Tired

It's Friday night and I'm tired. My students have the end of the semester/Christmas is almost here fever. This week was filled with a door decorating competition, Christmas program practice, the actual Christmas program, and a new student. Next week is our last week of school, and three of those days are half days. We are on the verge of chaos. I think tonight will be a 9:15 bedtime.

Among the craziness I received probably the best accusation of my life. I was walking down the hallway when one of my students from last year stopped to talk to me. He wanted to tell me about the book he was reading. Then he looks at me and says, "It's all your fault, you know."
Me: "Um, what exactly did I do?"
Student: "It's all your fault that I read books."
I'll take weeks of craziness for statements like that. :)

Our decorated door

Craziness

Emily and me with our little tree

Only seven days until I am in Omaha! Can't wait!

Give Thanks

I'm full of turkey, I've enjoyed some days of rest and sun, and now I'm ready to plow through three more weeks of school until I head to Omaha for Christmas.

Earlier this week, my students and I discussed things that we are thankful for, and we decided that the list could just go on and on. Since moving to Nicaragua, my list has shifted and changed some. Things that I never thought much of have more meaning here, at least for me. When it is sweltering hot, ceiling fans are at the top of my thankful list. Seeing dozens of people packed like sardines into a school bus on their morning commute makes me very thankful not to just own a car, but a car that works well. I can't tell you how many times I am thankful for indoor plumbing and sturdy roofs as I drive the Managua roads and see the houses that line the streets. And although I dread waking up early in the morning (5:30 - gasp!), I am thankful that I get to wake up and go to a job that I not only enjoy, but that I love and look forward to. What is better than teaching about God's faithfulness or showing how to multiply double digits or teaching a rhyme to remember helping verbs?

As I talked with a parent earlier this week, I became very thankful that teaching can plant seeds that later blossom. Last year I had a student who was very bright, but not very committed. He was a good reader, but didn't enjoy it and only read non-fiction. One of my goals last year was to get this student to love reading. As a teacher, I recommended book after book that I thought he would like. I tried everything, but nothing worked. At the end of the year, his enthusiasm for reading was not there. I remember on the last day of school his mom wanted to take a picture of the two of us, and it was obviously a torturous event for him. Now the student is in 5th grade. Just about every morning he says hi to me, and a couple of times a month he wanders into my room during recess when I am grading papers. He asks me what the 4th graders are learning, what book I am reading, and walks out. We recently started a new reading program at NCA, and since then, he is in my room all the time, asking for book recommendations and checking out my classroom library. I didn't think of it much until his mom stopped and talked to me the other day. She said all of a sudden her child loves reading. She knows of all the encouragement I gave her son last year and is so excited to see him excited about reading. While I am not his current teacher and probably don't have much to do with his current love of reading, I am glad that teaching can plant seeds. He didn't love to read last year, but now he does. His mom said he talks about my class and says he misses 4th grade. His parents invited me and some other teachers over for Thanksgiving dinner, and the student gave me a hug! What a difference from last year. As a teacher, I am thankful that something stuck and for seeing the growth of a student.

My students have a lot to be thankful for as well, and I want to share some of those things with you:

Happy Thanksgiving from my students and me!

Psalm 106:1 
Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Miss Eberly and the Case of the Horrible Smell

I just remembered today that I never blogged about the mysterious and horrible smell in my classroom a couple of weeks back. I will tell it now.... and I will try not to be over dramatic as I retell it. It was quite the day.

I walked into my classroom bright and early. It was 6:30 am on a Monday morning, and I was greeted by a slightly off smell. I couldn't place it, and figured it was just some weekend must or a weird plant outside. I assumed the smell would fade away as the day went on.

My students started coming in, turning in homework and folders as usual. Two or three came up to me and mentioned that it smelled a little weird. I told them the smell would go away soon.

When my students left for Spanish a little while later I noticed the smell was getting worse and that I could now smell it from my desk. I was getting a little nervous and started walking around my room, looking and smelling for anything suspicious. I hadn't found anything by the time my students came back.

As I was teaching Bible, I was walking around the room explaining a Bible story. By now, the smell was a LOT stronger and I noticed it a lot more as I got to the back of the room. My stomach was starting to turn and I realized I was getting a little queasy. I didn't know how my students were dealing with it. I decided then that something must have died in my room. I was in the middle of class and couldn't really go find assistance without making a huge scene and my students freaking out, so I decided to ignore it a little while longer.

As the morning went on, the smell got worse. When the bell rang for recess, I ran next door and asked the 5th grade teacher to come have a smell. The second she walked in, she declared that something must be dead.

I went and found the maid and told her that something was dead in my classroom. She came in, gagged, and immediately went to find help.

One of maintenance guys came in and started looking around. I was sitting at my desk looking horrified. He looked around, didn't see anything, and then looked up. There were some flies buzzing around one particular part of the ceiling. He got a ladder, climbed up, and lo and behold, he found a very large, dead, and rotten rat. The smell that filled the room made all three of us run out. The guy came back in with a handkerchief tied around his mouth and nose and took the critter far, far away.

We had class outside for the next hour or so while my room aired out. When lunch rolled around, my stomach was still so upset I couldn't eat. I told the tale to my friends. The sixth grade teacher told me that the week before they had put rat poison in her classroom closet..... looks like the rat found it!

And so the case of the terrible and mysterious smell came to an end. We all lived happily every after (except the rat).

Brownie Queen

Last Friday was my birthday, so for my students' morning journal I asked them what I should do to celebrate. By this time the back table had filled with brownies, serving as inspiration in my student's writing.

This was only a fraction of the brownies that the students brought...

Here are my students' birthday suggestions:

• Miss Eberly can go to brownie world. She loves brownies a lot. For her birthday she will get a stomach ache. 
• She can eat brownies and read at the same time. 
• Miss Eberly should take her fourth graders to the movies!
• She should go to the States and see her family. 
• She should go shopping and buy something. 
• Miss Eberly should share her brownies and have a brownie party with all her students!
• She should read, read, READ!
• She should go to the movies and give all her brownies to Kaleb. Next she should go to TGIFridays, then get on an airplane to see her parents. If you keep your brownies, be careful when you get on the plane, because there are so many brownies the plane might explode. You should really give the brownies to Kaleb. I don't want you to get fat, and I would like to become a sumo wrestler. 
• The other teachers should buy her dinner. 
• She should have sleeping time. 
• Miss Eberly should: 1) eat brownies 2) get a massage 3) read Inkspell 4) just have the best day ever. 
• She should have a free day from teaching.
• She can be the Queen of Brownies!

Pretty good ideas! I am glad to know they support my love for reading and chocolate!

Brownie Party!

How I love, love, love my crazy students!

Thank you, God, for one more year of life!

Celebrating with dinner, a movie, and great friends (and no scary carnival rides)

 

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas

We are having a U.S. geography unit in 4th grade Social Studies.
You know what that means - we are memorizing the States and capitals. Sounds fun, right? Alright, of course it isn't. I am trying my best, though. At parent-teacher conferences one mom thanked me for making the capitals fun. Not sure how I pulled that off, but apparently the student went home pretty stoked about memorizing all fifty of them. That is the kind of enthusiasm I like!

Unfortunately, not all the students are as excited about it. Let's be honest, though. Most of my students have never lived in the U.S., therefore they lack a lot of background knowledge. Those who have traveled to the U.S. know the states most foreigners know: California, Texas, New York, and Florida. If they haven't been to a particular state, they have nothing to connect it to in their mind, and it makes it harder to learn. All of these factors have led to some hilarious quiz answers. I broke the U.S. into regions and we have been working on it region by region, resulting in mini-quizzes that we take almost every day.

I have learned some interesting things from these quizzes.

• Paris and Miami are both states in the U.S.
• North and South Carolina are actually North and South America. 
• Louisiana's capital is Louisiannapolis 
• Wisconsin has had a name change:

Oh, how they make me laugh. 

It's Safe, Right?

Last weekend it was my roommate's birthday. We went to the city of Masaya to get smoothies. The restaurant is outside and you can sit on obnoxiously high chairs while they blend up whatever fruit you want.

On our way out of town we noticed a carnival.

(Side note: I've always enjoyed carnivals and fairs in the United States. Bright lights, fun rides, delicious fattening food. I have never been able to pass up the snow cones, cotton candy, and corn dogs. I enjoy the rides as well, but the food is the best part. 
Before going on a ride, have I ever had the thought, is this safe? Sure. Then I remember a million people have been on it and I hop on for a good time.)

Enjoying Arnold Park

(End of side note)

So, we saw this carnival on the Masaya side road. Some people in our teacher van got excited. The conversation started:

Should we stop?

Yes!

Wait, is it safe?

It doesn't look safe.

Do you think the rides are rejects from the States?

Probably, look how old it looks.

We should check it out.

No, let's go home.

Hey, is that cotton candy?

Are there even people there?

It doesn't matter, let's stop. It's Emily's birthday!

etc etc etc

We pile out of the van. Excited by the potential rides and cotton candy, we begin making a scene. 

The question of the safety of the rides continued, but with cotton candy and tokens in hand, we decided to give a ride or two a try. Besides being a little rickety and a minor run-in with a tree branch, we survived the first ride and thought we could give one more a try. 

The next ride looked interesting. We asked the man what it did, and he told us it simply spins in a circle and goes up and down. Abe asked why it didn't have a bar to hold onto, or even seatbelts, and the guy gave him a look and said, "Because it spins in a circle and goes up and down. You don't need one." Abe assured us it would be just like those space ship rides in the states that go round and round so fast that you stick to the wall. The only difference would be that we sit down on this one. "Excellent!" we said, and climbed on. In all, there were four of us gringos and four teenage Nicaraguan boys across from us. We lounged in our seats, waiting for the good time to begin. 

Well, the good time began and ended very quickly. I have not been that terrified in a long, long time. The ride was certainly unsafe and most certainly needed a bar or seat belt. If there hadn't been bars behind us, we would have fallen off the ride. The guy running the ride forgot to tell us that the ride doesn't go straight up and down, but at an angle. He also failed to mention that he can make it bounce whenever he chooses. Of course, he only chose to do that when we were at the top of the ride. I am not talking about a little bounce. I mean a big bounce that had us flying out of our seats while we are at an angle up in the air. There were times when we weren't touching the ride except for our hands awkwardly hanging on to the bar behind us. As we bounced along, I glanced down at my two friends who did not go on the ride. They both had looks of horror across their faces. Apparently it looked as bad from the ground as it felt to us. All our screaming and the sheer unsafeness of it all brought in a nice spectator crowd. When the ride FINALLY ended, we snapped a finger wagging, two thumbs down picture and ran out of the carnival. 

We have learned our lesson and will never go back to a Nicaraguan carnival. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, please decline. Even the cotton candy didn't make that worth it. 

Six Mexicans and a Canadian

Some friends and I hit the road for the beach a couple weeks back. It is not uncommon to get pulled over by the police here for no apparent reason. I have been pulled over a half dozen times at least, and never for any reason. Anyway, my friend Emily was driving six of us teachers in the lovely big, blue teacher van. Nothing is more suspicious than seven teachers packed into one van, so we got pulled over. The officer checked all the documents and asked to see our passports. We explained we were residents and that we all have residency cards. He went on about our lack of passports and then scrutinized Emily's New Mexico divers license. A slight misreading of the license led him to understand that Emily was Mexican. He went on to ask if we were all Mexicans. I only heard part of the question and yelled to Emily that one of the teachers is Canadian. Emily relayed the message and told him that no, one of us is Canadian. We forgot to mention that all the rest of us were from the U.S. The police officer left believing that even though our Spanish is not quite fluent and we look and dress like Americans, that six Mexicans and a Canadian were on their way to the beach that day.

We arrived

Later we ditched the van for a more Nica style of transportation.

We like to call it the how many people can you fit into the back of a truck

It is always an adventure here!

Independence Day

My students practiced. They cut and built and created and molded. Grammar and spelling got pushed aside for poster boards and run-throughs. 

My students danced. Over weeks, I watched as chaos turned into something that resembled a dance into a performance. 

Independence Day came around and my students were ready. Fourth grade took first place on their presentation about Managua and the whole school (teachers included) danced for the parents in Nica fashion. 

My 4th graders looking snazzy in their traditional outfits

Flowers are a key part of the outfit. The bigger, the better. 

Independence Day in Nicaragua, like in any country, is a big deal. At NCA, every single student, teacher, and worker at the school gets involved. Parents bring supplies. Students work on presentations. Gardeners and construction workers help us transform spaces. Teachers make time for students to create their presentations and decorate. The Spanish department runs the show. 

Nicaragua gained its independence from Spain in 1821. People all over the country celebrate with parades, dances, and food. 

My students danced with the 3rd graders to "Juegos Infantiles". Here is a link to part of their dance: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VDoM4dapMc&feature=youtu.be

The teachers donned their white dresses and fans for their dance to "Maria Estela": 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uvx2fDHDfo&feature=youtu.be

What a blessing it is to have two places to celebrate with and two places to call home. 

Earthquakes and Bats

I have written about both earthquake drills and adventures with bats before, but this week brought both of those home on a little more personal level.

It all started last Wednesday during elementary chapel. We were singing a song when all of a sudden I started to feel nauseous. The next moment I was hit by dizziness. I knew exactly what was going to happen next. I was going to faint! I have fainted a couple of times in the past, and it has always been proceeded by dizziness and nausea. I was trying to think of what would happen if I fainted in front of my students. Would they scream and freak out? Probably. Before I got to the end of that thought, I realized that the speakers in the chapel were swaying back and forth. I looked at the chairs. They were moving. Then I realized what was actually happening - an earthquake. Suspicions were confirmed when the alarm went off. Some panic from the students and a little confusion about where to go followed. We always practice earthquake drills in our classroom, and we weren't in our classroom. Students were counted and everything was fine. There was no damage, just some students with shaken nerves. We learned later the earthquake was in Costa Rica. It was strong, a 7.6, and so we felt it in Managua.



On Friday the excitement continued. First thing in the morning, like every Friday, the students came in and said their Bible memory verses. While I was listening to one student, another runs up to me with a big bag. "Miss Eberly, look!" Curious, I take a peek. At the bottom of the bag is a bat. Not a baseball bat, but a living, breathing, black baby bat. That was not what I was expecting. No one has ever brought a bat into my classroom before, so I was a little unsure of how I was supposed to react. The other students crowded around and wanted a look. I saw this student's parents in the hallway, and was under the assumption they were going to take the bat back home with it. I went back to listening to memory verses. About ten minutes later, as my students were doing their morning work, I noticed the bat was on the student's desk. The parents were gone. I had a bat in my classroom. Bats are not supposed to be in bags. Bats are not supposed to be in the classroom. Thankfully, my students left for Spanish class and I found some help. The parents were called and the bat was removed. Yikes.

A few hours later my principal poked her head into my classroom. "Excuse me, Miss Eberly, we have a little emergency. Will you come here?" She quickly informed me that that Nicaragua Ministry of Education has said that due to strong earthquake activity, students needed to leave school. There had been around seventeen tremors in the last day, and it was causing some trouble along the fault line, leading officials to believe there might be some activity with the volcanoes. That left me with the excellent task of telling my students. This news would not faze many of my students; in fact, I knew it would cause excitement. Who doesn't want to leave school early? However, I knew this news would scare some of the others. Calm communication generally creates calmer reactions, and my students handled it well, for the most part. We left school early and my friends and I thought we better grab some brownie dynamite ice cream after all the excitement.

Today, San Cristobal Volcano erupted and has been sending up ash and gas, causing an evacuation around the area. It is not near enough to effect me or the school.

A very large earthquake happened in Managua forty years ago that completely destroyed the city. People here are no strangers to disaster, and the current rumblings are causing a lot of people to worry, thinking back on past damages. Thankfully we know who is in control and who holds all things in His hands. Please pray for Nicaragua this week.

Ants

Oh, the ants. I have managed to keep them out of my cereal and food so far, but they are still filling my apartment at an alarming rate. I came home from a walk tonight to about twenty large ants roaming around the floor. And then I knew, tonight is the night!
For what, you ask?

The ant bait! I have strategically placed them around my house, and am awaiting for the magic to take place. For some reason, ant baits are nonexistent here, so I stocked up on some while I was in the States and brought them back with me. Tonight was the first night I brought them out and I am expecting great things.

In non-related ant news, dance practice for Independence Day celebrations has started at school for teachers and students, keeping us busy and sweaty.

xoxoxo
Laura

Cereal

Today I want to share with you a little about the joys of grocery shopping in Nicaragua. It all begins with me trying to decide what to cook for dinner. My roommates and teacher neighbors have a fabulous plan where we each cook one night of the week for everyone else. This is great for me, because cooking is not my forte. Anyway, once a week I still need to decide what to cook for my friends. I run through my ideas: BLTs, hamburgers, spaghetti. The ideas quickly end. If it were just me, I would make some yummy mac and cheese, cereal (we will come back to that later), perhaps a peanut butter and jelly. However, I need to feed something substantial to my friends, so none of those things are going to fly. I decide that I just cooked BLTs and probably should hold off for a while on those, same with the hamburgers and spaghetti. So I hit up the internet, looking for cheap and easy recipes. The internet is exploding with such things, so this usually doesn't take long. I find a delicious looking chicken something or another, then realize the stores here don't carry one or two of the ingredients. Next recipe, same story. Finally, I uncover the recipe. To the grocery store I go - only to discover that the store no longer carries that ingredient. I know it was there last week! I saw it with my own eyes! It is still hard for me to comprehend how stores can go in and out of stock so quickly. Nothing is consistent and you never know what you are going to find.

This can turn into a blessing though, those unexpected surprises. Last week I went to a Costco-like store that I only shop at a couple times of year. As I was going down the cereal aisle (my favorite aisle, which should be noted is about 1/10 the size that it is in the States) when I saw it. LIFE CEREAL. Right there on the shelf. I got my breathing under control and snatched up the double box.

Let me back up and tell you about my cereal drama last year. I love cereal. I eat it every morning. When I first moved to Nicaragua the stores had none of my favorites, so I adopted a new favorite. About three months later, that particular cereal was gone. Bummer. So I moved on to another, just for it to be gone a couple of months later. The story continues. When I arrived back this year, both of those cereals had vanished. So my excitement was doubled when I was in the store and saw Life cereal, my all time favorite. I decided that I needed to start stocking up so my problem from last year wouldn't reoccur. Over the week, at three different stores, I found some treasures and made a nice little collection in my kitchen. As along as the ants don't find them, this should be a great situation.

Off to cook dinner!
Laura

Routines, Lines, and Potatoes

Week one of school - successful and completed! I love my new students. The first week was busy and filled with all the first week things: learning routines, getting books organized, remembering how to line up, putting together binders, learning where to put homework and how to head a paper. And of course, we read Scaredy Squirrel! The squirrel is back and has become the most popular person (ok, animal) in the class.

One fun lesson that we did this week was talk about immigration in Social Studies class. We talked about when different countries immigrated to the U.S. and the reasons for it. When we talked about Ireland and the potato blight, we tried peeling potatoes and discussed what it would be like to eat only potatoes for a long time, and then to have even that food gone.

The new stars of 4th grade

One more thing to share with you this week. Thursday morning I woke up to.... another flat tire! That makes #4 in the last half year. Right now the spare is on... we will see about getting everything fixed up tomorrow. 

We are off to a great start and I am looking forward to next week as we begin more curriculum and settle into routine. 

xoxoxox
Laura

First Look

Here is your first look of Miss Eberly's 2012-2013 school year. New colors, some new technology, less dirt (at least for awhile)...

Last night was Open House, and it was quite the success. I felt much more confident than last year and my translator remembered to come!

Dressed up for Open House
Emily (my new roommate), Sarah (5th grade), Erin (2nd grade), me, Kelly (2nd grade)

After my presentation, some of my students from last year came into my room to say hi and give hugs. One student asked me if I hated her and my class from last year. I told her of course not and asked why. She informed me that since I painted my room my favorite color (red) and decorated nice that I must love my new students more and that I no longer like my old students. I am glad to know that my room looks cooler (at least on 4th grader standards). I want it to be bright and happy to start off the school year.

Monday is the big day. I am praying that I would show the love of Jesus to my students each and every day as we learn and read and grow together. Thank you for continuing with me on this journey!