A Collection of Visual Stimulation

Some of my kids, standing outside my house. Here, photos are not a very silly matter.

I don't even know how this happened. One minute I was sitting on the beach by myself, making a drip castle, and the next minute I was suddenly surrounded and having a sand-meatball toss contest with a bunch of 12-year-old boys.

For my birthday, the 4 volunteers closest to me came to visit and made delicious food (ie kept me from starving).

Funfact: mountains of used bags of sugar that you're supposed to be sorting through are actually more useful for having races to the top and getting really dirty.

Usually when I ask for help with something, someone just takes over completely. So I just stand around and take pictures and make comments, and in the end I help eat the product.

Déjà vu

I
teach 9 classes of 8^th grade English, which means I teach the same
lesson 9 times. Each time is a little bit different, because I learn from my
mistakes (I actually spelled ‘correct’ incorrectly in one class) and
misunderstandings (I was trying to ask the kids how many people are in the
world, and they kept saying, “two - man and woman”), but all the classrooms
look so similar that I could accidentally walk in the wrong classroom and teach
a lesson I had already taught them and probably no one would say anything. Who
knows, I may have done that already and I’ll never even know.

But
the personality of each class is beginning to develop. Classroom A always has
way too much energy, and when I ask them to repeat words back to me, their goal
is to shout as loud as possible (they loved when we sang Anything You Can Sing
I Can Sing Louder). Classroom I has the oldest students, some my age or older,
so they are more contemplative. Classroom E likes to laugh and is very sassy
and starting to test my limits. Classroom F asks questions. Classroom B loves
songs.

My
goal is to learn the names of all 438 of them. Currently, at the end of the
first trimester, I know about 3.7 in each class. Moving right along!

Déjà vu

I
teach 9 classes of 8^th grade English, which means I teach the same
lesson 9 times. Each time is a little bit different, because I learn from my
mistakes (I actually spelled ‘correct’ incorrectly in one class) and
misunderstandings (I was trying to ask the kids how many people are in the
world, and they kept saying, “two - man and woman”), but all the classrooms
look so similar that I could accidentally walk in the wrong classroom and teach
a lesson I had already taught them and probably no one would say anything. Who
knows, I may have done that already and I’ll never even know.

But
the personality of each class is beginning to develop. Classroom A always has
way too much energy, and when I ask them to repeat words back to me, their goal
is to shout as loud as possible (they loved when we sang Anything You Can Sing
I Can Sing Louder). Classroom I has the oldest students, some my age or older,
so they are more contemplative. Classroom E likes to laugh and is very sassy
and starting to test my limits. Classroom F asks questions. Classroom B loves
songs.

My
goal is to learn the names of all 438 of them. Currently, at the end of the
first trimester, I know about 3.7 in each class. Moving right along!

Activity: Spot the Differences

Steph, before training

Steph, after training, before service – bigger butt and rounder stomach (from too much xima, not
because I decided to start a family in Mozambique), muscles weak and succumbing
to gravity’s relentless tug

Steph, after service (prediction) – now able to lift a 20-liter bucket of water onto head, but
consequently spinal cord is slightly compressed

My eighth-graders

Most of them failed my mostly multiple-choice test, while cheating. But I still look at them and can't help but smile.

I think that means it's true love.