I headed down to the school at 6:40am today (since classes start at 7:00), and met the new director of the school, Rony, who was very welcoming and kind. Profe Jorge had not yet come in however there were quite a few other teachers who had recently arrived and greeted me. When Profe Jorge came, he knew immediately what I was there for (to see if they could use help in math at the high school level), so he let me know that he would make out a schedule for me and get me the books to teach those classes. For the next 3 weeks, I will have 8th grade through 11th grade. The 10th and 11th grades had finished their units, so I just need to create and work through reviews with the students prior to them taking their big test. The topics for 11th grade consist of Limits and Statistics (Probability, Factorials, Permutations, Combinations, Standard Deviation), and the topics for 10th grade consist of Matrices, Trigonometry (all 6 trig functions, degrees/radians, etc), and Vectors. I will definitely have my work cut out for me since Limits and Vectors are definitely outside of my comfort zone, and I will need to brush up on Spanish vocabulary in order to review anything regarding Statistics and Trigonometry. Profe Jorge did have me teach 2 classes right away this morning, so I began with a review of matrices in the 10th grade and then introduced the lesson on multiplying binomials with the 8th grade.
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| My teaching schedule while I am here |
Part way through teaching matrices with the 10th graders, we were told that there would be an "event" out in the main area of the high school. So all students headed to this area where they had a presentation on Francisco Morazan and what he did for Honduras. Then they sang the national hymn as well as a song special for their department of Honduras (think of these as counties in our U.S. States). Then the Director Rony talked about the teachers' time in the capital on Friday and winning awards for the school, and shortly after 2 teachers presented special awards to the students.
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| Presentation on Fidelity |
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| Presentation on Francisco Morazan |
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| Student awards given out |
After teaching the 2 classes, I headed back to the house to write up the lessons I just taught. Profe Jorge had asked me 2 years ago if I could fill out official lesson plans to submit, however I thought it best to just turn over all the pages of lessons I had taught to him and Profe Dayana so that they can more formally and correctly fill out these lesson plans to be submitted as I have never filled out the proper paperwork for Honduran lesson plans. Nora helped me to find 4 folders (one for each level and each in a different color) in order to keep the lessons organized better. The right side of the folder is labeled "Para hacer" (To Do), which is where I will keep the lessons until they are taught, and then I will move them over to the left side of the folder, which is labeled "Ya hecho" (Already Done). The lessons themselves are labeled with the topic at the top of the page as well as the date taught, and containing many notes and examples as well as homework for the students.
I had to head back to the school prior to lunch to pick up the 9th grade and 11th grade textbooks so that I could start prepping for 9th grade tomorrow...they will be beginning geometry, one of my favorites. But there will be a lot of vocabulary, so it will take me some time to prep. I worked all afternoon on finishing up the lessons from today as well as beginning prep for tomorrow's geometry lesson, which took me up to the supper hour. When I got to the Comedor, Noah let me know that the Team from Georgia that is here was planning a dinner for staff and volunteers, so I gave my food to Noe to give to the special needs boys, because I knew I wouldn't be able to eat 2 suppers. I chatted for a bit with Invisible and then walked Clara to the Toddler House after supper.
The team dinner was at 6pm...there was socialization beforehand and then David (Papi) said the prayer prior to everyone lining up to get their plate. The team served pork, beans, rice, pico de gallo, cantaloupe, pineapple, watermelon and cake. Oscar motioned for me to go over and sit by him once I had my plate of food, and I got to meet 2 team members, Susan and her husband Pat(?). We chatted for a bit, mostly Oscar as he likes to practice his English. When supper was over, I found Noah chatting out in the gazebo with Anna, Olivia and John as well as some of the girls who help Mirna in the Team House kitchen. So I stayed and chatted for a bit before heading home for the night.
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