Joy

Things have been getting festive all around school and in the library. Decorations, programs, parties.

I've always enjoyed celebrating Christmas with my students. In 4th grade we would make decorations together and sing. This year in the library, it's been Christmas books upon Christmas books, from preschool to 6th grade. Because I teach such a wide range of ages, I've been able to share so many different types of stories and have the joy of seeing different reactions from the students.

The library is ready for Christmas! 

In preschool, we read a story about Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. We looked at story book pictures of the manger. Their eyes were so big as they realized where Jesus was born. Their faces scrunched up when we imagined that it might have been dark and cold and smelly there.

In 3rd grade, we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. They laughed at Max the dog and were easily captivated by Dr. Seuss' easy to follow rhymes. They clapped when the story was over and we discussed the real meaning of Christmas. Later they wrote lists about how NOT to be a grinch. My favorite was "I will have a good attitude even when others don't."

In 4th grade, we read La Noche Buena, a story about a Cuban-American neighborhood celebrating Christmas. Many of the traditions mentioned in the book resounded with my Nicaraguan students. Here, Nochebuena (Christmas Eve), is the day to celebrate. Many stay up late and light off tons of fireworks at midnight, followed by a huge Christmas feast with extended family. After the story we talked about the differences between celebrating Christmas in the United States and in Nicaragua. There was absolute shock when I told my students that we do not set off fireworks at Christmas time in the United States. To them, Christmas time is always filled with fireworks. I confessed that I had no idea that other countries did fireworks at Christmas time until I moved to Nicaragua. We laughed together and shared other Christmas traditions. There was one major consensus: all the students wished it snowed here.

In 6th grade we read a young reader version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. The students' favorite part? Scrooge's cap and nightgown. Later we did a Reader's Theater that used lines and language from the original story. We got to laugh together at some of the phrases and use our knowledge of the first story to help us figure out what the more difficult language and phrasing was trying to say.

During after school tutoring, my 3rd grader and I were working on her weekly memory verse.

Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. 
Luke 2: 11 - 12 

Before we begin memorizing, we always talk about what a verse means and any difficult words. For this particular verse, I asked her if she knew what the Messiah meant. After shaking her head no, I began to explain. We talked about the Jews and their longing for the Messiah to come. We talked about how Jesus was different from what they imagined the Messiah would be. Our conversation veered and soon she was asking me to draw a timeline. When was Jesus born? How about me? And Noah? We talked about Jesus' family tree and she proudly explained how she in Jesus' family. "I used to be in sin's family," she explained. "Then I believed in Jesus. Now I am in his."

I can't tell you how many times I was filled with joy these past couple of weeks. I loved watching my little preschoolers learn a beautiful truth - the Savior of the world was born in a manger. I loved seeing shock on the 4th graders' faces when they learned about the lack of fireworks in the United States. I loved teaching a classic to the 6th graders and watching them eagerly interact with the text. And what's better than knowing that a student has been rescued from sin's family and has joined the royal line of Jesus? How thankful I am for the joy that Christmas brings and the joy of being a teacher.

The advent calendar that is on the bulletin board outside the library. 

Merry Christmas!

Laura 

Pretending It's Autumn

It's that time of the year when I pretend it's fall time. There might be an alarming lack of orange leaves, boots, and pumpkin spice lattes here, but I can still decorate the library appropriately and plan lessons on pumpkins, fall leaves, and thankfulness.

When some very expensive, imported pumpkins showed up at the grocery store a couple of weeks back, I decided to snatch the biggest one up. I knew many of my students had probably never seen a real pumpkin, and I thought it would go well with some of the pumpkin books we were going to read.

My littlest students were so funny when they first saw it. "Is that a REAL pumpkin? A REAL one?!" They touched it and smelled it and wanted to pass it around. We learned about how pumpkins come from seeds and grow on vines. We had adjective competitions to fill in the blanks on our pumpkin song.

Now we are preparing for Thanksgiving. Because we are so thankful for all our books in the library, we made some turkeys to show off the books we are most thankful for.

Some books that I've read recently that I am thankful for:
The Pigeon Needs a Bath! by Mo Willems

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

If You Were a Book Title

I asked my 6th graders this question:

After some brainstorming, we hit the markers and started decorating our circles.

The 6th graders started telling me about people, events, books, locations, and other things that held significance in their lives. Harry Potter turned a nonreader into a reader. A student who recently came to Nicaragua is trying to grapple with moving from one part of the world to another. Music has, and always will be, the best part of another student's day.

Working in the library has given me more time and more opportunities to listen to my students and to hear their stories. Give them a little prodding, and they have a lot to say.

More Movin' and Shakin'

You know how there are some things you never get tired of talking about? Around here it is the infamous earthquake weeks of last April. Big and little earthquakes shook the nation's capital, students weren't allowed to come to class for three weeks, we launched online school, and some of us teachers went a little stir crazy. 

For as much as we talk about it, I really didn't think it would happen again. Ah, how wrong I was.

Monday night: I had just fallen asleep when I was rudely awakened by some violent shaking. Disoriented, I looked around, sat up, tried to figure my life out.

As soon as I remembered about these lovely things called earthquakes, I jumped out of bed and ran outside, barefoot, in the pouring rain. A 7.2 earthquake somewhere out in the ocean caused a lot of moving and shaking around the country. 

Fast forward to today. We haven't had classes all week and no one really understands why the government wont let us have school. Teachers have been sending home work online. We have started making ridiculous videos to send to our students. It's the infamous earthquake weeks all over again. 

We are hoping classes will resume Monday and we can continue on with our school year. 

How about some uplifting news? Construction on the new library has begun! Hopefully in a couple of months we will have a brand new space for reading and learning. 

Comedy Hour

Hands down the funniest part of my day is when I tutor a third grader after school. This girl is hilarious and full of laughter.

Don't worry, a lot of learning still happens during tutoring (aka Comedy Hour), but a lot of laughter goes along with it. We spend a good portion our time working on vocabulary and reading skills. We always make up actions to go with each new vocab word we are studying, and then we quiz each other to see who can remember the most words. The actions are usually over the top and crazy (and involve a lot of giggling), but they get the job done. 

Last week we were working on the world realize. The action was touching the side of our heads and shouting "ding!" like the light bulb was going off in our brains. Later when we were reading Scaredy Squirrel, my student came across that same vocab word. She immediately sat up, did the action, and then imagined Scaredy Squirrel doing the action, which led to many, many giggles. It is safe to say this vocabulary word has been learned. 

I think God has given this little girl a gift of joy and laughter that will touch many people. I am glad I get to share in it a couple of hours each week. 

Scavenger Hunt

I want all of my students to be readers. We all know readers need a good book to read. However, I have quickly learned that even in a small library, finding a book can be a daunting task for students. They have no idea why books are on certain shelves. In their eyes, call numbers on book spines are just a mysterious combination of numbers and letters. For some students, they don't even know what type of book they would like to read. They stare at the shelves, but don't pull out any books.

After many lessons on library organization, alphabetical order, the Dewey Decimal system, and call numbers, I set my students loose on a library scavenger hunt. In pairs, they hunted for specific books, authors, and Dewey Decimal numbers, putting all their newly acquired knowledge to the test. 

I loved watching students run their fingers across the rows of book spines as they searched for a particular call number, struggle spelling the words "Dewey Decimal", and mouth the ABC's to themselves as they raced to complete their scavenger hunt.

The older students are now much more familiar with how a library works. They can find a book if I supply an author's last name, they know how to read the different nonfiction signs, and they can put their own books back on the shelf. A little bit of digging and exploring has helped many students find new authors and book series that they enjoy.
Happy readers = happy librarian. 

Celebrating Independence

Nicaragua, the land of lakes and volcanoes 

Celebrating Independence Day is a big deal in schools around the country. At my school, students from preschool to 12^th grade wear traditional outfits, give presentations about geography and culture, memorize poems and songs, and present dances to all the parents.

This is the girl that I tutor twice a week after school. She didn't want to give me a toothy smile for this picture, but she is hilarious during tutoring time. She is always telling jokes and trying to make me laugh. 

Students can’t have all the fun, so like always, the teachers dress up and dance. Not only can we teach, but we can dance! Who knew we were so talented?

We are all hungry after the festivities and dancing, so we end our celebration with traditional Nica food. Today I want to share with you the joy that is the buñuelo. It's a delicious combo of yuca and cheese, deep fried with honey and cinnamon on top. YUM YUM YUM. I recommend you come to Nicaragua ASAP to try one out. 

After eating one too many buñuelos, some of the teachers hit the road for a little weekend adventure. 

Here we are exploring Somoto Canyon

Our adventure included hiking, floating, and boating through this beautiful canyon. 

 Happy Independence to my adopted country!

Flood

A couple of days ago I was reading a new book I got for the library about Hurricane Katrina. After I was finished, I spent a lot of time thinking about floods and how I would never like to be in one. 

Later that day I came home from school and sat down at my desk ready to get some work done. I needed to make a few phone calls, download a book to my kindle, and do some things for school. All required the internet.

Internet was out at my house, again. Off I went to the coffee shop a couple of kilometers down the road. 

As I was sipping my delicious mocha the power went out. I decided to stick around for a while to see if it came back on. I opened my kindle, the staff passed out some candles, and I enjoyed my book. When the electricity came back on I plowed through my school work. Up next: phone calls. I was talking to my friend when out of nowhere a huge storm blew in. The skies opened and the rain came pouring down. Only a few minutes passed when I heard a strange noise and looked up to see water rushing through the coffee shop. The floor was now covered with a mini river, a river that was flowing over my feet. 

The other customers and I did some scrambling until the staff herded us behind the cash register area - the only area that was safe from the rising water. During this time I was shouting on the phone, grabbing my things, and probably making it sound like the end of the world was coming. 

The water kept rising and rising around us. The electricity went out, and with it my phone call. I could barely see in front of my face, but I could hear the water. Of course my mind wandered to the Hurricane Katrina book I had been reading earlier that day. I was imagining the snakes floating at the top of the water and how I might really appreciate a canoe in the near future. 

My canoe thoughts were quickly replaced with electrocution when the lightning moved in and the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my life was booming overhead. The storm was on top of us. The other ladies in the coffee shop were shrieking and we were all a little jumpy every time the sky lit up. The lightning lasted a little too long for my liking. After it finally moved on, the rain kept coming down. Rain, rain, and more rain. 

I tried to call my roommate to tell her about the situation. I was out of cell phone minutes. I felt a little bit stranded. An hour passed. Little by little the staff ventured out into the water-filled room and swept the rain out. When it was safe enough for us to walk through, they said we were welcome to stay as long as we needed to, or we could book it to our cars and head home. It was still raining and the power was out, but I figured I should leave instead of staying. Who knew how long the storm would last? 

When I got to the front door, I realized my car was parked at the bottom of a steep hill that just so happened to be at the top of a drop off to a lagoon. Of course there was a fence separating my car from the drop off, but it made me nervous anyway. One of the staff members graciously offered to drive my car up for me. Another staff member held an umbrella over my head as we ran to my car. We all ended up completely drenched, but I felt like we had achieved a small success as I pulled out onto the street. 

That feeling stopped after about three seconds. No street lights + pouring rain = little visibility = panicky feeling. I turned on my hazard lights and drove three miles per hour like everyone around me. I was inching down the road, having no idea where the center line was, swerving to avoid oncoming traffic, when my gas light went on. Uh oh, I thought. The only option I had was to keep driving, so on I went. 

This is a good time to mention that the highway I live on has been going through some major construction. They have been digging ditches on the sides of the road as they resurface and do whatever it is they are doing. Without lights and with water rushing down the road, the ditches were invisible. I drove by two cars that had tipped over in the ditches and were stuck on their sides. 

At this point I was unsure what would happen first: my car getting carried away in the rushing water, my car running out of gas, my car tipping over in the ditch, or my car getting hit by another car. After much praying and death-gripping the steering wheel, I arrived home, drenched and with my heart beating a little too fast, without any of the aforementioned events happening. 

To top off this rainy week, I had flat tire #14 yesterday. 

Life here is an adventure. 

Week One

Week one is finished!

Do I like being the school librarian as much as I thought I would? Yes, I do. There is something very beautiful about being in a room surrounded by books with twenty eager faces sitting on a carpet in front of you.

I forgot to take a lot of pictures this week, but here are a couple that I snapped.

Second grade wrote speech bubbles based on our read aloud story, David Goes to School.
Even with little school experience and very little English abilities, the preschoolers enjoyed exploring the library and looking through picture books. 

New books are being processed and put up on the shelves. I love recommending new books! 

There was one major library mishap this week: the long picture book shelf fell over. I am not quite sure why this happened, but I think one of the wheels on the bottom was loose. ALL of the books on the shelf fell out. Let's just say that I was really able to work on my alphabetizing skills this week!

On to week #2!

New School Year, New Job

For the first time in my teaching career I am starting the new school year not as a 4th grade teacher, but as a librarian.

This is a huge change for me. I thought I would teach 4th grade forever. However, when I heard last year that my school would be building a new library, I knew I wanted to jump into this role. The new school year has started, and here I am. Miss Eberly, the librarian.

Although our new library isn't built yet, I will be spending the next couple of months teaching in the old library and helping our school transition into our new space.

Am I excited? That would be an understatement. I get to teach library skills, books, authors, and the love of reading to preschoolers all the way up to high school. I get to put good books into the hands of students who need them. I get to collaborate with teachers. I get to teach all of my students from previous classes. I get to be there when our new building is ready and help bring a whole new library program to our school. I am not sure if I have ever been more excited for the first day of school.

Until all the fun begins, here are some pictures of our current library. A lot of rearranging happened this week as I tried to make our old space feel new.

The view when you walk in the door

The view when you turn to the right

The nonfiction wall

All of my classroom "friends" came to the library with me. 

There are certainly many more changes that I want to make in this current library, but those things will happen over the next couple of weeks. For now I need to focus on lesson planning and getting all of our new books processed and into the the hands of our many students.

Last night at Open House. Can't wait to start reading with my students! 

Hangin' with the Preschoolers

The craziness that happened at Pizza Hut was thankfully no indication of what went on during our field trip earlier that day.

We spent the morning at a tiny preschool. The school has zero supplies. No crayons, no paper, no anything.
The three teachers teach for love and don't receive a penny for their work.
The school is supposed to receive money from the government so it can run like a proper school, but none of the money ever makes it into their hands.
During the earthquake last month the school was damaged. A big tree on the side of the building was shifted during the quake. The tree's huge roots also moved, causing some of the foundation and a part of the wall to crumble.

I am pretty sure the forty little preschoolers were a little scared as my big fourth graders filled up the room. I was a little nervous too. I planned the field trip, but my students were in charge of running it. Letting 10 year olds run anything is always a little nerve racking. There was no need for me to be worried, because the majority of my students went about the next two hours like they were born to do it.

Two of my students taught the Bible story to the whole group of preschoolers and their 4th grade peers. One student immediately transformed into a preacher. He preached the story of Jesus healing the blind man. He had actions. He had the phrases. He had the emotion and the conviction and the charisma that makes you want to listen to him.  I was standing in the back with my mouth hanging open. His partner was a little teacher in training. As they co-taught the story, she guided the little preschoolers, asked important questions, and chose students to do a hands-on activity. I know where both of them will be in 15 years - teaching and leading others.

At the end of our day, they got up and prayed for the preschoolers and the school without my prompting. It was beautiful and from their heart.

Another part of our morning was spent in small groups. The 4th graders helped the preschoolers act out the story and do an activity. My class quickly learned that 4 year olds need a LOT of prompting.

We sat down at the tables later to do some coloring and cutting for our craft.

After the preschoolers left, we helped clean up the school and gave them the supplies that we brought.

I loved this field trip for many reasons.
1) My students owned it. Students need responsibility, and they thrive when you give it to them.
2) Serving others is good for the heart. Knowing we left enough supplies for the school to use for many months was a blessing to their school and ours. It is good to give.
3) My students were able to see a school that is very different from their own. They know they are blessed to attend the school they do.
4) We shared the love of Jesus and made some new little friends!