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)