Lo Siento, Mis Amigos

Or I am sorry, my friends. This post has been long delayed, and I know many of you have been anxiously waiting for the next installment of Bjorlie in Bolivia. Thank you for your patience and for your posts. I don't know how I can sum up the first couple weeks of school well, but I will try.

Week 1
Lots of planning and preparation, continuing to set up the classroom, and getting students acquainted with a new teacher. My kids are wonderful, I'm sure every teacher says so, but all the same, they're great! It has been very interesting trying to juggle two grades, but so far, I don't have to do to much to differentiate between the two. Our writing workshop curriculum is for 3-5 grade, which allows me to teach it collectively to both. With social studies (now) and science (later), I will be doing units from both 3rd and 4th grade standards. With Reading Workshop I am able to assess children's levels through Reading A-Z curriculum and form them into reading groups. Bible is also collective. We are currently trying to decide between using one of two curriculums for the elementary Bible program. One of the choices is the Children Desiring God curriculum, which of course I'm pushing for, seeing as how I used it for a year and a half at Bethlehem and can be assured that it will be amazing. Pretty much all the other teachers are huge Piper fans, so the curriculum has a good chance. (And yes, I know, the pastor figurehead should not be a factor, and trust me it's not, but there are lots of Piper fans) Back to school for a sec, the only tough subject is math. I need to allot more time so as to fit two lessons into one chunk of time. It's not simple.
All in all, I survived my first week and while I continue to dread and dislike the planning and preparation, I love my students. I have one student, Ah Hye, who knows absolutely no English, but at the same time I have two others, Si Yeon and Eliezer, who know both languages well enough to relay instructions for the assignments and with the addition of our new EFL teacher, Tom Fisher, I am excited for her being able to receive more scrutinized instruction.

Weekend 1 after the First Week

I played Settlers twice with four other people and won each time. Pray for me, I'm trying to stay humble. :) All the teachers celebrated Scott's B-day at a great Bolivian restaraunt. Amazing food and authentic music, that I know my dad would have loved. I captured a little video just for you dad. Other than that I also went into the school to do some more planning and preparing. I honestly didn't get as much done as I wanted. Oh well, I'll learn.

Week 2
More the same of the first week. I actually have one day left, although there might be a blockade, apparently there were about 4 last year that they had to cancel school for, so the teachers all get excited every time there's a rumor of one. :) The roads are limited here, so it's easy to shut down and barricade the main ones from the city center, El Centro, to Zona Sur, where I live, to Mallasilla, where the school is at. There was talk in the paper of there being one last Friday, but it never happened. Oh, I have also been having Spanish lessons with two other teachers on Mondays and Thursdays. They have been helpful, but not as much as my conversations with my homestay family during dinner. All the new teachers, including me, also did alot of Visa prep this week. On Monday, we had to miss our school morning to go into the doctor and get our physicals, no turning the head and coughing, but we did have to get a chest x-ray, where they pushed you up against this board (muy frio, very cold) and then take the shot. Along with getting some blood and urine samples, it made for an interesting morning. The next day we had to leave a half hour early to get finger printed at Interpol. So many things in so little time, when do I plan, I'm not sure, that's a good question. Today, after school, was spent getting our Banco Bisa cards. The school deposits our salary into these accounts and we can withdraw in either dollars (to pay our families) or Bolivianos. Ok, I have to go soon, but a few things before I do. Thanks again for your posts, they are encouraging and lots of fun to read. This weekend I am usually on Skype on Saturday morning, but this weekend I will be in Coroico. It's a city about a two hour bus ride away and about 6,000 ft lower in elevation. Myself and about 6 other teachers will be pool side relaxing and enjoying the lush greenery of a lower climate. Sorry, I hope I'm not making you too envious. The life of a Bolivian teacher is just so hard. :)

Prayer Requests

Planning and preparation. Health. Yesterday I went to school, but felt like throwing up the whole entire day. I told my students during read aloud, that if I ran out of the room I expected one of them to continue where I left off. I feel much better today praise the Lord! Although I'm doing better than some of our other teachers and administrator who was out most of this week with stomach problems. Also, I got a new student at the beginning of this week who is just amazing from Las Vegas. She is definitely going to be the highest reader in the class. Okay, back to prayer requests. Honestly, I am comfortable in the country, but not as much at school only because I'm a first year teacher and am constantly wondering if I'm doing things right. So, prayer for guidance, wisdom, and perseverance during this first year.

I love you all and keep up those posts.

Week of Planning

Thank you everyone for all the comments! Good catch on my misspell Kevin! I wouldn't have expected you to be my editor, but kudos to you! It has been longer than a week and this post will have to be shorter. For all you faithful prayer warriors, thank you for your prayers and your patience. I have most of the e-mail addresses I think, so all I need to do now is write my letter. Here are a few quick updates that you can comment on:

-Friday- The new staff, plus Jason, were all very busy getting settled in our places and accepting new students, so we did not go to Lake Titicaca, so John and I went to the school for awhile to work on some things. I put a picture on of the view of the mountains from the school. Imagine that all the way around. I will see if I can put a couple little videos on so you can get a view of my classroom, the school, and the mountainous panorama.

-Saturday- Josh, the other guest in the Castillones home, made a shish-kabob barbecue for the whole Castillones family and I. I was stuffed. We also had the whole staff together for the first time for dinner at Jason and Sara's. We played a few outrageous icebreaker games. One of them was psychologist.

-Sunday- Josh left to head back to Boston and I schooled John, campus pastor and high school Bible teacher, in the two player version of Settlers of Catan (I am undefeated in Bolivia)

-Monday-American Barbecue to celebrate Dia de Bolivia (I played ultimate frisbee, my lungs were on fire after the first score, and continued to stay that way the rest of the night)

-Tuesday-Teacher's Meetings and Setting up the classroom began (I got in my desks for my 16 students and have a mental picture of how my classroom will look)

-Today- More planning and setting up. I am beginning to feel very anxious for my class. I am not feeling as prepared as I want and Friday is Open House. I need the room ready by then. So, for all you prayer warriors waiting anxiously to hear about prayer requests that are reading this blog. Here's my number 1: Pray that I would fully believe and claim the promise in Philippians 4: 6,7. Some of you have that memorized and the rest of you, look it up. :) Thanks again for your prayers. I promise to type up my letter as soon as I have some breathing room, probably this coming weekend.

Blessings to you all back home!