It's Fall?

Last year at this time, I was back in Sycamore, IL.  The temperatures had dropped to the chilly fall weather and the leaves were changing colors and falling.  It was Pumpkinfest time and it felt like fall.  Although the temperatures have dropped some here, there is no changing of leaves or Pumpkinfest.  No Pumpkin Spice Lattes or warm apple ciders. Don't get me wrong, I love that it is still warm and I don't have to wear a coat to go outside, but I do get a little nostalgic every once in a while. After coming across some cans of pumpkin, I decided to attempt to get some feeling of fall here by making pumpkin bars. First problem, we have no electric mixer.  Not too big of a deal, I just got a nice arm workout attempting to blend together cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar by hand to make cream cheese frosting (yes it was messy, but delicious). You can't have pumpkin bars without cream cheese frosting.  Second problem, no cake pans. Not too big of a deal especially when it come to the third problem, which is we do not have a working oven.  We do have a Express Redi Set Go, which is like a little oven about the size of a waffle maker that comes with a pan in which you can make six little mini muffins at a time.  I decided if it could make muffins it could make cupcakes.  Like I said, it was six at a time and not only that but the cupcakes would leave a residue despite oiling the pan that I had to wash off after every round.  About two hours and fifty cupcakes later, I finally had my taste of fall, and it was good.  I classify myself as persistent.
Today was a whole new day for me with all new students.  Our math program is a dual language program, so our students switch every quarter from Spanish to English or English to Spanish, so today I got the group that was in Spanish and began teaching them in English.  The classes I had last quarter were all honors classes (supposedly the better behaved classes).  I knew I was in for a challenge, but it wasn't bad.  I was actually surprised by how much better my 10th grade geometry class was behaved in comparison to the honors geometry class.  The 11th grade was a little bit more challenging, but in comparison to the 9th grade honors class I had this past quarter they weren't nearly as difficult.  My honors kids have seemed to get a sense of superiority and kept asking me which class I liked better.  I declined responding because I really didn't think it was all that much different, and it will keep them on their toes.  I kind of like having a whole new group although it is difficult to switch after only nine weeks when I was just getting my students to where I wanted them to be.  It will definitely be a whole new adventure this quarter.
I made a trip to Monte Plata two weekends ago.  I was so happy to be back with my "family" there.  I really missed it a lot and it was really nice to be able to get out of the busy city for a couple days.  I'm hoping to be able to continue travelling back there whenever I have long weekends or free weekends.
This past weekend, I went to the olympic stadium which is right down the street to watch our high school boys play in a tournament. They are actually really good, and it was a good game.  After the soccer game we walked to another field in the olympic stadium to watch some friends of my roommate play in the dominican football league.  Its a six team (all named after teams in the states) league that plays every saturday on the saddest looking football field I have ever seen (the goal posts are just two posts on the top of soccer goals). They are pretty low scoring games and any time a pass is thrown it is incomplete or intercepted.  It never reaches the intended target.  The refs have their flags and they love to throw them, and field goals are not attempted often.  It's very different from da bears but it's still a lot of fun.
I appreciate all of your prayers.  I ask that you continue praying for the ministry here.  I see a lot of emptiness in my students and some of my colleagues, and every day I'm given the opportunity to show the love of God.  Pray for open ears and hearts.

"Retreat"

Yesterday our 11th grade students went on their retreat.  Every grade goes for a day to work on team building exercises to improve the dynamic of the class. Since I am the 11th grade advisor, I had the priviledge of going with.  Having experiences with such kinds of retreats in middle school going to timberlee, I was excited for the kids to have a chance to experience some challenging activities and grow together.  Let's just say my Timberlee expectations were not met.  The 11th grade class's behavior is challenging.  I really enjoy working with them because they like to talk and are willing to reason with you and draw conclusions.  Unfortunately the group running the program may have not been quite prepared to handle what was coming for them.  Most of the day felt like a mess, but in the end their were definitely some good things that came out of it.  It wasn't much of a retreat for us the teachers but we were able to have some really conversations with our students throughout the day.
As the students were doing various activities, I had the chance to talk with one of  the other teachers who was on the trip with us that I really had not had the chance to get to know before.  She had just gotten engaged the night before, so we got to talk about her future wedding plans.  Then we got on to the topic of our students and their behavior.  Although they attend a Christian school, the majority of them do not hold those beliefs and don't come from Christian homes.  A lot of the time, it is easy to place Christian expectations on these students because they are in a Christian school, but the reality is they have no base for good behavior.  They can control themselves to a certain extent, but they are human beings who when it comes down to it are looking to please themselves.  The other teacher and I spoke a lot about how we as teachers cannot change this; it has to be something from God.  Our responsibility is to pray for them, love them, live our lives as a testimony to them, and be open to speak when God opens the door.  It is such a huge ministry opportunity to be a teacher at this school.
The day was definitely not my favorite, and I may have a few suggestions for the powers that be, but it did allow me to build better relationships with my students.  It was also just a huge reminder of where my students are at and the spiritual needs that they have.  This job is definitely not just about teaching math.

Fights and Russians

These past two weeks have been quite eventful. Last weekend I was so tired that on Friday night I went to bed at 9:30 because I couldn't stay awake anymore. I also woke up at seven that Saturday morning which was quite a disappointment after looking forward to being able to sleep in that weekend. Unfortunately it seems my body is getting accostomed to waking up early in the morning. Something I thought would never happen.

Perhaps part of the reason I was so exhausted by Friday last week was in part to the events that came to pass in my classroom. On to the first part of the title of the blog: fights. I have to say I may have been a little naive to believe this, but since I was teaching in a private school I figured the chances of breaking up a fight were slim to none. As I said, I was naive. As I'm teaching a very important lesson on congruent segments, I see out of the corner of my eye a Dasani water bottle being picked up by a student and soon flying through the air at a very fast speed. Next thing I knew it was hitting its target in the face. Bad news. The target of the bottle was soon on his feet and although I tried to stand in his way knowing nothing good could come of him getting any closer to the thrower of the bottle, he got around me and soon his fists were making contact with the thrower. Next thing I knew I was grabbing his arms and pulling him off the other student. In some miracle of a motion I pushed the boxer in front of me while opening the door to the classroom and guiding him out of the room. I don't know if the thrower thought his actions were acceptable because I had to inform him that he also was making a trip to the dean's office. He was soon following behind and we were walking to the dean's office. The only words coming out of my mouth were "unacceptable, this is unacceptable." I was in shock. In shock that a fight broke out in my classroom especially in my normally best behaved class and that I was able to break up a fight. I even had one student calling me the fight referee not a title that I would like to continue fulfilling. It must not have hindered the students that much since the class had an average score of a 93 percent on their test the following week. Thankfully they've moved on. Hopefully there will be no more fights.

After a long week, we were invited by one of the other high school math teachers to her home for lunch on Sunday after church. We were happy to have a free meal (we never turn down a free meal). This teacher is from Armenia and is actually a robotic engineer turned math teacher. Needless to say, she is a genius. She picked us up from church and took us to her apartment where we met her mother (I didn't know she lived with her mother). It was one of the most unique experiences of my life where I found myself in the Dominican Republic eating crepes with two Russians and the only language that all four of us had in common was Spanish. It was so interesting to hear from her mother tell about her life growing up in Russia under Communism and how the system worked in Armenia and how it still is impacting the people. We felt very welcomed and very full (her mother kept putting food in front of me and saying "eat" it didn't seem like a suggestion) by the time we left.

This week hasn't been nearly eventful. For one, I haven't had any fights in the classroom this week. My roomate's husband flew into the country on Wednesday for a couple days. We all went out to dinner Wednesday and Thursday with administration and other teachers from the school and then on Friday my roomate and her husband left to go to the beach for the weekend leaving me in my very large apartment all by myself for the weekend. Everyone kept asking me what I was going to do all alone all weekend and I kept telling them "sleep." I have really enjoyed my weekend alone. If you know me well, you know that I really enjoy my alone time. I was able to get a lot of grading done and relax. I ventured out to the local bakery to get some food making sure to carry my keys between my fingers just in case an attacker was nearby, but God protected me and I didn't have to use my keys other than to get into my apartment.

Dominican Birthday

This morning I found myself feeling quite nostalgic.  I don’t know what it is about the completion of my twenty third year of life, but I found myself reflecting on how much has changed in just a year.  Last year (on my twenty third birthday), I was in Ohio sitting in my aunt and uncles basement spending time with family and enjoying a relaxing labor day weekend.  I was feeling nervous about starting student teaching that coming week, but excited about the start of the end of my final semester of college. I really had few plans for my future.  My goals were to make it through student teaching alive and with all my hair.  I had no idea of the changes that were to come.
I had no idea I would spend a month as an aide for special needs kids.  I had no idea that would be the hardest job of my life.  I had a pretty good idea I would be back in Monte Plata for the summer but nothing definite.  I had no idea I would see three very good friends who were all single at the time or in new relationships get married within the next year. I had no idea if I would have a job or if I would spend a year in limbo substituting here and there.  I definitely had no anticipation of having a job in the Dominican Republic as a math teacher.  I had no idea how much I would absolutely love this job.
Basically I was clueless what God was doing, but I am incredibly grateful that He always has His plans worked out and that they always happen.
A couple students found out about my birthday and word spread pretty fast.  Students were wishing me a happy birthday from the start of the day until the end of the day.  My classes were trying to convince me that to celebrate my birthday they shouldn’t have homework (I said their homework would be their birthday present to me). My tenth grade geometry class broke out into the “happy birthday” song in the middle of talking about line segments.  They all wanted to know what I was going to do for my birthday, and they must have been expecting that I was going to have some elaborate celebration because my response of “going to dinner with friends” didn’t seem to be good enough.
As I said earlier, I am loving this job.  The smaller class sizes allow me to meet the needs of my students and make connections with them.  I also can be relaxed while teaching and have a lot of student involvement. I am surprised daily by their eagerness to participate and learn. I began teaching my elective class of personal finance today.  We talked about global debt and the stock market and the great depression and why investing in gold is a good idea and why you should stay out of debt.  The kids were very eager to understand the system of money. I’m excited to  see where the class goes and how the school year continues.

First almost hurricane experience

This week was our first official week of school.  I was a little nervous about being a real math teacher all on my own and how the students would respond to me. One thing was for sure I didn't need to worry about what I would be wearing since everyone (including teachers) wears uniforms.
I was nervous about the students and things like being an advisor and teaching an elective on personal finance.  I had been told that the students could be really difficult and disrespectful, so although I tried to enter the school year with an open mind I was nervous nonetheless.  My fears with regards to the students were completely unfounded.  Having student taught at DHS with up to thirty five students in the classroom I think has made me prepared for anything especially a private school with no more than twenty students in a classroom.  I really like the students.  I'm sure there will be difficult moments but right now I'm feeling very blessed.
Having never been an advisor, I was terrified about having to teach/advise students about figuring out their futures.  Not to mention I had been informed that the class I have is the worst behaved in the school. They have given us a curriculum to follow and it is really good, but I wasn't sure if the students were going to buy into it.  Again I was wrong.  We did a time management session this week (I'll admit I felt a little hypocritical since I'm not the best at managing time) and I thought it was a little basic and not all that interesting but the students really got into it and scheduled their day out to incorporate more study time (they may have been just trying to suck up to the teacher, but it's better than nothing). Again I'm feeling very blessed. 
Now to get to this personal finance.  To be honest we had to sign up ti teach some elective class and out of everything on the list, personal finance seemed like the thing that I would be the least horrible at teaching (it's got to have something to do with math right?). I also had in the back of my mind that personal finance sounds like a very boring class (at least to me) so maybe no one would even sign up for it and I would get out of it.  I was wrong.  A student came up to me on Thursday and says "I'm going to be in your elective class on personal finance.  I'm very excited." To say the least I was surprised.  After five minutes of speaking with the student, I'm pretty sure he knows more about personal finance than me, but thankfully the federal reserve has developed a curriculum for teaching personal finance and they've got to know something about personal finance. They are the federal reserve after all. Again I'm feeling very blessed.
On Wednesday, we were informed that there was a hurricane heading for Santo Domingo.  On Thursday they sent the kids home at noon and cancelled school for Friday in expectation of a hurricane hitting the city.  I was excited/scared about my first soon to be hurricane experience.  I was also happy about being able to sleep in on Friday morning.  Friday morning I awoke with some excitedment about the big storm...unfortunately for my excitement, but fortunately for the safety of the Dominican Republic, the hurricane passed by to the south of us.  All we got was some pretty strong wind that rattled my door all night. Every time a strong wind would blow I would wake up to the sound of the door rattling.  Every time I awoke it sounded like someone was trying to break into my room.  Needless to say I was wide awake very fast and ready to pounce on whoever was coming into my room.  Thankfully sanity would eventually kick in and I would realize it was just the wind.
It rained pretty much all day today.  A lot of the streets were flooded and we found all the leaks in the apartment (there were quite a few). We are all safe and sound albeit a little wet, but grateful all the windows and doors are intact. Again I'm feeling very blessed.

Santo Domingo

December 2011 I finally graduated college. I was so excited to be done with being a student and ready to transition into a life as a teacher. My plans for the future were not all that detailed, in fact beyond the summer I had no plans at all. I had no clue just what God had in store for me. During the months of March and April, I was applying for jobs all over the state of Illinois as well as countries such as Panama and Bolivia. After turning down jobs in both Panama and Bolivia, I began to wonder where God was going to take me. About a week after turning down my latest job offer, I applied to a school in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and got the job.
I spent the months of June and July working in Monte Plata, Dominican Republic (see the Monte Plata page if you want to know more about that). I had an awesome summer as a summer missionary directing the summer school program in the Kids Alive International school in Monte Plata. I flew home for four very filled days of meeting with people and a very exciting and fun wedding. I then took off again for the Domincan Republic to begin my teaching career.
I have been here just over a week, and for the most part my expectations have been much exceeded. I somehow am living in a huge penthouse apartment with a bakery just down the block that has cheesecake and donuts, two things I never saw in Monte Plata. The school is quite large with two sport courts and a pool. Each classroom is air conditioned and they like to keep it cold. I have had quite a lot of work creating curriculum maps, syllabi, and lesson plans for my three preps (Algebra II, Geometry, and Pre-Calculus). I have been forced out of my anti-social comfort zone and am making new friends and colleagues.
It's a much different experience going from being surrounded by poverty to being in a very wealthy area although its not hard to find people in need. My ministry has completely changed, but God has provided a wealth of opportunities to share his Gospel in a Christian school where many of the students and some of the staff are not Christians. I'm getting more and more accustomed to where I am and what my job is going to be. The students begin arriving on Monday for school. We have spent the past week and will spend this week preparing for the school year to come and all the fun stuff that entails. I'm ready for it all to begin.

Busy weeks

Today we started our second to last week of the summer program.  It feels like not that long ago I had just arrived and now I will be leaving soon (although not for long).  This past week has been filled with activities.  The mornings have been running pretty smoothly with quite a few kids coming. There haven’t been many kids coming to my office for discipline, which is a good thing since that means they are behaving in the classroom, but that means I don’t get to interact with the kids as much as I would like.  I try to make my way around to the classes and spend some time in there, and I also make sure to spend recess with them.  We play dodgeball, tag, tickle tag, “baseball” (we use a soccer ball for the ball and our feet for bats), and many other fun activities like hanging upside down from monkey bars.  If you were to look at recess from the outside you would probably think it is pure chaos, but if you look closer you see a lot of kids getting there energy out in fun and safe ways.  The kids will also ask us to walk home with them, which is one of my favorite parts of the summer program. I don’t know why the kids like it so much, but they ask us pretty much every day.    We will rotate them through with piggy back rides until we get to sweaty to take any more.  The kids live a pretty good distance away from the school, and it is really hot here, but it’s a great way to spend time with the kids.

We had a team here for the past week doing some construction work on the wall around the school in the mornings, and then in the afternoons they had a VBS program for kids in the surrounding neighborhood. They had asked us to help out with their program, so that dominated our afternoons.  They didn’t have very many Spanish speakers so they asked me if I could translate for them.  It is surprising how mentally taxing translating is.  Having to think in two languages and communicate it takes much more energy and focus than just speaking in Spanish.  Most days it was not too much translating just basic things and they usually had their Bible stories already translated and ready to go except for on Thursday.  They asked me to translate the story of the Prodigal Son, which turned out to be a two and a half page typed story.  Needless to say my brain was pretty much mush by the end of it and my Spanish was the quality of a six year old.  God taught me a lot of humility through that experience and reminded me that He is the one who softens hearts and it’s not about the words or eloquence that I have, it’s about what He is doing.  It was a really good experience overall.

On Friday we got on a bus and traveled across the island to meet up with the other interns from around the island in Jarabacoa.  We did a fun waterfall hike on Friday afternoon and then all had dinner together that night.  In the morning, we piled into vans and took off for Santo Domingo to do some “tourist” stuff.  On the way, one of the vans had  a tire blow out, so we had to pull over to the side of the road in front of a store that had an entire pig (head and all) roasting, so they could change the tire.  After that fun experience we started again for the capitol.  We went around to some historic locations that I have visited many times before in my previous trips.  Everyone did some shopping and I did some bartering.  We found these straw hats that looked pretty touristy and the guy was asking for 150 pesos. I said we’d give him 100 to which he accepted.  I thought it was a great deal and some pretty good bartering skills on my part only to later walk into a store and see the same hats for 80 pesos.  It was a good time being back with everyone and hearing their experiences and what is going on.  We returned home pretty tired, but the experience was definitely worth it.

The city I will soon call home (Santo Domingo).