Miss! Miss Jane Lee!

School has begun!

Here is a little bit snapshot of what my first week looked like:

Days 1-3: 

Such a blur. The first few days went pretty well. Just the normal amount of craziness that is to be expected in the beginning of the year. The students were so cute and excited to be at school. 

I team teach with another teacher so we share two classes of kids for a total of 38 students. This means that I only teach Language Arts and Social Studies and my partner teacher does Math and Science.

My biggest challenges the first few days were learning names and remembering what I did with which group. The kids are lucky because they don't have to learn anyone's name. The students address all the teachers as "Miss." There is one little girl however, who calls me "MissJaneLee!" Luckily my name is only two syllables.

Days 4-7:

Adjusting like crazy this week and learning a lot...

1. Teaching different grades in elementary can really be like completely different jobs.

2. 9AM rolls around and it's tough - we're all starving (students + teacher). Days start really early here. Kids are in my room at 6:50.

3. 9AM - also the hottest part of the day.

4. Finally on day 7 I learned to strategically position everyone under the fans and have them eat a snack with a timer. 9AM on day 7? Exponentially better. Small successes like these can make a teacher's day.

5. Why with a timer? Because of instructional minutes! Schedules never include passing time.

6. There's a lady at school that calls me "Miss Jahnay" but it sounds like "Miss Llane" when she says it. Funny every time.

7. Mosquitoes are my biggest problem.

8. Mosquitoes are everywhere.

9. Today I ran out of my room because I moved a box and a swarm of mosquitoes came flying out from under.

10. All I want to talk about are mosquitoes.

Some photos of my classroom:

Something else I have always believed but never experienced firsthand until now -- The importance of students having teachers that look like them or have a similar background as them. There is a sizable Korean population at the school (maybe 1-5 per grade) and some of the kids have approached me in the cutest ways. A couple of 2nd grade girls approached me during recess and gave me a vocabulary test to make sure I was "really Korean." I'm glad that something so simple could be exciting for them.

The day I don't have any mosquito bites will be the day that is exciting for me.

Más aventuras

It's gonna be a long one! It's been a week since I've arrived in Nicaragua and while I still have so much to learn, I know so much more about Managua than I did before!

Adios mosquitos

Let's start with my little gecko friend that I found in my house. I'm hoping he grows and learns to catch mosquitoes. My house is currently the number one spot for mosquito bites. Chikungunya is a disease that you can get from mosquitos, which the locals have told me can be really terrible. I hope my gecko does his job.

Tour de Managua

The following are some photos from a city tour of Managua that the school took us on. These are some more of the beautified spots in the city. Interesting and sad to hear about everything that has stunted development here. Major reasons seem to be government corruption and earthquakes. There was a huge earthquake in 1972 that destroyed a lot, including what used to be Managua's downtown.

First sighting of Sandino

Model reconstruction of Managua's main strip pre-earthquake at the Puerto Salvador Allende

More Sandino and huge metal tree. These metal trees are all over the city and light up at night. 

Sandino

Excursión a Granada

On Saturday, the school arranged for the new teachers to go to Granada, a colonial city about an hour away from Managua. It was a fun and beautiful trip with great people. We got to take a boat around the isletas of Managua.

The boat tour around the isletas in Lake Nicaragua. We left from Puerto Asese. 500 córdobas (about 20USD for all of us) for an hour tour! Our boat captain was great and gave us a ton of information about the area.

People live on the islands

Some of the isletas have resorts

Cooling off later with some local beers

Overall, it was an action packed week and I am pleased with all of the new adventures that I've had! The people that I've met have all been great and I look forward to another week.