My first day of teaching in Corozal...

Well, I made it. I successfully got through my first day of student teaching at the high school here.
I am with a teacher who teaches 2nd, 3rd, and 4th form classes. The school is based on the British school system so they are like sophomores, juniors, and seniors, respectively. I will be working with 2nd and 3rd form classes doing Literature and Grammar. I was looking through the resource room and saw copies of Beowulf and got excited (haha) but I will not be teaching that down here... I guess Grendel will have to wait until I get a classroom of my own.

The school down here is different from many schools in the US. Instead of the students rotating between classes the teachers actually rotate. I have two classes total I will be working with and they are in separate buildings.

My first day started with me getting to school at 7:30 AM (hmm...feels familiar) and meeting with my supervising teacher. From there I observed her three 4th form classes and went to Assembly (held every Monday) and lunch (mmm nachos!) and then my teacher said she had to leave (with her 3rd and 2nd form classes left to go). So...

I taught two classes, alone, on my first day here. I was so nervous! The students were nice and asked me lots of quesetions (the first in each? "Are you married?") So I talked to each class and had them introduce themselves and we did a bit of class work, but that is about it.

All the students got a good laugh out of my trying to pronounce their names.

I don't have any classes for the rest of the day so I get to catch up on my news and events and such.


To recap the past few days:

Saturday I went to Lamanai and visited the Mayan Ruins. We climbed the "High Temple" and oh wow, it was high. Going up was the easy part, it was the climbing back down that scared the crap out of me. All that is there is a rope to hold on to as you climb down. But obviously I made it okay, or I would not be typing this. My legs are still sore though! Yikes!

Sunday the group went to Chetumal, Mexico and did a bit of shopping at the mall and market and then went to Bacalar, Mexico and went to swimming and out to eat.
I was really excited because I thought I was going to have cellphone service in Mexico, but alas, I don't. Feel free to call and leave voicemails though, my dad is checking my voicemail and passing along the messages to me.

So far I am loving this trip. I've not had one bad meal or bad experience so far *knocks on wood*.

I have been taking lots of pictures and am starting to put together a big slideshow for all my students back at CCHS (I miss you guys!). I plan to go back there for at least a day and talk about my trip and what I learned (and where all I got to go and such). So far I've taken a few hundred pictures and am trying to figure out a good soundtrack for the slide show I'm doing. I'm going to have a lot to talk about (I hope!).

One thing I love about the weather here: I never have to style my hair or even brush my hair. Thanks to the humidity my hair goes straight into curls and I don't have to do anything to it! It makes my mornings much more relaxing (except this morning, Kathryn and I managed to burn the cinnamon sugar toast we made [no toaster, only an oven]). I need to learn to make rice and beans as well as stewed chicken (with a big helping of cole slaw on the side) so I can still eat it when I come home.

Anyway, I'm all out of things to say for now (has that ever actually happened before? Probably not...)

Hope you are doing well, also.

<3 Amy