the word. If they do it correctly, then they get one base. If they spell, say, and use the word in a sentence then it is a homerun! Here are a few videos of us playing.

Well they didnt score any points, I guess I am a good pitcher! lol. Here is Mr. Ariel pitching to my team...



Of course we ended up winning 4-0!!! Go team Mrs. Amy!!!! The students also had elective period today. I followed the students who went to dance. Here they are...



I taught the spelling and reading lessons and they went smoothly. I think that we are adjusting well to eachother. Tomorrow we begin reading a play from our reading book, it should be fun. A few post ago I talked about some of the differences that I have noticed in the schools. Another thing that I have noticed here is a lack of authentic literature. Back at West Jacksonville, most teachers (especially Mrs. A.) have a full wall of books for the students to read. Here, I have only seen a few chapter books, but they were kept at the teachers desk. Also, the textbooks that they have are all 10 years old! It makes me thankful for the resources that we have in the states for the students. I believe authentic literature plays a huge role in not only learning to read, but it also helps students who are learning a language. Maybe that can be one of the suggestions that I leave for the Dowal School.

I hope you enjoy watching my wonderful students play Spelling Baseball. I know I am going to take this game back to the states and incorporate it into my future class! Buenos Noches!!!!

Copan

Once again, sorry I have not posted in a few days. I have been without internet since Friday morning! Lol, it was horrible! But it was completely worth it because I was in Copan. I cant even begin to explain how beautiful it is there. I will just have to show you pictures ;0) We got to Copan around 2:00 on Friday, but it was too late to go to the ruins because they closed at 4:00, so we decided to be a little adventurous! We found a place to go ziplinning, it was amazing!!!

This was on the drive to the Canopy. Its hard to see, but the locals were bathing in the river.

I got stuck so the guy had to reel me in, lol!

  Saturday morning we got up early and went straight to the ruins. It is probably the most amazing thing that I have ever seen! I wish all of you could experience it too.

This was our wonderful tour guide Antonio. He wouldn't smile because he only has two teeth and he said he didn't want to scare everyone!!!

This is the sacred Mayan tree, La Ceiba. The Mayans believed that spirits landed on the branches from Heaven and they went to the underground through the roots. There are a ton of spikes on the tree trunk and they would pierce their tounge with the spikes to draw blood which would connect them to the Gods.

Hard to see, but all of us with our bus driver, Elmer.

The first rock is where they would make sacrifices to the Gods. They would put the persons head in the middle and there is a tunnel hollowed out for the blood to travel down.

I was just amazed at the detail of everything considering what they used to carve with.

One of many. Isn't it amazing?

One of the Gods that watched over them while they played their sport.

This is where they would play their sport, I cant remember the name! You had to keep the ball off of the ground, and you could use any body part but the hands. They would bounce the ball up on the sides and try to hit the carving on the sides.

This is where all of their history was written. It is all along the sides of the steps. The altar in the front was for sacrifices. They keep it covered to preserve the color of the stones. At one time they were a deep red.

Antonio told us that one of the big mysteries here is the trees that grow from the ruins. After the Mayans left Copan, the trees began to grow from the temples and they don't know how because there is not earth underneath, only old temples that they built over.

There is a massive temple underneath this one, but we could not go inside.

Supposedly this is what the temple looks like underneath the one above.

I cant remember which God this was.

This is where the upper class lived. They have not been able to explore inside of the homes yet, but they believe the people are still buried inside.

This was my favorite sign. It meant look so you don't fall.

Another amazing view.

Antonio said this was his great-grandfather. They both only have two teeth, lol!

They call this God Tony the Tiger, haha.

This is the temple that is connected to where they play the sports. On the right you can see the slope that they bounced the ball on.

Well, we are back to school tomorrow. I will begin teaching spelling and reading starting tomorrow. Wish me luck. It is a lot different teaching the students here than it is back home. I hope that you enjoyed the pictures. I had an amazing first week in Honduras and I am so thankful that I have been given this opportunity. I hope that the next two weeks are as much fun as this last one has been. Buenos noches.