Last night was my 3rd class and I have yet to have the other teacher that was assigned to my class be present. The first class there was a sub that helped me out, but the last 2 classes it has only been me. I have 22 students and it is WORK. There is only a handful of them that misbehave and the rest are just angels. Like I've mentioned I have no background in disciplining children so they may know this and take advantage of it. Well at the start of the class, as I was getting things in order, the 4 or 5
misbehaved kids were up out of their seats wandering around talking. It wasn't 2 minutes into class that a lady, who I presume works at the church, came in and saw these boys not "listening or paying attention" and boy did she LAY down the law. She put ME in my place. I say this lightly because she didn't directly do this, but the way she put those kids in line made me step back and wonder if she thought "what kind of teacher lets this happen to her class?" She basically said "THIS IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN SO YOU BEST PUT YOUR BOTTOM ON THE SEAT WITH TWO FEET ON THE GROUND AND LISTEN."
Eyeyayyay......
I knew I had to change the way I deal with them so they would listen and I prayed and ask the Lord to be with me (because he knows that's the only way I'll get through this). Ha ha The rest of the night they were fairly decent, but I had to threaten boy A (we'll call him that for privacy purposes) a visit to the office.
Geez I didn't know I'd have to be like a real teacher. In any case this story does have a happy ending by the grace of God.
I bought some treats for the kids and was planning on rewarding the "good" ones with candy and a pencil which I'd save for the end of class. Close to the end of class I showed them the goodies and all eyes sparkled & ears perked up as I said "usually you get goodies based on good behavior, but I'm going to do it a little different tonight. There are a few kids here that don't deserve these treats and YOU know who you ARE, but instead of just giving it to those who deserve it I am going to give EVERYONE the treats because I have
FAITH in you, just like I hope you have faith in Jesus and know you will behave from here on. However I will give you the chance to earn more goodies from here forward. So even though some of you DON'T deserve it, I'm giving you a chance." ***note the emphasis on the non-deserving ones** I explained how they could earn more. I handed each of them an envelope to write their names on with which I would keep a card and at the end of each class put a stamp or sticker on it for those who deserved it. I told them I would give them more treats after getting X amount of stamps in their card. They were very excited for this so hopefully it will work.
BTW, after the treats were handed out, boy A asked if he could help clean the whiteboard and did a fine job too. ;-) hahaha Thank the Lord. Let's pray it continues.
This is one of the many churches/cathedrals, La Merced. Attached to the back of this building were ruins. Many of the buildings in Antigua are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Our shuttle stopped so we could take pictures on our way to the lake.
We climbed an active volcano (Pacaya) where we were able to get as close to the lava as we could stand. We definitely weren't in the States where you would never be able to get remotely close to something like this. It was a pretty difficult and tiring hike up and down, but well worth it.
