I have spent my first two weeks back in Honduras as the go-to girl and tour guide. After last years show of Shy-Sarah, Social-Sarah is making a come back. I have simply had a blast helping the new teachers adjust and learn about Copan. They seem like a really good group, and take teaching very seriously, but they're also willing and ready to explore this new land.
Some of them have a lot of experience traveling and living abroad, while others are like I was...in way over their heads. However, this year I have one thing I did not have last year and it has made all the difference in the world—I'm in my element.
I've been more forward with my Spanish and more willing to make mistakes, I've been getting out of the house, I've been working hard at the school. It's been incredible to come back here and know what's going on.
As I've explained to them, I obviously loved my experience last year, but the whole year is flavored by last year's group, so I really have no way to prepare for what the coming year will be like because all social dynamics are being rewritten as we go.
Last week was orientation, and so we got all situated for school. It's 2 days before school starts, and my class list isn't even secure. I have two new students, lost one from last year, lost one to the other fourth grade section (she and her twin want to be in the same class, but my class was already full so they had the option of being together in the other section of separate), and am waiting to hear on a couple others.
The woman originally hired for the other fourth grade section and I exchanged a myriad of e-mails and information. I was thrilled about her coming. She sounded like a fantastic teaching partner and I was eager to soak up her experience and teaching skills during the next year. However, when her husband lost his job, she had to decide to stay back in the States. Not long ago, they hired her replacement—a very sweet seeming woman named Emily from Pittsburgh. Emily is having to shut down her whole life: give notice at work, close out her apartment, and completely shut down her life on very short notice. She will not be coming to Copan until two weeks after the start of school.
This means that I need to make sub plans...for two weeks, for the first days of school. I was just going to give Cid, the sub, my plans, but there are too many stylistic and situational differences for them to really work. I already know my kids, I WILL be their teacher for the next year, and I have a lot of procedures I want to drill into their heads before the year gets going. He doesn't know these kids, he doesn't know what kind of procedures to teach them for Emily, and he has a very different approach to how the first days go. We've set up her room, and at the open house on Friday, I will get to meet with all of the parents and explain that Emily will be coming late, through no fault of her own.
I'm sure everything will smooth out within a month, but until then I feel like I'm running in place. I don't want to take off with my kids and dive into lessons unless her class can too. Cid and I will have to work out how we should go about the intro to the year, because 2 weeks is a long time to stall and just do review. However, the more he does with her class, the more she'll either have to change when she gets here or be stuck with.
I have tried talking to her about her preferences, but she's so overwhelmed at home right now that she can't even start to think about setting up here yet. I also think she's a first year teacher, though I'm not sure.
I look forward to meeting her and finally being able to hammer out some concrete details on how we want to run the year. In the mean time, I'll just focus on setting up a better classroom environment than I had last year and enjoy getting to know the other new teachers better.
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