Halloween Party

The ice cream cone color project was a huge hit with the 3rd graders!  They are really getting into colors, and they love singing "Red and Orange, Green and Blue, shiny Yellow, Purple too!"  I think they especially like that we've been using the carefully guarded stash of crayons that the teacher keeps locked up in the classroom cabinet.  Some of them have their own colored pencils, but most don't have their own supplies to draw with colors.  I think I might extend the color lesson for a few more class periods before we move on to sports or animals.

Abagail holding up the finished ice cream cone of colors
The English and Spanish versions are now hanging on
their classroom wall

3rd grade writing their "color" vocabulary

Fourth grade is working hard on "family."  They have all the vocabulary of mother, father, sister, brother, grandfather, aunt, etc. and they've drawn families and labeled them.  They could either draw their own family or they could make up a family.  There were two flower families, a penguin family, a monkey family, a cat family, and a Dora the Explorer family.  All very well labeled!  Next I think we'll move on to houses and house vocabulary like kitchen and bedroom.  They are learning fast and they really enjoy class.  I need some more songs to sing with them though, so if anyone has suggestions for easy family or house songs to sing, let me know!

Euri showing off his "family" drawing (he drew a family of penguins)

I hosted a Halloween Party for my teenage English students this weekend.  A lot of them have plans to go to a big party next Saturday, so I decided to have it a week early.  I made American treats and bought some candy corn and a pumpkin at the store.  We lit our Jack-o-Lantern, ate sweets, and watched a scary movie.  All very American and very Halloween.  They didn't come in costumes, but Juan Francisco wore a skeleton shirt, which he was very excited to be complimented on.  They all laughed at how scared they were watching the movie and many said they weren't going to be able to sleep, but I think they (just like American kids) love the drama of acting scared!  It was a great evening.

This week in class, we've read an article on the history and culture of Halloween and how it has evolved over time and we have also studied some Halloween vocabulary (like zombie, witch, haunted house and other fun words!)  On Friday I'll bring them each a bag of treats (pens and pencils as well as some sweets) and we'll celebrate as we wrap up the end of the directions and descriptions unit we have been studying.

Our Jack-o-Lantern ($7 for this tiny pumpkin in the supermarket!)

My English class trying American treats
Rice Krispie Treats, Carmel Apples, Popcorn and Candy Corn

Watching a scary movie!  

Happy Halloween!

~ Tina

Ice Cream and Cake

Well, my adult education class is starting out slowly.  I have one student who has come to class, but she's very happy to have individual lessons.  Two other woman are signed up, but one can only come when she doesn't have night secretarial school and the other's son is sick, so she's been home with him this week.  I'll announce the class in church on Sunday and once word gets around, I'm sure I'll have more interest.  I'll post more about it when there is more to report!

My 3rd graders are a little unruly sometimes, and with 30 kids in the class, I'm always a little nervous what I will encounter when I teach them.  I've been working very hard to have structured lessons that include some time to sing (which they love, but they can get out of hand with this if we sing for too long), to draw (which works well with them except that when some finish early, they goof off waiting for the others to finish), speaking and repeating their English vocabulary, and taking notes in their notebooks (which is always very short).  Yesterday, we started colors and they colored ice cream scoops in different colors that I will put together into 2 giant ice cream cones, one with the colored scoops labled in English and an identical one with the scoops labled in Spanish so that they can see and read the colors in both languages.  We'll mount the cones on the wall after we talk about them and go over them more in class tomorrow.  They'll also learn a song about the colors, though they're sad we haven't been singing "This Old Man" anymore, so we might sing that too!  Even though they are a challenge, they rush to greet me with hugs and high fives and they love my class, and many of them are now experts at the alphabet and the numbers 1-20 in English. 

My 3rd grade class working on a color project

The kids here go to school 1/2 days.  They are either assigned to morning or afternoon sessions, so there are always kids out of school during the day with little to do.  There are a bunch of girls who have afternoon school that help their mom's with work around Centro Buen Pastor, and when I'm between classes, they come and visit me.  They like to sing songs from school and talk to me about what they are learning in class, but they especially like to write and draw.  I always have paper with me, which they don't have a lot of access to.  Sometimes they write things like their names or their siblings names, other times they draw pictures of houses.  Last time, the oldest one practiced her math tables and was proud to show me how much she knew.  They also have me write on their papers with comments, smiley faces, and "100"s.  I think we're basically playing school.  I'm probably going to go to the school library and borrow some books in Spanish that I can read to them, because kids here aren't read to often at all, and they probably don't own any books of their own to read.  

"Visitors" in the CBP office who come to draw with me

This week was Angelito's 10th birthday.  He is my friend Teresa's son and his dad is one of the teachers at Centro Buen Pastor.  We had dinner of hamburgers to celebrate and I made the cake.  His parents gave him a basketball which he's been asking for ever since they put up the new basketball hoop at the school.  It was a fun evening and he was really happy and emotional about having a special meal in his honor.  He actually cried as he was blowing out the candles because he was so excited.

Angelito with his new basketball and
his sister Angelita

Angelito blowing out his birthday candles

 The dogs, cats, and I are getting along well at the convent.  The dogs love me and they love that I pet them while I'm on the computer or watching TV.  The cats aren't sure if they trust me yet, but we've got a routine around feeding time and they're starting to nuzzle up to me more.  Most of the time, they are sleeping on the beds in the front room, and generally enjoying life.

Daisy, Molly, and Muffy lazing about

 Dios les bendiga,

Tina

Adding a class

The adults in the community of Centro Buen Pastor asked me to start a class for them, so we begin today.  After my high school students are done at 5, I´m going to give the adult class from 5:00 to 5:45.  Julio, the sisters´ driver, asked me if the class was going to be all about writing at ¨that grammar stuff.¨  I promised him it wouldn´t.  We´re going to focus on conversation and how to talk to Americans.  That is especially what they need to work with the American groups that come to help here and in future jobs they may have outside of Centro Buen Pastor.  Its going to be very basic to start, but hopefully we can get pretty far in the 8 months we´ll have class.

Sister Jean Gabriel is in the US right now.  She is taking vacation time and visiting the convent in Ohio, but she is also visiting churches that support the mission here at Centro Buen Pastor.  She will be in MA the end of this month.  On Wednesday, October 27, she will speak at Second Congregational Church in Boxford at 6:30 pm and on Sunday, October 31, she will attend mass at St. James Episcopal Church in Groveland and speak during fellowship afterwards.  She has a wonderful slide show that demonstrates how far the mission has come since they started working here in the 80s, including pictures of some of the babies that they were able to save who are now my high school English students.  It is pretty amazing what they have been able to do.  She will also have more information on how to support the mission and how to donate to the church, clinic, and school here.  If you want more information about her visit, let me know, or contact either church.

While Sister Jean Gabriel is away, I am watching her house and the cats and dogs.  I realized this weekend that without her here, I´ll be speaking a lot less English.  Besides my English classes (during which I always end up using Spanish to explain and help the students) the only English I´m speaking is to the pets (who are bilingual!) and with some of the adults who work at the center who have had a lot of English classes in high school and college, but generally they speak English to me and I answer in Spanish so we all get the practice we need.  Having Sister leave is almost like taking off the training wheels.  Now its time to see how I can really do here.

Janeidy jumping Chinese jump rope to practice directions

Afternoon studying and playing Uno 

Jairo trying to get his leg over the high rope for "Right"

My classes are still going very well.  I´ve run into some of my elementary school students walking around the neighborhood and they are always very excited to see me.  Its very sweet.  They are good kids, and they are having a lot of fun with my class.  They don´t have art or music class like elementary school students in the US, so I don´t mind incoporating a lot of singing and drawing into my English lessons, which help them with the language, but also let them be more creative.  Sister Jean Gabriel is really interested in starting a music program with instruments, but they need to get donations to cover the cost for that type of educational addition.  There are records for sale here, but the students can´t afford to buy their own, and the music and teaching hours would also need to be paid for by the school.  Hopefully it is something that can be added in the future.  She also said she´d really like some instruments for the older kids to play during church services.  Juan Francisco and Jairo, who are in my English class, play procussion instruments during mass at Centro Buen Pastor and at San Esteban.  Sister would like a new small bongo style drum for them to use during softer songs, because sometimes when they bang the large drum they have, it doesn´t fit with the mood of the songs.  They are very talented and it would be great to see them able to expand their musical knowledge. 

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

Dios les bendiga,

Tina

How to send things

Many people have asked me how to send supplies to me and Centro Buen Pastor.  The best way to ensure that things make it to me with the least cost and the most security is in the luggage of people who visit.  Each passenger can take 50lbs free and 100lbs for only $25 on JetBlue, which is a great shipping cost!  My Dad, Gail, and Jeremy are coming to visit in November, which means they can bring up to 300 lbs of supplies.  I will be home at Christmas and can bring back 100 lbs with me, and many of my friends have said they might visit this spring, but nothing is set in stone yet.

The other option, which is more costly, is to ship to the Episcopal Church in Santo Domingo where we can go and pick it up.  To do this ship to:

Sister Jean Gabriel Crothers attn: Tina Benson

c/o Agape Flights
DMG 13174
100 Airport Avenue
Venice, FL 34285-3901

In addition to the shipping cost to send it to FL, please also send a check worth $1.50 per pound shipped to Centro Buen Pastor to cover the extra shipping we need to pay to pick up the package. (Check payable to Centro Buen Pastor)  That is also the address where monetary donations to Centro Buen Pastor can be sent.

Centro Buen Pastor
c/o Convent of the Transfiguration
495 Albion Ave
Cincinnati, OH 45246

Ebony showing off her new backpack
(and wearing my boots)

Backpacks are still in demand, but I know that they are also in demand for American children who can not afford them.  We did get a handful in last week with a donation of school supplies, and a few of the kids who had bags that were ripped or really unusable to carry their books got them, but there are not enough to go around.  Thank you Sharon Rabe for the donation of notebooks and crayons!  The crayons will be Christmas presents along with other supplies we hope to get in for the younger kids and the notebooks will go to some of the older kids.  But again, we can still use many, many more.

One of my 4th graders working on Social Studies

In any school or any group of kids, kids covet what the others have, and that is true in my classes.  My third and forth graders especially eye what other kids have, and ask to borrow things they need that they themselves don't have.  At home, this tends to be IPods, Cellphones, and other electronics, games, toys, or fashion items.  Here, its pencils, erasers and pencil sharpeners.  I have had a full brawl break out in a class over a stolen eraser.  These kids treasure those things and try to make them last as long as possible. Kids who are lucky enough to have an eraser or pencil sharpener are constantly being interrupted by their classmates who need to use them and do not have their own.  It would be really great to have a large wall-mounted sharpener (the old wind the crank kind) for each classroom so that each student could sharpen his or her pencils any time they needed too (there are 8 classrooms in the primary school).

Some of my 3rd graders

There is never any end to the need for composition notebooks.  Each kid should have one for each subject to take notes and do their work, but with the cost of each about $1.00, that is a huge expense for families who, if they're lucky, make a few dollars a day.  When I first started working with the 3rd and 4th graders, many of them were panicked that I would require them to buy a separate notebook for my lessons, or even worse, a textbook.  But I reassured them that they would not need them, and they were grateful.  My older students who meet every afternoon have notebooks and texts that I bought for them, because they also can't afford such extras.  I also have many pens that my dad donated that they use for class and extras for them to use in school, and I bought some pencils and erasers for them to use in the class.

A 4th grader working copying new vocabulary

My 4th graders are having a blast learning "I like to Eat, Eat, Eat Apples and Bananas" and other songs we've been learning.  They love that the vowels change each verse, and the boys especially like to shout "I like to Ut, Ut, Ut, Upples and Banunus."  They can now talk about what they like to do and we're starting to work on what they don't like to do.  My 3rd graders are learning the numbers and they are all good up to about 6 or 7 and we've worked on up to 12.  After we get up to 20, I think we'll work on the alphabet.  My afternoon class is now starting directions and how to give someone directions.  This is one of my favorite units because we'll play hopscotch and Chinese jump rope games that require directions like: left, right, inside, outside, up, and down.  That will be a lot of fun.  After that, the next unit is clothes, and I've already started making cutouts of different clothing items we can use in our "store" so that they can "shop" and "sell" with each other.  It should be a lot of fun.

Hillary, Celestino, and Janeidy in study hall class

My study hall students are all coming on a semi-regular basis now.  They have all said they are doing well in school, and Emelyn was very excited to report that she got a perfect score on a quiz that she studied for with me and did very well on an oral presentation that we worked for a long time one afternoon so she could memorize it.  Its exciting to see them excited and proud about their work.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Dios les bendiga,

Tina

Lluvia, lluvia, y mas lluvia

Rain, rain, and more rain!

Fall in Dominican Republic brings the hurricane and tropical storm season, which means lots and lots of rain.  This week we've been drenched by Tropical Storm Nicole.  Luckily, it isn't a hurricane and there seems to be no damage, just lots and lots of water.

The view outside my classroom on Tuesday afternoon (though it could also have been Wednesday or Thursday afternoon)

Rain here makes it very difficult to do anything.  Most people get around by walking or motorcycles, and people don't have a lot of rain gear.  During the heavy rain, the only people out on the streets either are soaking wet and have just given up on trying to stay dry so that they can get to wherever they are going or have some form of raincoat/umbrella/plastic bag get-up that helps them keep a bit dry.  One man I saw standing in a flowing puddle up to his knees, absolutely soaking wet, next to his fruit stand so that he could make sure no one stole the fruit in the rain.  To him, his lively hood was much more important that keeping warm and dry.

A lot of people also get flooding in their houses, either from roof and wall leaks or from water that flows in from the overflow on the street, another reason they don't go out much in the rain.  They have to raise up their belongings, and keep and eye on buckets filling from leaks and make dams to keep the water out.

Water pouring off the sidewalk into the front patio of Centro Buen Pastor.  

The motorcycle belongs to a guy who asked if he could come inside the building to wait out the worst part of that rain burst.

On Wednesday morning, 20 students showed up for school during a particularly rainy morning.  Not 20 in one classroom of 30 students, 20 students in the whole school!  The Director decided not to cancel because they don't want people to assume their is no school every time it is sprinkling, but there wasn't much learning that day.  In the afternoons, my classes have been smaller all week, depending on the rain schedule and where students are in transit when the heavy rain sets in.  They are good about coming in light rain, but no one can get around much in heavier rain.

I have been well prepared for the rain!  My students think my boots are the cutest things ever, though there were some comments about how I look like a firefighter!  I'm glad to have them, and my raincoat.  After a particularly bad morning, I drove back during a light rain period on the back of a motorcycle and we went through a puddle that reached above my ankles (while my feet were on the back foot pedals of the bike, so that is really high!)  We were nervous that the motor of the bike would get too wet and stop, but it didn't, thankfully, and it was a fun adventure!  

All this rain has also brought colder weather, especially at night.  Though it isn't anything like the cold at home this time of year, I'm really glad to have it.  I actually took out a fleece throw to put around my feet while I was sleeping last night, and since I usually sleep with only a bottom sheet under me and nothing on top, that was a big deal.  Though it should still rain some more today, it looks like it is holding off for now and I should be able to make it by motorcycle to my classes this morning.  If it continues to hold off, I'll probably have students too.  I'm lucky that if it gets really bad when I need to be moving around, Sister Jean Gabriel calls Julio to get me with the car, but when I'm not on my way to class, I don't mind waiting with my other friends who have to wait for the storms to settle.  

Today, the first of October, marks a new course direction for my afternoon English class.  I bought them all text/workbooks for the class that they will get today.  We are going to continue to focus on things that they don't learn in their English classes at school (like slang, common phrases, and pop-culture) but I'm glad to have them all able to look at the same material in a text instead of getting all the information from the blackboard.  They have been very happy to read the American magazines I brought back with me from Vermont, especially a teenie bopper one about Justin Bieber.  

The few hearty kids who made it to 4th grade on Wednesday (there are usually 26 in the class)

This week we were talking about the ice cream stand and the kids said they were excited that if they ever got stuck in America they knew they could come and work for me.  I laughed and said that meant they had to speak very good English and be able to say all the flavors and the phrases associated with serving ice cream.  So they asked me what they needed to know.  Celestino, who is really good at speaking English, was practicing phrases like, "May I help the next person in line."  When he asked me what to say when the person was leaving and I said, "Have a nice day" he repeated (thinking he was saying what I had just said), "Have a nice sex."  I don't know where the miscommunication came from but when I was laughing so hard I was crying, he turned beet red and the other students wanted to know what he had actually said.  They all laughed along with me when I explained, and he said he promised never to say that if he ever does work for me!

Well, now I am off to practice numbers with 3rd grade and practice "I like ____" with 4th grade (they like sports, going to school, church, and playing mostly).  Then I have two sessions of study class and distribution and exploration of the new textbooks this afternoon.  It should be a good day, even with all the water!

Dios les bendiga,

~ Tina